Recommendations for my fourth grade daughter who loves fantasy, unicorns, dragons, and happy stories

My nine-year old who hasn't read much all summer picked out Three Tales of My Father's Dragon isbn 0679889116 (My Father's Dragon, Elmer and the Dragon, and The Dragons of Blueland) at the bookstore yesterday and finished it last night. To say she loved the book is an understatement. She asked if I could post here for some recommendations of children's fantasy (4th-5th grade level) that is happy and has talking mythical animals such as unicorns and dragons.

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. She is not at all into dark and dreary fantasy.

How about a classic? The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame.

I cannot remember if there were any dragons, but she may enjoy L. Frank Baum's Oz world; they have a more eclectic range of talking creatures ranging from the Lion to the Saw-Horse. Naturally, start with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

She would probably enjoy The Phantom Tollbooth and maybe Bruce Coville's The Unicorn Chronicles though they are a little darker.

How about Grace Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon? It doesn't get much better than that! My profile has a review of the book.

Diana Wynne Jones' Chronicles of Chrestomanci have all sorts of magical stuff in. I think I read them first when I was 9 or 10 - not sure what grade that translates into?

She might try Dealing with Dragons and the rest of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles -- I think I first read those when I was 11 or 12, but I think a 9-year-old who is a good reader could enjoy them. I'm also wondering if the Fablehaven series might interest her? It may be too "dark" in places because the story is basically a battle between good and evil forces, and there's lots of action. It would be worth a look, at any rate.

I haven't read Dragonsdale, but from the cover and description it sounds like the sort of thing she might enjoy. Also, The Dragon in the Sock Drawer and its sequels look appealing.

omigod the (Fablehaven) series would be perfect. Especially book four because that's when they go to the dragon sanctuary. book five might be good to as the meet a unicorn among other good magical characters, like the fairy queen. but there is also quite a lot of dark characters and i deffinetly would not recomend book three because the whole book is centered on a "shadow plague" that turns a lot of the mystical creatures dark. Also the (Dragonology Chronicles) may be a good choice. I've only read the first book but it was quite funny and the good guys win. I hope this helps.

Touchstone fairy: Fablehaven, Dragonology Chronicles ^-^

Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke

E. Nesbit's The Book of Dragons is a great collection of short stories. My son loved Cornelia Funke's Dragon Rider.

I'll second the recommendation of Dealing with Dragons and the rest of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. My daughter was in about 4th grade when she read them, and she loved them. They're a step up in complexity from My Father's Dragon---both in terms of plot and writing, but they are very definitely targeted at younger readers. It's always clear who is good and who is bad, and it the tone makes it abundantly clear that regardless of the plot twists everything will turn out well in the end. They are also quite funny at times.

Flight of the dragon kyn and its sequels are excellent.
If you can find it, The talking parcel by Gerald Durrell is wonderful and features all kinds of mythological beasts.
Island of the aunts by Eva Ibbotson. Both this and the Durrell are quite humorous too.
The dragons of Ordinary Farm by Tad Williams, although I found the child characters a bit bratty!

Might not be relevant with dragons, but "The Chronicles of Narnia" series by C.S. Lewis is definitely a go! I think I read them around her age (or even smaller?) and that was what made me fall in fantasy stories. Give it a try! :D

1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
2. Prince Caspian
3. The Voyage of Dawn Treader
4. The Silver Chair
5. The Horse and His Boy
6. The Magician's Nephew
7. The Last Battle

I have to ditto the Unicorn Chronicles by Bruce Coville. I'm 23, and Into the Land of the Unicorns was my favorite book when I was a kid :) I read the sequel as well, but honestly didn't enjoy it as much. The first book is totally worth picking up, though!

I was a big fan of Lloyd Alexander as well.

Also, what about Madeleine L'Engle's books? Not really unicorns and dragons, but still great stories with good messages, and a bit of a fantastical twist to them! oh, and aliens! :) I don't know if they're 4th/5th grade reading level or a little higher than that, but perhaps they're something to keep in mind?

My 10-year-old daughter absolutely adored the Sisters Grimm books by Michael Buckley and she's currently devouring The Enchanted Forest Chronicles. She has also enjoyed The Ordinary Princess and The Woods of Windri.

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge is an absolutely wonderful story, with a unicorn and a perfectly happy ending. I'd also recommend E. Nesbit's books, especially Five Children and It and its sequels.

I'm a teacher that has taught Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grade. A couple of books I've found my students like are The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle and the series by Scholastic called The Dragon Slayers' Academy. Hopefully, that can be a start.

I know a number of girls who've enjoyed the Emily Windsnap series. It's about mermaids.

I was going to recommend the Emily Windsnap books--you beat me to them! There's also Thora, about a half-mermaid.

You might have a look at the Unicorns of Balinor series by Mary Stanton--not sure if your daughter would be ready for them yet, but maybe soon (they're listed as for ages 9-12).

I personally wouldn't recommend The Last Unicorn for a nine or ten-year-old...it's really meant for a much older audience.

Try The Indian in the Cupboard which is about magic and Bruce Coville's Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher

Also Wizard's Halll and the Redwall books.

Spellhorn by Berlie Doherty has talking unicorns but might be slightly older than grade five level. (But I was reading chapter books in grade five, so you never know what may catch her interest.)

