Advice for librarians re Narnia

[Sven]

The American Library Association has put together a list of books to recommend to patrons who ask "What other books are available like Narnia?". The list is in a pdf format, and available

[Bill]

Hmmm. Apart from Tolkien and Lewis Carroll I have not heard of any of them.

Bill

[robsia]

I've heard of Diana Wynn Jones and Ursula le Guin, but not any of the others (aside from Tolkien and Carroll of course).

[Karen]

Lloyd Alexander, Susan Cooper, and Garth Nix are big with the middle school set (i.e. ages 11-14) in the US.

[A#minor]

I've read one of Robin McKinley's books, but not either of the ones mentioned there. Good author, if I remember correctly.
And of course, I've read Tolkien and Carroll and Lloyd Alexander.

I didn't really like Alexander's writing so much. The plot was good, but characters seemed one-dimensional, and the writing style was too mundane and trite for me. Nice books, but not displaying the genius of Lewis and Tolkien.

I'm surprised and dissapointed that none of Edith Nesbit's books are mentioned. Her writings influenced Lewis when he wrote CON. And she was a genius of writing engaging, imaginative children's literature.

[Theo]

It's a pretty good list. First I was a little surprised not to see Harry Potter books, but I guess every kid in the Western world has read them already. ;)

Even though it's just alphabetical, I love that the list starts out with Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books. They're among my favourite fantasy books ever, and they stand up surprisingly well to rereading as an adult - even better than the Narnia books, IMO. I'm surprised at the comment about Alexander's characters being one-dimensional - they might have very emblematic character 'tags', and those who only appear once may look one-dimensional, but most named characters in the Chronicle of Prydain recur at least once, and there's always some development. This character development, among other things, make the last book, The high king, amazingly poignant.

[Monica]

[coryy]

[robsia]

[wood-maid]

[carol]

[Monica]

[Solomons Song]

The list appears to be mostly contemporary fantasy. Odd. I find it hard to believe any contemporary writer, regardless of age or demographic, has an imagination and tact for writing on par with the likes of Lewis and Tolkien. Especially Tolkien.

[carol]