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Chapter books about magic, can you help me make a list?


helena
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My 10yo loves books with magic, Half Magic being her all time favorite. Can you help me make a list? I'd like to display a little selection in our class.

Thanks!

 

The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes

No Flying in the House by Betty Brock

Half Magic series by by Edward Eager

:lurk5:

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The Dealing with Dragons series (Called the enchanted forest series)

 

ETA:

Witches by Roald Dahl

The Indian in the cupboard

Moongobbles series by Bruce Coville (Easy to read chapter book)

Greek Myths, Norse Myths

 

(My son is sitting beside me calling out things to add)

Edited by Julie Smith
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Any of E. Nesbit's books

Harry Potter series

Artemis Fowl series

Sisters Grimm series

Indian in the Cupbord

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Mary Poppins series

Green Knowe series by L.M. Boston

Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper

Matilda by Roald Dahl

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Justor

The Magic Half by Annie Barrows

 

She might also enjoy books by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

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Harry Potter

Liesl and Po

The Witches (Dahl)

James and the Giant Peach

Pinocchio (not as the main theme, but still, a magically talking puppet)

The Enchanted Castle

Five Children and It

Nurse Matilda

The Light Princess

Peter Pan and Wendy

The Velveteen Rabbit

Chronicles of Narnia

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Highly recommend this book http://www.amazon.com/Wise-Child-Monica-Furlong/dp/0394891058/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332960501&sr=1-1

 

I am reading it aloud to the kids right now and we are loving it. There are a few other books in the series as well. The author was very talented. I think they are out of print right now, but I have had good luck at my libraries.

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Thanks everyone! I'm pulling all the books you listed that we have (thank goodness for Delicious Library :001_smile:) and making a list of titles to look for at book sales.

 

Five Children and It

Any in the Oz series

The Hobbit

All this time I thought we had Five Children and it on the shelf! Adding it to my list now.

 

Bed-knobs and Broomsticks

Mary Poppins (but it is not overt)

Harry Potter

The Once and Future King

The Once and Future King, adding to list.

 

The Dealing with Dragons series (Called the enchanted forest series)

 

ETA:

Witches by Roald Dahl

The Indian in the cupboard

Moongobbles series by Bruce Coville (Easy to read chapter book)

Greek Myths, Norse Myths

 

(My son is sitting beside me calling out things to add)

 

I think our library book store has Dealing with Dragons on the shelf, I'll have to go look. She's reading D'Aulaire's Norse Gods and Giants right now.

 

 

Any of E. Nesbit's books

Harry Potter series

Artemis Fowl series

Sisters Grimm series

Indian in the Cupbord

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Mary Poppins series

Green Knowe series by L.M. Boston

Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper

Matilda by Roald Dahl

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Justor

The Magic Half by Annie Barrows

 

She might also enjoy books by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

 

I'd never heard of The Magic Half, it looks like something she'd enjoy. Phantom Tollbooth is next on our read aloud list.

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My daughter just finished Edward Eager's The Well-Wishers, and she loved it. Your daughter may have already read it, but I wanted to put it out there because my dd highly recommends it.

I went upstairs to ask if she's read it and it was sitting on the bed next to her. :001_smile: She hasn't read it yet.

 

100 Cupboards (and 2 sequels)

We have this, but I think the audio book scared them. :tongue_smilie:

 

Harry Potter

Liesl and Po

The Witches (Dahl)

James and the Giant Peach

Pinocchio (not as the main theme, but still, a magically talking puppet)

The Enchanted Castle

Five Children and It

Nurse Matilda

The Light Princess

Peter Pan and Wendy

The Velveteen Rabbit

Chronicles of Narnia

 

I just put Liesl and Po on hold at the library.

