I think I was in my twenties before, with great sadness, I had to accept I was never going to be granted three wishes or activate my flying prowess. Any book that shows me maybe I was wrong or I just didn’t look hard enough fills me with hope. I love to be pulled into worlds that are so real and yet the magic is right there, in front of us, unseen, or where a parallel world is just a side-ways step or the opening of a door away. I read and write to reinforce my belief that it is all still possible.
Engrossed and enthralled, I was swept into the Harry Potter world from the first chapter. I didn't want to leave, I was involved, I was part of it!
A magic world is revealed to a lonely twelve-year-old Harry. A move to a boarding school for students of magic! Friends, feasts and foes, and a school year that brings him face to face with danger.
My lifelong feeling that magic, mystery, and enormous possibilities were at our fingertips was echoed in this book
nothing in this story was predictable or stale and it never became so in this amazing seven-book series.
Galloping gargoyles ... 2022 is the silver anniversary of J.K. Rowling's magical classic Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone!
The boy wizard Harry Potter has been casting a spell over young readers and their families ever since 1997. Now the first book in this unmissable series celebrates 25 years in print! The paperback edition of the tale that introduced us to Harry, Ron and Hermione has been updated and dressed in silver to mark the occasion. It's time to take the magical journey of a lifetime ...
Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping…
Could there be anything more ordinary than a wardrobe?
Yet, in this novel, there's a door at the back of one which leads unsuspecting Lucy into the extraordinary world of Narnia.
A world of talking creatures, of magic and evil, a world where ordinary children can become kings.
A book where the journey from one world to another is as simple as opening a door. Published seventy years ago, the writing style can seem old-fashioned but the story is alive, exciting, and involving.
Lucy steps into the Professor's wardrobe - but steps out again into a snowy forest. She's stumbled upon the magical world of Narnia, land of unicorns, centaurs, fauns... and the wicked White Witch, who terrorises all. Lucy soon realises that Narnia, and in particular Aslan, the great Lion, needs her help if the country's creatures are ever going to be free again...
For those who enjoy fantasy adventure, the Faerie Tales from the White Forest series offers a new twist on the traditional faerie tales so loved by young readers.
From devastating curses to death-defying quests, Brigitta and her growing collective of misfit friends face greater and greater challenges when destiny calls…
Although set in Oxford, in England, this book opens with eleven-year-old Lyra living in a world which has a degree of magicaliity in it already. There are the daemons, shape-changing manifestations of their inner selves that children are bonded to and can communicate with which remain with them for the rest of their lives. In common with the other books on this list, I was whirlwinded into another world. A world where everything normal was a smokescreen for the workings of power-hungry adults and where childhood friendships stand strong in the face of magic, deceit, and danger. Like the Harry Potter series, it is impossible to stop reading at book one.
The first volume in Philip Pullman's groundbreaking HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy, now a thrilling, critically acclaimed BBC/HBO television series. First published in 1995, and acclaimed as a modern masterpiece, this first book in the series won the UK's top awards for children's literature.
"Without this child, we shall all die."
Lyra Belacqua and her animal daemon live half-wild and carefree among scholars of Jordan College, Oxford.
The destiny that awaits her will take her to the frozen lands of the Arctic, where witch-clans reign and ice-bears fight.
Her extraordinary journey will have immeasurable consequences far beyond her own world...
This book very definitely takes a step from YA towards A. The protagonist, Quentin, is a high school student and the story contains sex, swearing, smoking, and mental health issues, and yet... It also has a letter swept by the wind into the bushes of a neglected, winter New York park and when Quentin pushes through to grab it he is now standing on the vast, sunny grounds of a Hogwartsesque college. What’s not to love? Obviously, my desire for there to be more to life than we can see made me fall in love with this book.
Bright but unassuming Marilyn Jones has some grown-up decisions to make, especially after Mama goes to prison for drugs and larceny. With no one to take care of them, Marilyn and her younger, mentally challenged brother, Carol, get tossed into the foster care…
A wonderfully written Fantasy that is filled with sorcery, betrayal, war, and love. I read this book so often I had to replace it several times! In a medieval-type world, a six-year-old boy is dragged from home to live with the animals in the stables of the royal castle. Against great odds, he discovers his powers which are forbidden and have to be hidden. Royal rivalries and attacks on the country from outside lead to the boy, now named Fitz being put in a group of students being trained to use their powers (sound familiar??) to help save the kingdom.
Voyager Classics - timeless masterworks of science fiction and fantasy.
A beautiful clothbound edition of Assassin's Apprentice, the first book in the critically acclaimed Farseer Trilogy.
In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma.
Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if…
What if you could make people do what you wanted simply by thinking about it? What if your grandparents disappeared so completely that even their house was gone? What if they turn up after eleven years, want you to live with them, and you're the only person in the world who remembers they were ever gone?
What if the first time you fall in love you're not sure if they're even human?
Every picture tells a story, but it’s not always the one we expect or remember. Christmas Actually is a festive drama about family and forgiveness and a snapshot of modern family life, addressing Instagram to motherhood and everything in between.
Why Christmas? My publisher wanted my new novel to have…
When Jennifer Shea married Russel Redmond, they made a decision to spend their honeymoon at sea, sailing in Mexico. The voyage tested their new relationship, not just through rocky waters and unexpected weather, but in all the ways that living on a twenty-six-foot sailboat make one reconsider what's truly important.…
