The best fantasy books for middle graders to explore different types of fantasy novels

Milo is bored. He receives a mysterious box with the address "For Milo, who has plenty of time" that contains a tollbooth. Milo drives through it to the Lands Beyond and stops at strange places. Dictionoplis and Digitopolis are the lands of words and numbers. Doldrums is where you end up if you don’t think, or act, or laugh. 

After Expectations, and Conclusions (where you get by jumping), and rescuing the two princesses, Rhyme and Reason, Milo is no longer the boy he was…

The Phantom Tollbooth shaped my love for words. The puns and riddles, and the rather silly jokes (aren’t they the best kind!) had me going back to the book. I read it when I was nine, and ten, and eleven, and also enjoy it as an adult.

While digging into a sand pit, five children uncover a large, strange creature with a furry body shaped like a spiders’ and having telescopic eyes, and wonder what ‘It’ could be.

‘It’ is a sand fairy, also called a psammead. When the children learn that psammeads can make wishes come true, they ask ‘It’ to grant them their wishes. ‘It’ does, and the results are disastrous!

This is another childhood favorite. I loved how the children had a wish a day and laughed as the wishes backfired. I also loved the bond between the siblings.

Five Children and It was written fifty years before C. S. Lewis wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In some ways it is dated but because of that, it provides young readers a glimpse into the past. 

Matilda is a genius and a rebel. When her parents neglect her, she gets back at them with (seriously funny) pranks. 

At school, Matilda and the other children are bullied and terrorized by the headmistress. Matilda has a superpower. She can move physical objects without touching them. Her other superpower is her super brain. She combines them to drive away the evil headmistress.

Three reasons: 1. I like the idea of the brain being a superpower. 2. I’m partial to books with strong girls and Matilda is as strong as they come. 3. Sadly, child neglect happens. Child abuse happens. Matilda is an empowering book where children hit back at the adult villains in their lives.

A tornado whirls Dorothy and her dog into a magical world. She learns that only the Wizard of Oz can help her return home and sets out to find him. Along the way, she meets the Scarecrow, who wants a brain; the Tin Man, who desires a heart; and the Cowardly Lion, who lacks courage. 

Dorothy and her friends face several hurdles on the way, mostly created by the Wicked Witch of the West who is furious with Dorothy.

Will they meet the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and more importantly, will he help them?

When my son was a child and reluctant to move on to ‘bigger’ books, I gave him The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I asked him to at least read the first two chapters. I knew once the magic of the story gripped him, he would finish the book. And that is what happened. 

I consider The Wizard of Oz as a milestone in my son’s reading life.

Harry is an orphan living with his aunt’s family where he is ill-treated. His life changes when he learns he is a wizard, and famous among wizards as the boy who survived a deathly curse.

Harry moves to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For the first time in his life, he feels like a normal kid. He had friends and enjoys his lessons in magic and wizardry. When he learns about a secret object within the castle walls of the school, he tries to stop it from falling into evil hands and comes up against terrifying forces…

When Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was published, I was an adult with an interest in middle grade books. I loved everything about the book; the characters, the world building, the plot, and the brilliant writing.

I have included the book on my list because I have seen children devour it, dissect it, and discuss it.