• Essay 1, Oct. 2001
• Essay 2, Dec. 2001
• Essay 3, Feb. 2002
• Essay 4, Apr. 2002
• Essay 5, Jun. 2002
• Essay 6, Oct. 2002
• Essay 7, Dec. 2002
• Essay 8, Feb. 2003
• Essay 9, Apr. 2003
• Essay 10, Jun. 2003
• Essay 11, Oct. 2003
• Essay 12, Dec. 2003

The original column on children's fantasy literature can be found in Resource Links magazine. To obtain a licence to make a limited number of copies of the essays for personal or educational use, please contact Access Copyright. For requests to re-print articles, please contact the author.

Note: These booklists are not intended to be a comprehensive children's fantasy literature bibliography. Penguin/Puffin kept many children's classics in print in paperback through the sixties and seventies, but has fewer now than they used to. Random House's Red Fox imprint has been reissuing many classics lately. If you or your bookstore can't find a book in "Books in Print" or listed on the major on-line bookstores such as Amazon Canada, Amazon USA or Amazon UK, or try searching for used copies.


Essay # 8
The Sixties: Alan Garner, Madeleine L'Engle, William Mayne, Joan Aiken

Alan Garner

The Derbyshire Caving Club has an interesting website on Alderley Edge, the setting for Garner's Weirdstone of Brisingamen and Moon of Gomrath. www.derbyscc.org.uk

Alderley Edge Books
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960)
The Moon of Gomrath (1963)
Elidor (1965)
The Owl Service (1967; Carnegie Medal and Guardian Award)
Most of Garner's books are available in new editions
from the original publisher, Collins.


Madeleine L'Engle -- Jump back to top --

A Wrinkle in Time (1962; Newbery Medal)
A Wind in the Door (1973)
A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978)
Many of L'Engle's other books connect to characters in these three, but are not fantasy. Many Waters (1986) is about members of the same family, fallen angels, and the biblical Flood, but is more didactic allegory than a good story.
A Wrinkle in Time and its two sequels are readily available.

William Mayne-- Jump back to top --

A Swarm in May (1955; about boys in a choir school, not fantasy)
A Grass Rope (1957; Carnegie Medal)
Earthfasts (1966)
It (1977)

Some other Mayne fantasies (not an inclusive list!) not mentioned in the article:

The Battlefield (1967)
Over the Hills and Far Away (1968)
A Game of Dark (1971)
A Year and a Day (1976)

Mayne's novels for older children and teens can be difficult to find, new or used, in North American bookstores, but libraries sometimes have one or two.
The "Hob" books for younger readers:

Hob and the Goblins (1993)
Hob and the Pedlar (1997)

Joan Aiken -- Jump back to top --

The Wolves Chronicles
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1962)
Black Hearts in Battersea (1964)
Night Birds on Nantucket (1966)
The Stolen Lake (1981)
Limbo Lodge (1999; US title Dangerous Games)
The Cuckoo Tree (1971)
Dido and Pa (1986)
Is (1992; US title Is Underground)
Cold Shoulder Road (1995)

Some other fantasy/gothic thrillers by Aiken:
The Whispering Mountain (1968)
Midnight is a Place (1974)
The Cockatrice Boys (1996)
A Small Pinch of Weather (1969; short story collection)
Arabel's Raven (1972; the first of a series about "Arabel and Mortimer" for younger readers, illustrated by Quentin Blake.)
Note that as with Mayne, this is far from an inclusive list of the author's publications. Many of Aiken's books are still in print or have been reissued.

Other works mentioned, containing Hob-like creatures:

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
The Adventures of a Brownie (1872)

K.M. Briggs
Hobberdy Dick (1955)

J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)