ABSTRACT
Fantasy stories, or at least stories containing fantasy elements, comprise a very large and important group within the body of children’s literature. Fantasy stories can take us into alternative worlds, bring magic into this world and introduce extraordinary beings. Longer stories and novels which fall into the ‘fantasy’ category can be full of wit and humour as well as suspense and strangeness. There are hundreds of fantasy books on the market for this age group; some have the potential to become modern classics while others are of more ephemeral interest. But, like adults, children read texts of different levels of complexity and challenge and of different degrees of merit according to changing mood and changing contexts. Some tell a good story with accessible narrative and a fast pace and, for some children, are a warm invitation into reading.