You know, I was just looking at the Light Princess on Amazon. I ought to just order it. I love this particular series of books illustrated by Maurice Sendak: http://www.amazon.com/The-Light-Princess-Sunburst-Book/dp/0374444587/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332963200&sr=1-1. We have the Bat Poet and The Animal Family done in the same style. Last week I scored on At the Back of the North Wind, also by G. MacDonald. I wonder if that has a magic theme? I'll have to check!

 

Highly recommend this book http://www.amazon.com/Wise-Child-Monica-Furlong/dp/0394891058/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332960501&sr=1-1

 

I am reading it aloud to the kids right now and we are loving it. There are a few other books in the series as well. The author was very talented. I think they are out of print right now, but I have had good luck at my libraries.

 

Thanks! I found it at our library, I'm going to pick it up in a bit.

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The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

 

The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit

 

Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey

-these three are great kids' books, but her other literature is generally inappropriate for children

 

series by Tamora Pierce: the Song of the Lioness (Alanna books)

& the Immortals (starts with Wild Mage)

& the Circle of Magic

-be careful about these, as some of the later books in some series may have sexual references

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FIRST -- PLEASE PREVIEW The Once and Future King!

 

It is an adult book with adult themes!! (Lancelot and Geneviere's adultery; Morgana's black sorcery and seduction of Arthur; the slide of King Arthur's court into lust and lasciviousness; etc.) It was written as 4 "books" and each can be found separately under its own title, or all 4 together is "The Once and Future King". A 10yo *might* enjoy the first book, "The Sword in the Stone", which has the magic of Merlin changing Wart (the boy Arthur) into animals -- but much of those scenes are political commentary through the animal voices, which, again is really intended for adults. The adult themes and topics I listed above take place in the 3 books after "Sword in the Stone".

 

 

Also, just for what it's worth -- I LOVED the first 5 books of Edward Eager's "Half Magic" series, but, as a child, I found "The Well Wishers" and "Magic or Not" to be extremely disappointing -- the children spend the whole time in each of those two books wondering "was it magic or just coincidence" -- and, honestly, as a 10-12yo, you WANT ACTUAL MAGIC! At least I did. :)

 

 

And, I am listing this author separately with a big alert: I would approach these with some care: The Hall Family Chronicles by Jane Langton are magic adventures and very creative, but I really don't appreciate the increasingly blatant anti-traditional Christian Church point of view as the series goes on, and the heavily fawning on Emerson and Existentialism in these books. All of that will go over the head of a child, BUT, it does potentially "plant seeds" that I would want to know about in advance... JMO! :) I have read the first 3 books -- Diamond in the Window; Swing in the Summerhouse; and The Astonishing Stereoscope. Apparently, a later book in the series ends with a tragic thing happening to a main character who believes she can fly... So, go forewarned.

 

Below are some more ideas. BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

 

 

MAGIC / MAGICAL LAND

- Wizard of Oz series (Baum)

- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series (Betty MacDonald)

- Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis)

- Moongobbles series (Coville)

- Enchanted Forest series (Wrede)

- Peter and the Starcatchers (and sequels) (Barrie)

- Sea of Trolls (and sequels) (Farmer)

- Dragon Keeper series (Paul)

- Inkheart trilogy (Funke)

- Moomintroll series (Jansson)

- Half Magic; Magic by the Lake, Knight's Castle; Time Garden; Seven Day Magic (Eager)

- Five Children and It; The Phoenix and the Carpet; The Amulet; The Book of Dragons (Nesbit)

- The Secret of Platform 13 (Ibbotson) -- sweet; a gentler, kinder sort of Harry Potter

- The Shades (Brock) -- OOP, and extremely hard to find, but a very creative premise and world!

