fantasy books (Stories with strange or otherworldly settings or characters)
The Borrowers By: Mary Norton
Mrs. May tells Kate about the small people that live in
homes and steal things that always seem to go missing. They are never seen by
anyone, but must be there because where else would all the things you lose go.
Kate tells us about a time a boy came to stay at Mrs. May’s house. While the
boy was there he saw one of the borrowers, Arrietty. Pod and Hormilly,
Arrietty’s parents, became concerned their home would be found out. Mrs.
Driver, the cook, finds out about the borrowers and hires an exterminator to
get rid of them. Later, Mrs. May goes back to the house to look for the
borrowers, and there she leaves them gifts and goes away. The next time she
checks the gifts are gone, and there’s a book that she believes to have been
written by Arrietty. She thinks it is his memoranda.
Interest Level:
3-5
Grade level
Equivalent: 5.9
Bunnicula By: Deborah and James Howe
When Toby is at the movies seeing Dracula he finds a rabbit.
He brings him home and the family names him Bunnicula. Chester, the family cat,
is convinced the rabbit is a vampire. He insists that he has fangs and sucks
the life out of vegetables. Chester convinces Harold, the family dog, to help
him prove Bunnicula is a vampire. Chester tries garlic around the cage, killing
him with a steak, and drowning him with the water dish, but nothing works.
Harold becomes tired of Chester’s ideas and stops helping him. He actually
begins to like Bunnicula. Harold finds out Chester is preventing Bunnicula from
eating, which is why Bunnicula starts to look ill. Harold tries to help him,
but Chester gets in the way. The family takes Chester and Bunnicula to the vet.
The vet gives Bunnicula a special diet and Chester needs cat therapy. The
family never finds out about Bunnicula’s weird eating habits, or Chester’s plot
to kill Bunnicula.
Interest Level:
3-5
Grade level
Equivalent: 4.9
Catching Fire By: Suzanne Collins
Katniss and Peeta have won the annual hunger games. They won
for them and their families a life of safety. Because of this, they must tour
all the districts. President Snow is angry that Katniss broke the rules and
allowed both her and Peeta to survive. A rebellion has started in some of the
districts because of this. After touring, it’s announced that the seventy-fifth
games will have twenty four victors from past games compete. Katniss is
determined to make sure Peeta survives. The first round they join up with
Finnick and Mags. They encounter poisonous fog and Mags sacrifices her life to
save Peeta. They then join with Johanna, Beetee, and Wiress. Wiress tells
Katniss the arena is like a clock and all the disasters will begin on a timed
chart. During battle with the careers, Wiress dies. Katniss then finds out
Beetee plans to harness lightning and electrocute the remaining careers.
Katniss instead uses the lightning to destroy the arena and the force field
surrounding it. She is knocked unconscious and when she awakens she finds out
Peeta has been captured, along with Enobaria and Johanna. Gale, her best
friend, also tells her that her home district has been destroyed, but her
family is safe.
Interest Level:
7-9
Grade level
Equivalent: 5.4
Charlotte’s Web by: E.B. White
Fern is the daughter of a farmer, and has saved the life of
the runt of the piglets. She names him Wilbur and nurtures him until he is big
enough to leave. He goes to live on her uncle’s farm, and there Wilbur falls
into a depression. None of the other animals want to be his friend but at last
Wilbur hears a voice. The voice says that she’ll be his friend. The voice
belongs to Charlotte, a spider that lives in the corner above his pen. They
discover that the Zuckermans are going to butcher Wilbur. Charlotte comes up
with a plan and writes some pig in her web. Charlotte sends Templeton, the barn
rat, to go and get labels so she can spell more words in her web. After
becoming popular enough, Wilbur is entered into the country fair. Charlotte and
Templeton go to the fair as well while at the fair charlotte makes an egg sac.
After doing this Charlotte dies, and Wilbur takes over guarding the egg sac.
One day the baby spiders hatch and many of them leave. Three of them stay and
Wilbur names them Aranea, Joy, and Nellie. Over time more and more generations
of spiders come and go to keep Wilbur company.
Interest Level:
3-6
Grade level
Equivalent: 4
The Gruffalo By: Julia Donaldson
A mouse tries to save himself from being eaten by telling
the fox, owl, and snake about the gruffalo. The gruffalo’s favorite foods
happen to be roasted fox, owl ice cream, and scrambled snake. All the animals
run away and don’t bother the mouse. The mouse then meets a gruffalo, but is
able to scare him away too. He then gets to eat his lunch in peace.
Interest Level:
K-2
Grade level
Equivalent: 3.2
I Need my Monster By: Amanda Noll
Ethan is a boy who
can’t fall asleep without having his monster Gabe under his bed. One week Gabe
goes fishing, so Ethan looks for another monster. None of the other monsters
are scary enough to replace Gabe. Gabe comes back earl from fishing, because he
didn’t like it. He scared all the fish away.
Interest Level:
K-2
Grade level
Equivalent: 1.6
Mrs. Frisby and Rats of NIMH by: Robert C. O’ Brien
Mrs. Frisby is a widowed mouse who lost her husband to
dragon, the farm cat. Her son Timothy is sick and can’t make the trip to their
summer home. Jeremy, the cow that Mrs. Frisby helps to save suggests that she
goes to see an owl. When she does the owl tells her to go to the rats in the
rosebush. Here Mrs. Frisby discovers these rats have technology. Nicodemus the
leader of these rats tells Mrs. Frisby about how these rats were captured and
experimented on in a lab at NIMH. Through these experiments the rats gained
knowledge and intelligence. He also tells her that her husband was one of the
two mice to survive and help the rats escape. Mrs. Frisby is able to move
Timothy into their colony. A plan is put into place, but they run into problems
when Mrs. Frisby is caught trying to drug dragon. Billy, one of the boys
catches her and puts her in cage. Luckily, one of the rats is able to come and
save her and the move is a success. While Mrs. Frisby was captured she was able
to overhear the men talking about an exterminator. She warns the rats, who then
go and destroys all their technology. The exterminator comes and some brave
rats stay behind, but two of them die. Mrs. Frisby and Timothy are able to be
kept safe, and when Timothy is better they head for their summer home.
Interest Level:
3-5
Grade level
Equivalent: 5.8
Horton Hears a Who By: Dr. Seuss
Horton is splashing water when he hears a yelp. He stops and
sees a speck of dust. He gently places the speck on a clover. The other animals
make fun of him, but he continues to care for the small people on the clover.
Monkeys come along and snatch the clover and give it to a bird, which then
takes the clover and drops it in a field of clovers. Horton searches and
eventually finds the Whos again. The animals try to cage him and take away the
clover, but Horton gets the Whos to make enough noise so the other animals can
hear them. They finally believe him and help to protect the Whos.