Need some literary advice

[abigailnus]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "augustinapeach" 
<augustinapeach at y...> wrote:

> Wicked -- Gregory Maguire

Wicked, a retelling of The Wizard of Oz from the POV of the wicked witch, 
is definitely not for children.  I don't mean that there's inappropriate stuff 
(there's a teensy bit of sex, but it's over so fast you hardly notice it) but 
that the story is written for adults to enjoy, and its themes are adult themes.  
Plus, it's not that great - I always want to like Maguire's stuff more then I 
end up doing.

Has your son read the classics?  Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, The 
Phantom Tollbooth, almost anything by Roald Dahl (my favorites are Charlie 
and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda, and any 
child who loves Rowling will adore Dahl).  Francess Hodgon's Burnett's A Little 
Princess and The Secret Garden are wonderful, but might be a little too girly.  
For that matter, since he likes fantasy, why not start him on the path to the 
definitive work of fantasy?  My mother read The Hobbit to me when I was 
younger then 8, and gave me The Lord of the Rings when I was 13.  

You also might want to look at Neil Gaiman's Coraline, which is pretty great 
and a little spooky (but he says that it scares adults more then it scares 
children).  Terry Pratchett has recently written two books for young readers 
which are set in his fantastic world of Discworld - The Amazing Maurice and 
His Educated Rodents and The Wee Free Men.  I've only read the first one, but 
I've heard great things about the other one too.

I'm sorry you didn't care for Narnia.  Most of the series is acceptable, but The 
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is, in my opinion, fantastic.  And can I be the 
voice of dissent on Pullman's His Dark Materials series?  The first two books are 
passable, although the writing is not that great and the plot makes little sense, 
but the third book is awful, and Pullman completely abandons his plot in order 
to beat his readers over the head with his (in my opinion, extremely bigoted) 
philosophy.

Abigail