[GreyWulph]

I am already planning how to get my baby nephew interested in the fantasy genre when he gets old enough for me to start reading to him. I figure I'll start with the usual Grimm Fairy Tales, progress up to the Chronicles of Narnia and maybe read him my old copies of the Three Investigators series (even though they aren't fantasy they were some of the books that first got me into reading).

So what other books have people here used to excite their own children about reading in the fantasy genre?

[Shadowen]

My stepson is 15 and we despaired of ever getting him interested in anything other than football, but then we got him the Harry Potter series, and he loved it! Also Philip Pullman's Dark Materials series, which I'm now reading myself - great stuff! Although he never got more than a few chapters into The Hobbit, because he said it was boring - weird kid. http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/wink.gif

[Shehzad]

There's a thread on this lower down somewhere too.......

[Penumbra]

Don't forget The Hobbit!!!!

[e-Morgana]

My vote goes for Harry Potter as well - I started reading this to my youngest when she was 6 and she loved it. Still a bit young for Hobbit, though. My 8 year old tried the Hobbit and thought it was boring as well - the younger generation..... what can I say. http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Bartuc]

Well I think Children have a great selection of books to choose from.

(These are arbitrary numbers not rankings)
1: Harry Potter series
2: Narnia series
3: Redwall series (My favorite)
4: A Wrinkle in Time
5: Watership Down

[Barbarossa]

I would second most of above reccomendations, and want to add a few more.

Neverending story by Michael Ende (German author but there's a translation)

Rosmary Sutcliff: many titles especially "the Lantern bearers", not fantasy but historical fiction, but as another thread proves, many like both and I loved them as a kid

Lloyd Alexander's Pyrdain chronicles, a great 5 part series based loosly on Welsh legends

[Caly]

I think these are all great suggestions and I don't have much else to add. If your kids are teenagers I actually have a lot I could add, but HP and Narnia seem to be great starting points.

This is so disjointed I should stop typing now.

I just had to say, though, that I am 27 years old and tried to read The Hobbit a couple of years ago. BORING!! BORING!! *l* I guess it is blasphemy, but I just don't like singing dwarf creatures. So much for the younger generation. . .

Caleyna

[Shadowen]

I suppose for really young kids Enid Blyton's books would be a great starting off point. I remember reading 'The Wishing Chair' and 'The Folk of the Faraway Tree' when I was six or seven and being completely immersed in them. She wrote a lot of fairy tales, as well as her more well known Famous Five and Secret Seven books and most of them are still published, as far as I know. http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Lani]

I share the sentiments about Enid Blyton. When I just started to read, my uncle brought me some of the Famous Five books. I just loved them. Back then I didn't even know yet that fantasy existed, but since I started to read more I finially got my hands on some fantasy stuff. My hands are there since then http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif