Mission: READ

I took our Winter Break off from this blog…but not from books.  Here’s what I read over break: Bound by Donna Jo Napoli, Airborn by Kenneth Oppel, Ida B. by Katherine Hannigan, and most of Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo. I also have almost finished reading Flush by Carl Hiassen to my daughter and almost finished listening to Loch by Paul Zindel on CD (I have already read that one, but it is a good story to listen to). Plus, I can’t forget all the Curious George books I read to my son.  No rest for the reader!

But that’s not why I’m writing now. Today I want to share the fantasy books I talked about during Books and Bites.  Fantasy is one of my favorite genres (the other is sci fi), and so it is usually difficult to pick which books to share. However, this time, I tried to talk about a few “older” ones that you may have never heard of or gotten around to reading.

And all the books I talked about have sequels.  I think that when an authors write good fantasy books, they are reluctant to leave the world and the characters they created and that’s why we get so many series and sequels.  And if it is a GREAT fantasy book, readers won’t quit pestering the author to write more and more…

Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones has got to be one of the funniest fantasies I have ever read.  What would happen if someone from Earth discovered a portal to another world filled with dragons, dwarves, gnomes, elves, and all those other things we thought only existed in fairy tales?  Would that person a) keep it a secret and visit alone once in awhile? b) take a few close friends on a fantastic trip? or c) find a way to make a ton of money taking toursists there for the vacation of a lifetime? Well, Mr. Chesney chose ”c” and has taken Pilgrim Parties there for going on forty years. He pays (not well) the people of the fantasy world to give vacationers the stuff of legend–tourists get to battle and defeat the Dark Lord, the evil dictator of the land. Of course, it is all staged, and quite frankly, the people are getting sick of playing their parts–but they can’t quit because Chesney has a real demon to make sure they don’t. When mild-mannered Derk becomes the Dark Lord, he, his family, and their griffins may be able to find a way to fight back and take back their world. I love how this book pokes fun at the conventions of fantasy and tells a great story at the same time. The sequel is Year of the Griffin.

When Gregor jumps to save his sister who falls down a vent in the laundry room of his New York City apartment building and comes face-to-face with a giant cockroach, that is just the beginning of his adventures in the Underland. In Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins, Gregor finds that he and his sister Boots are believed to be fulfilling an ancient prophecy that includes adventures with humans riding giant bats, huge spiders, and enormous evil rats. Although Gregor knows he isn’t the legendary Warrior they believe him to be, he goes along with the quest, hoping to find some clues to his missing father’s whereabouts and trying to find a way out of the Underland. There is a ton of battle action and clues to figure out about the prophecy along the way. Sequels are Gregor and the Prohecy of Bane and Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods.

What would you do if your father had been kidnapped? If a gangster in a bunny suit was lurking around your house?  If your baby sister was accidentally shrunk, e-mailed, and lost on the world wide web?  Well, if you are Titus and Pandora Strega-Borgia, you gather your pet yeti, griffin, dragon, giant tarantula, and slightly thawed cryogenically frozen grandmother and practice some Pure Dead Magic, of course. Author Debi Gliori makes this fantasy so fantastic and so funny that I don’t want to spoil the details for you.  Just know that you won’t be able to wait to read Pure Dead Wicked and Pure Dead Brillant.

Want to know more about Dark Lord of Derkholm, Gregor the Overlander, and Pure Dead Magic? The check them out and read them yourself!

Mission: Accomplished