Children & Fantasy – The Introductory Phase

Since I finished university, I’ve had a little more free time on my hands. My favourite way using some of this time to help out my aunt and a friend by babysitting a 6-year-old, a 5-year-old and an 18-month-old. Kids are brilliant.

Of course, the older two love stories. Being the adult in charge, I get to pick the stories we read, including taking some of my own literature with me. This got me thinking; how would I go about introducing a child to fantasy literature?

It’s not always as straight forward as recommending a novel to a friend; after all, chances are you know what sort of things they like. But with kids? They change their minds on a whim, a favourite cartoon character one week might be a reviled bugbear the next, so it’s a little trickier. I did a little thinking, and I think I may have cracked it.

Firstly, the world the story is set in. I feel throwing a child into an entirely made up world at the beginning would put them out of their depth. They have no context of how the world would work, and would likely feel confused. I tested this by asking the girls to create their own worlds for a story we were making up. Both of them, whilst coming up with things out of the ordinary, had many of their ideas based on what we have in the real world. Kids need a point of reference, so stories that merely slightly tweak the world they know are a perfect place to start.

Also having protagonists they can relate to immediately is a vital factor. Ask a six year old to imagine another six year old having the adventure in the book, and they can base the character on a friend, or themselves, and get a realistic view of the action. It does work with protagonists within a few years of the child’s age, especially if the child in question has siblings.

This sort of fiction always seems to be really good at introducing magic to children too. It’s always a simplistic system, fun to watch the characters use, and often, as should be the way in children’s literature, it’s used by the ‘good’ characters to overcome the ‘evil’ characters. For teaching children to be moral, seeing characters they like being upstanding citizens can often help in their own development.

They should also be good at suspending reality just enough for the children to get excited, and to keep them interested for long enough to complete the story. Teaching children to be patient and build up a tolerance for longer works is essential, in the case of the girls I babysit in preparation for moving through the school system.

Of course, this has all been said before, but finding literature that encompasses all of these things is rather difficult. I have found two series I think work really well, and will try to explain why below.

My first example is the Magic Faraway Tree stories by Enid Blyton. Yes, they are about 80 years old now, but they still work as a perfect introduction for children into the fantasy genre. The basic premise of the stories is that, in this quiet wood in the middle of the English countryside, there is the Faraway Tree. A tree full of mad inhabitants, whose topmost branch pokes through a cloud into a different land every few days, and of which the best way down is a giant helter skelter inside the trunk. Who reading this now cannot themselves picture that in their minds? Why would this not be intriguing, engaging, exciting to a child?

The first book begins with the three children moving with their mother to a new house; something children can and will experience. There’s Joe, the oldest, who feels he should look after his little sisters Beth and Frannie. Anyone with siblings will be familiar with this dynamic.

The inhabitants of the Tree themselves are just different enough to seem magical, but are still relatable for children; MoonFace, who’s name speaks for itself, Silky the pixie (what little girl didn’t want to be of the fairyfolk at some point?), Saucepan Man, who makes himself deaf from his unusual clothing rattling, amongst others. They’re quirky, endearing, and Blyton cleverly uses them to teach children about morality and basic human decency.

The magic used in these stories is never overly complex, making it very easy for children to follow along. For example, in one of the first stories, the children and their friends visit the Land of Topsy-Turvy for a picnic. After exploring for a while, and finding the whole thing rather funny, they sit down under an oak tree for a picnic. It is at this point an upside down policeman approaches, telling them off for not following the magic rules of this land. Joe insults him, and suddenly finds himself under the spell as punishment for his impudence. He then has to wait until the next land, the Land of Spells, arrives. This means he has to spend the night in MoonFace’s house, and therefore learns his lesson, as he gets in trouble with his mum.

Personally, I just love these stories for story value, they’re entertaining and exciting and funny, making them one of those books you just want to finish. In terms of introducing younger children to fantasy literature, they’re one of the best series I can think of.

The second series I briefly want to touch upon is better I feel for older children, purely because the content is rather more mature. It is the late Brian Jacques’ Redwall series. Redwall is established around a woodland abbey, and its inhabitants and historical figures, confronted by tyrants, warlords, foreign invaders and rogue slavers. Best of all, all of the characters are animals. How could any child resist a story like that?

The premise of the stories themselves are nothing new; in the titular novel, the Abbey is put under siege by a vermin horde, common antagonists in the series, and it’s only by discovering the story of the founder of the Abbey, and by finding his fabled sword, that the protagonist Matthias can win the day.

I believe these are a perfect introduction to fantasy for slightly older children as they aren’t perhaps as full on as some “grown-up novels”, but the stories are detailed and involved, requiring the reader to immerse themselves in the world. They also introduce battles in a very intense way, perhaps a little shocking in the first instance, but probably a good thing, because, let’s face it, what child doesn’t enjoy a scene which makes their emotions run high, and sees the bad guys get what’s coming to them?

I myself discovered this series when I was 12 years old, and I still go back every now and then to read it. That’s also an important part of children’s fiction; if it is something an adult is likely to read with said child, it has to be enjoyable for both parties.

So these are my opinions; there are of course many more fantastic examples of children’s fantasy fiction, but for me these series have had the highest success rate, and are the most enjoyable for the adults reading them too. Reading is such an important thing for children, and if we can use fantasy to encourage them, well, that’s a win-win situation, is it not?

Title image by TheExtentofSilence.

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