Fantasy and Dark Fantasy Genre.

Today I am sharing books I read as a 11-year-old kid in genres of children’s books: dark fantasy and fantasy.

1. “Coraline” By Neil Gaiman was my first book I have read as my own initiative outside of the school. This edition contains highly detailed illustrations that might seem terrifying for some kids, but attractive to older readers. My younger self would rate it as 9/10. I believe there is no need to attach an annotation to this book.
2. “The Graveyard Book” By Neil Gaiman was an entertaining experience to read, considering its main idea was a significance of society. The protagonist`s name is Nobody Owens, shorter – Bod, due to the thing that he looks like nobody, but himself. There is the same dark atmosphere, thanks to drawings, similarly with “Coraline”.

Plot begins with an introduction of a small English village. A menacing man named Jack breaks into a house and kills the parents and their daughter. Only their toddler son remains, unaware of the danger. The clever baby escapes his crib and wanders out of the house, heading towards a nearby graveyard. Once inside, the ghost of Mrs. Owens embraces the baby. Mr. Owens and the other ghosts in the graveyard initially refuse to intervene with a living child. However, when the ghost of the baby’s mother appears and shows them Jack, she begs them to protect her child.

For the note, this annotation does sound cruel, obviously, the description of violence and murder was vailed and sketchy.

Such an unusual topic of writing in combination with Neil`s unique style make the readers to binge-read the “Graveyard book”. However, I think his writings are not everyone`s cup of tea, firstly it`s named dark fantasy for a reason.

3. “School for Good and Evil” book series by Soman Chainani was a huge discovery for me at that time.

I have been waiting for the release of the sixth one called “One true king” until 2020 and my general impression is that it was worth of the wait time. Interesting fact, these book series include a lot of characters from other universes throughout it. When it comes to humor, the jokes are funny, even for an older generation, I checked them on my parents.

The first book`s overview: Sophie and Agatha, who are very different friends, live in Gavaldon village. Sophie is beautiful, vain, loves pink, and believes she’ll be kidnapped by the School Master to become a fairy-tale princess.

Agatha, on the other hand, prefers black, lives in a cemetery with her evil cat, plays with matches, and doesn’t believe in fairy tales. Despite their differences, they have a close friendship and understand each other well. Both girls are kidnapped by the School Master and brought to the School for Good and Evil.

Sophie is placed in the School for Evil and insists it’s a mistake, trying to escape. Agatha, taken to the School for Good, wants to leave immediately and to take Sophie home. Despite their attempts to run away, they are returned to their schools and meet at an assembly. Agatha urges Sophie to leave with her, but Sophie becomes fixated on King Arthur’s son, Tedros, believing he is her destiny.

The seventh book of the series on the photo is a “The Ever Never Guide Book”, filling which is necessary to be taken to the School for Good an Evil. It is full of detailed facts and beautifully illustrated images of fairy, School teachers, students. There is an attachment of schedule, subject description, letter samples and etc. as well.

I reckon these book series deserve an 8/10. I believe, Soman Chainani sometimes made Agatha too unpleasant when he described her appearance in later books, starting from 4^th one. Although, I do recommend it to any child who is interested in fantasy.

That was my first selection. I hope I explained my thoughts clearly and you have got a little bit of motivation to read these books.

See you until the next selection!