Fantasy Literature for Children ages 9-12.
Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time by Philip Reeve
Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time (2023) is the third and final book in the UTTERLY DARK trilogy, and the reason I left it this long (I read the preceding books exactly one year ago) is simply because I didn’t want it to end. Once a Philip Reeve story is over, it can’t be read for the first time ever again, so you have to savour them while they last.
And in this case,
June 10th, 2025. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Philip Reeve | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Amazing Adventures (Marvel Super Stories Book #2)
Last November, Abrams Fanfare published their second volume of middle-grade comics stories, based on some slightly less-exposed Marvel heroes. Some, like Spider Man, are immediately recognizable, and some have had their own series recently and we know them from that. Each story is no longer than six pages, and various award-winning comic book artists and writers were invited to the anthology. The result, Amazing Adventures (Marvel Super Stories Book #2), is a pleasant sampler, and maybe an introduction to some new and interesting cape-and-mask heroes.
March 13th, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Children, Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Susan Price is a gifted author, though like Anne Pilling, I suspect her work is just a tad too dark and uncanny to draw in a devoted child fanbase. Truly, she pulls no punches with what she writes for her young audience – here for example, the protagonist is killed when she’s deliberately impaled with a large stake. Though she finds a way to reanimate her body, it’s not before hungry wolves chew off one of her arms. You know,
November 5th, 2024. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Susan Price | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Abeni’s Song by P. Djèlí Clark
P. Djèlí Clark’s 2023 middle-grade adventure novel, Abeni’s Song, kicks off a new series with an engaging heroine, wonderful magic and thrilling adventures. Set in an African forest during the 18th or 19th century, Abeni’s Song follows Abeni as she tries to recover her friends and family from an enemy who calls himself the Witch Priest. The Witch Priest has given the adults of Abeni’s village to the “ghost ships.” It is up to her,
November 4th, 2024. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | P. Djèlí Clark | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
THE ASGARDIANS 1: Thor by George O’Connor
So I’ve lost track of how many of George O’Connor’s graphic novel retelling of myths I’ve reviewed, from his original series OLYMPIANS to the first book of his current ASGARDIANS series, Odin. He’s back with book two, everyone’s favorite Norse god — Thor, and all I can say is what I’ve been saying since the beginning: the story is great, the artwork is great, they’re not just for kids,
October 10th, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Children, Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
I really wish I hadn’t seen all the hype around Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures — the Waterstones Prize, the comparisons to C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, Rowling, and Tolkien, the sales numbers off the charts. That way I could have come to the book clean of expectations, even though I (as one should) took all such comparisons with heaping bucketfuls of salt, if not entire mines’ worth. Unfortunately, I did see all those comparisons, and so despite all that salt, I couldn’t help but be disappointed by what in the end turned out to be a perfectly serviceable MG fantasy,
September 9th, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Katherine Rundell | Children | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Darkwater Hall by Catherine Fisher
I must have read this book for the first time over twenty years ago, and though I had forgotten the title, author and much of the story, a few little details stuck with me: the evocative atmosphere it conjured, the central premise that concerned a young girl striking a deal with the devil, and something about a stairwell that ran up and down time.
Then, one day while perusing the library catalogue in search of another book entirely, the cover art for Darkwater Hall (2011) stirred something in my memory.
September 3rd, 2024. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Catherine Fisher | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Nick and the Glimmung by Philip K. Dick
In his 1969 novel Galactic Pot-Healer, cult author Philip K. Dick introduced his readers to a character named Glimmung: a semidivine being who calls ceramic repairman Joe Fernwright, among others, to Plowman’s Planet (aka Sirius 5) to help raise a sunken cathedral from the oceanic depths. Confusingly described by Dick as weighing 40,000 tons and, later, 80,000 tons, Glimmung was yet a truly fascinating creation. But as it turns out,
June 27th, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Philip K. Dick | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Utterly Dark and the Heart of the Wild by Philip Reeve
In his review for Skye McKenna’s Hedgewitch, Reeve said: “there are only two sorts of fantasy story: the ones that feel fake and the ones that feel real. It’s hard to explain the difference but you know the real ones when you read them.”
I know exactly what he’s talking about, because he writes the real ones too. His depiction of Faerie – that ancient place where all the fairy tales come from – captures its mystery and danger and uncanny beauty as it also exists in books like Neil Gaiman’s Stardust and Lord Dunsany’s The King of Elfland’s Daughter and Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell,
April 26th, 2024. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Philip Reeve | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Empty Smiles by Katherine Arden
What is it that makes funfairs and carnivals so scary? Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari both take place in carnivals, as do a few significant chapters of Stephen King’s It and several third season episodes of Stranger Things. I even recall that the third book of L.J. Smith’s The Forbidden Game ended in an abandoned funfair.
April 11th, 2024. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Katherine Arden | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Agree! And a perfect ending, too.
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