- The Princess & the Goblins; The Princess & Curdie (MacDonald)

- The Never Ending Story (Ende)

- The Hobbit (Tolkien)

 

 

FAIRYTALE

- Sisters Grimm/The Fairytale Detectives series (Buckley)

- Book of …. series (Ruth Manning Sanders) -- Book of Fairies, Book of Mermaids, Book of Wizards, Book of Dragons, etc.; OOP, but WELL worth looking for; your DD is at the perfect age for these collections

- Ella Enchanted (Levine)

- The Rumplestiltskin Problem (Velde)

- The Princess Academy (Hale) -- looks like this author has other well-liked titles, too

- Mermaid Tales from Around the World (Osborne)

- Beauty and the Beast (Osborne)

- The Moon Princess (McCarthy) -- picture book of a Japanese fairytale

- Tenggren's Golden Tales from the Arabian Nights (Tenggren)

- The Golden Fairytale Book (Sequr)

- The World's Best Fairy Tales (Sideman) -- a Reader's Digest Anthology

- Andrew Lang's fairytale collections

- Magic Tales from Many Lands (Mayo)

- The Bronze Cauldron Myths And Legends Of The World (McCaughrean)

 

 

FANTASY

- Land of Oz; Ozma of Oz (Baum) -- lively sequels; skip Wizard of Oz (dull/long)

- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series (Betty MacDonald)

- The Ordinary Princess (Kaye) -- so delightful!!

- The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Aiken)

- My Father's Dragon (Gannett)

- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; Through the Looking Glass (Carroll)

- The Father Christmas Letters (Tolkien)

- The Ordinary Princess (Kaye) -- VERY fun and funny!

- The Borrowers (series) (Norton)

- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Fleming)

- Charlie & the Chocolate Factory; Great Glass Elevator (Dahl)

- Pippi Longstockings; Pippi in the South Seas (Astrid)

 

 

TALKING ANIMALS

- Catwings series (Leguin) -- flying cat family!

- Mr. Popper's Penguins (Atwater)

- The Cricket in Times Square (Selden)

- Trumpet of the Swan (White)

- The Mouse and the Motorcycle (McCleary)

- The Story of Dr. Dolittle (Lofting)

- The Rescuers, Miss Bianca, The Turret, Miss Bianca in the Salt Mines, Miss Bianca in the Orient (Sharpe) -- another OOP series that is SO enjoyable and worth looking for!

- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (O'Brien)

- Wind in the Willows (Grahame)

- Redwall series (Jacques)

- The Reluctant Dragon (Grahame)

- Rabbit Hill (Lawson)

- The Tale of Despereaux (DiCamillo)

Edited by Lori D.
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At the Back of the North Wind, also by G. MacDonald. I wonder if that has a magic theme? I'll have to check!

 

 

I really enjoy MacDonald, and that his Christian faith comes through in most of his works. That is especially prominent here in "At the Back of the North Wind" -- the North Wind takes the little boy on journeys to see all kinds of things (spiritual truths), and at the end, takes him on his "last journey" (in other words, the little boy dies). In Christian terms, while this is a grief for his family, it is a joy to the little boy, because he enters heaven. But for a child reading the book, this may be very upsetting, esp. if the reader was expecting straight-up magic adventures.

 

Just an FYI. :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

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The Chronicles of Chrestomanci by Diana Wynne Jones (note-some of Wynne-Jones' books are more "Adult" and include sexual content, and libraries don't always shelve the YA books separate from the other fantasy/sci-fi).

 

The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane (note-the last are a little intense in places-the 2nd book has the young protagonist deciding to give her life to save the world-and has another character sacrifice himself in her place). Duane also has two books of Animal fantasy with cats who are themselves Wizards that parallel this series-the second has a lot of Egyptian mythological references imbedded within that my daughter loved.

