Ms. Sarah Beth’s Top 15 Fantasy Titles for Tweens

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by Rowling
Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.

2. The Witches by Dahl
A young boy and his Norwegian grandmother, who is an expert on witches, together foil a witches’ plot to destroy the world’s children by turning them into mice.

3. The Golden Compass by Pullman
Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.

4. The Girl Who Could Not Dream by Durst
Sophie’s parents run a secret shop where dreams are bought and sold. When Sophie dreams, her dreams become real, so she is forbidden to have any. Sinister events are set in motion when she is accidentally seen by one of her parents’ customers, and it’s up to Sophie to save her family.

5. The Nest by Oppel
When wasps come to Steve in a dream offering to fix his sick baby brother, he thinks all he has to do is say yes. But yes may not mean what Steve thinks it means.

6. The Fearless Travelers’ Guide to Wicked Places by Begler
Twelve-year-old Nell Perkins and her brothers journey deep into the Wicked Places where Nightmares reside to rescue their mother, who was taken by witches and turned into a bird.

7. Midnight for Charlie Bone by Nimmo
Charlie Bone’s life with his widowed mother and two grandmothers undergoes a dramatic change when he discovers that he can hear people in photographs talking.

8. The Night Gardener by Auxier
Irish orphans Molly, fourteen, and Kip, ten, travel to England to work as servants in a crumbling manor house where nothing is quite what it seems to be, and soon the siblings are confronted by a mysterious stranger and secrets of the cursed house.

9. Fablehaven by Mull
When Kendra and Seth go to stay at their grandparents’ estate, they discover that it is a sanctuary for magical creatures and that a battle between good and evil is looming.

10. The Thickety: A Path Begins by White
When twelve-year-old Kara discovers her mother’s grimoire in the dangerous forest, she must decide if she’ll use it, even though such magic is forbidden.

11. Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Shurtliff
Relates the tale of Rumpelstiltskin’s childhood and youth, explaining why his name is so important, how he is able to spin straw into gold, and why a first-born child is his reward for helping the miller’s daughter-turned-queen.

12. The League of Beastly Dreadfuls by Grant
Anastasia, nearly eleven, is snatched from her elementary school and sent to live at a former insane asylum with two great-aunts she had never met after being told that her parents died in a tragic vacuum cleaner accident.

13. Impyrium by Neff
For over three thousand years, the Faeregine dynasty has ruled Impyrium. But the family|s magic has been fading, and with it their power over the empire. Whether it|s treachery from a rival house, the demon Lirlanders, or rebel forces, many believe the Faeregines are ripe to fall. Hazel, the youngest member of the royal family, is happy to leave ruling to her sisters so that she can study her magic. But the empress has other plans for her granddaughter, dark and dangerous plans to exploit Hazel|s talents and rekindle the Faeregine mystique.

14. Keeper of the Lost Cities by Messenger
At age twelve, Sophie learns that the remarkable abilities that have always caused her to stand out identify her as an elf, and after being brought to Eternalia to hone her skills, discovers that she has secrets buried in her memory for which some would kill.

15. Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Townsend
A cursed child destined to die on her eleventh birthday is rescued and whisked away to a secret realm called Nevermoor and given the chance to compete for a place in a prestigious organization called the Wundrous Society.

MS. SARAH BETH WORKS IN THE CHILDREN’S DEPARTMENT AT HERZFELD LIBRARY IN BENTON. SHE SELECTS AND ORDERS GRAPHIC NOVELS AND CHAPTER BOOKS FOR SCL AND RUNS PROGRAMS ESPECIALLY DESIGNED FOR TWEENS. WHEN NOT AT WORK, SARAH BETH LOVES SPENDING TIME WITH HER FUR BABY, DEXTER, A SHEPHERD MIX RESCUE DOG.