The Fantastic Five
Introducing the classics to kids.
Not only are the classics of the fantasy genre great books to get children into reading, but they also open the mind to imagination, to worlds that are like ours and yet are not, and to things that aren’t possible in ours are very much so in the realms of fantasy. In those worlds-that-aren’t-quite ours, kids can see the actions and choices of characters, and infer the morality or lack thereof. As they grow older, children can re-read these to decipher the nuances and ambiguities. Not just children, but grown ups too can read these imagined worlds and appreciate the fictions we tell ourselves in our own world — imaginary stuff like nations, religions, profits and losses, gender and racial identities, and such like.
Of course, there is something to be said about coming across books serendipitously, as seemed the case for us in our childhood. But one still wonders whether there might be a good order in which five classics of the genre could be introduced to kids over a number of years.
We would begin in Narnia. And we would read them through the chronological order — that is, we would begin with The Magician’s Nephew, not The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which would be the second book, to be followed by The Horse and His Boy.
Yes, I know that these books are heavily inspired by Christianity. Nonetheless, kids getting lost in a magical land is still a darn good introduction to the genre. And understanding the sexist and racist undertones upon re-reading at a later age would be a great experience.
The Middle Earth would be the next world in our journey. With more of an action adventure, The Hobbit is very much for an early tween. But after reading this, we would take a break before the quest for the ring begins.
This is because, before that adventure is embarked upon, it would be good to be visit a couple of other worlds.
Every kid must, of course, visit Hogwarts. One can always return to these stories, and the Stephen Fry rendition is perhaps one of the best audiobooks around. But it might be better to break the series, to let the story sink in. We would suggest a break after the first couple.
That would be the time to introduce His Dark Materials. Not the whole series, just the first book. By the end of Northern Lights, the tween reader would be attuned to shocking twists underpinned by complex moral choices, and concepts of fear and loss, which will prepare them well for the next three Harry Potter books, which should be read in tandem with the second Dark Materials book.
In a few years, they will have finished reading the first Lyra trilogy and all seven Potter books. In their teens by now, they will be ready for The Lord of the Rings.
When the thousand plus pages on the Rings have been read, it would be time for A Song of Ice and Power and The Book of Dust. The second series will have been completed by then, though I fear the it’s the rushed TV series that will be all we will have for Westeros.
Suggested order;
8-10: Chronicles of Narnia
9-11: The Hobbit, The Philosopher’s Stone, The Chamber of Secrets
10-12: Northern Lights, The Prisoner of Azkaban
11-13: The Goblet of Fire, The Subtle Knife, The Order of the Phoenix
12-14: The Half-Blood Prince, The Amber Spyglass, The Deathly Hallows
13-15: Lord of the Rings
14-16: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, The Book of Dust
15-17: Rest of A Song of Ice and Power