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I thought of more, now that I'm home and looking at some of the books I have:

Inkheart

Stardust (does have one use of the F-word, though)

The Wizard of Earthsea

Alice in Wonderland

A Thousand and One Arabian Nights (McCaughrean)

Charlotte Sometimes (a bed causes 2 girls from different times to switch places)

Raggedy Ann books

The King of the Golden River

The Lost Flower Children

The Seven Year Old Wonder Book (better suited for reading to 6 year olds)

Ozma of Oz (my favorite Oz book)

The Night Fairy

Igraine the Brave

The Little Lame Prince

The Princess Bride

The Silmarillion (Tolkien's book about the Elves of Middle Earth, might be dense for a 10 year old, though)

Peter Pan in Scarlet

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The Book of Three (Black Cauldron series)

 

I have this book! And a few others from him. I think I have a lot more books on the subject than I realized. :001_smile:

No Such Thing As Dragons

Charlie Bone Series

 

I have a Charlie Bone book but now I can see it's not the first one. :glare: I'm going to look for this one. Amazon says it's an easy to read books about a 10 year old. Sometimes those are the exact things she's looking for. :D

 

The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

 

The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit

 

Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey

-these three are great kids' books, but her other literature is generally inappropriate for children

 

series by Tamora Pierce: the Song of the Lioness (Alanna books)

& the Immortals (starts with Wild Mage)

& the Circle of Magic

-be careful about these, as some of the later books in some series may have sexual references

 

Just put The Princess and the Goblin on hold. :001_smile:

I have a nice little collection of Nesbit, I just found this one Wet Magic: http://www.amazon.com/Wet-Magic-Edith-Nesbit/dp/1161485155/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333061516&sr=1-1 and i do have The Phoenix and the Carpet. I think we're going to have a Nesbit summer!

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Missing Magic by Emma Laybourn

Just added it to my list! :001_smile:

 

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci by Diana Wynne Jones (note-some of Wynne-Jones' books are more "Adult" and include sexual content, and libraries don't always shelve the YA books separate from the other fantasy/sci-fi).

 

The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane (note-the last are a little intense in places-the 2nd book has the young protagonist deciding to give her life to save the world-and has another character sacrifice himself in her place). Duane also has two books of Animal fantasy with cats who are themselves Wizards that parallel this series-the second has a lot of Egyptian mythological references imbedded within that my daughter loved.

 

I forgot that I recently scored on the Howls Moving Castle series. I'm looking through Delicious Library and seeing we have a handful of her books but haven't read any. Maybe I should figure out which are for the younger crowd.

 

Loving these lists!! Adding a few to our collection. :)

YAY! I'm glad you're finding new title too. There's been so many books recommended to me here that have become family favorites.

 

I thought of more, now that I'm home and looking at some of the books I have:

Inkheart

Stardust (does have one use of the F-word, though)

The Wizard of Earthsea

Alice in Wonderland

A Thousand and One Arabian Nights (McCaughrean)

Charlotte Sometimes (a bed causes 2 girls from different times to switch places)

Raggedy Ann books

The King of the Golden River

The Lost Flower Children

The Seven Year Old Wonder Book (better suited for reading to 6 year olds)

Ozma of Oz (my favorite Oz book)

The Night Fairy

Igraine the Brave

The Little Lame Prince

The Princess Bride

The Silmarillion (Tolkien's book about the Elves of Middle Earth, might be dense for a 10 year old, though)

Peter Pan in Scarlet

 

So many great suggestions here! Check out all the interesting books that come up with Charlotte Sometimes(in the customers who bought this, also like this...): http://www.amazon.com/Charlotte-Sometimes-Review-Childrens-Collection/dp/1590172213/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333063268&sr=1-1

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I didn't check to see what ages your kids are, but I didn't see anyone mention The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch.

http://thenameofthiswebsiteissecret.com/

My dd and I have been thoroughly enjoying it so far. We just finished Book 4. There have been a couple things that were gruesome and intense in the series but it's never felt dark like Harry Potter's later books are. (I won't let her read those until she's a bit older and not so anxious.) I guess I should clarify this series might not seem like a magic series at first, but it becomes obvious in the later books. I love that we're learning all kinds of new vocab, and often times the author tells you in fun footnotes what the words mean so I don't have to look them up separately.

Highly recommend if your child is a strong reader.

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