I'm not sure if she'd like this, but according to books.google.com it is within that age range:
The Near-Sighted Knight by Mary Frances Shura - 1964
How an unusual witch, dragon, and knight solve Prince Todd's problems. Grades 4-5.

This is set in grade six:
C.S. Adler, Eddie's Blue-Winged Dragon
With a bully like Darrin after him and a sixth grade teacher who couldn't understand his speech, school was hard for a kid with cerebral palsy like Eddie. Besides, Eddie needed to find a gift for his little sister's sixth birthday. There in the Treasure Shop, Eddie and his friend Gary discovered a great gift -- a blue winged dragon. But the dragon scared Eddie's little sister so much she didn't want it. Eddie kept the dragon, but strang tings began to happen. Could the dragon be going after Eddie's enemies?

I read long ago that children usually like to read about characters slightly older than themselves.

If she likes fantasy, Ruth Chew's books are perfect.

I know it's a picture book but I remember enjoying Bill Peet when in grade five. She'd probably enjoy:
Bill Peet, How Droofus the Dragon Lost His Head

One of my favourite fantasy stories which is realistic fiction with a fantasy story within:
R My Name is Rosie by Barbara Cohen. I was enjoying that from about grade six/seven, and would recommend the Scholastic paperback edition (for the fantastic cover!).

She would likely enjoy Gail Carson Levine who writes middle grade fantasy. I just reviewed her brand new book: A Tale of Two Castles.

http://books4learning.blogspot.com/2011/07/middle-grade-fantasy-tale-of-two.html

Hi awriterspen. I read a lot of children's literature and have been collecting children's books for over a decade, especially those of the fantasy genre. They're organized by tag in my library and are sorted extensively according to type of fantasy creature and what is featured in them so I recommend going to my page and clicking on "see all tags" to the right of the green "tags" section on my profile page (http://www.librarything.com/profile/Hermee). For instance, if you look at the tags that say "mythical ..." you'll see things like "mythical - unicorns" or "mythical - dragons."

List of my tags: http://www.librarything.com/tags/Hermee

Mythical - unicorns: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Hermee&tag=mythical%2B-%2Bunicorns

Mythical - dragons: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Hermee&tag=mythical%2B-%2Bdragons

Have even got a section for types of little people and have sorted the tags according to what's in the story, such as dollhouse, treehouse, tunnel, island, stories told by letter or diary (very popular with children as well), amnesia, bullying, castle, garden, and twins.

In regard to KMRoy's recommendation of the Sister's Grimm series, this is a wonderful series that should have your daughter laughing out loud in parts. The first in the series is The Sisters Grimm: The Fairy-tale Detectives and the author's name is Michael Buckley. It's about two sisters who find they're descendants from the Grimm brothers and who end up living with their eccentric grandmother in an area where the people of the town are fairytale characters. Part of the fun is figuring out which fairytale character each one is before their name is actually mentioned. Puck, the impish fairy (Rudyard Kipling and Shakespeare feature versions of him), is absolutely hilarious. I end up reading many of his lines at least twice just to chuckle again.

This series consists of nine books, the ninth of which hasn't been released yet so if your daughter loves it as much as my niece (whose friend has since borrowed the series from her and loves it also), she'll have nine rather than just one to enjoy. When I buy books for my niece and nephew, I aim for book series' so they'll have many to get stuck into, and then I try and find books that are similar so if your daughter likes this one, you can find similar ones by looking at these tags in my library:

Fairytales with a twist: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Hermee&tag=fairytales%2Bwith%2Ba%2Btwist

Fairytales retold: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Hermee&tag=fairytales%2Bretold

I recommend The Divide series also by British author, Elizabeth Kay, if you can find them in your local library. I don't think it's sold in retail stores anymore as I think the publisher may have gone out of business, but your local library may have it, although you may have to request that the three books in the series be sent from other branches. Amazon sells the series, but you have to get the second and third one through partnering booksellers on their site. This series features unicorns.

The Prophecy by librarian Hilari Bell features unicorns although I thought her book called The Goblin Wood which features goblins was a better read as my take on the unicorn in The Prophecy is that it isn't a likeable enough character. It's more of a book filler type that I'd borrow from the library while waiting for a fave one to be released.

One book I own but haven't read yet but that your daughter may enjoy was Harry Potter's author J. K. Rowling's favorite book as a child. It's The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.

Hope that helps.

Might try some Ruth Chew books. I'd also recommend Neverending Story and Phantom Tollbooth because they are incredible fantasy books.

You can also give a try to Anne McCaffrey but for that age just stick with these three from the series as the others get a bit adult at times: the Harper Hall trilogy: Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums. When she gets a little older she can then do the whole series--depending on her reading level and interest in the series (I loved them--and those are the three books I started with).

--Kim K

Those are some wonderful recommendations! Here's one that I think will enthrall you as it did me. It's a children's fantasy book, a new release by an author named Melissa Studdard. Her book is titled, Six Weeks To Yehidah. It is about an eight year old girl who goes on a magical adventure and discovers wondrous things and finds her self in the process. There is magic, mystery, myth and yes, its a happy, feel good story! Enjoy!

Here are some others, all have magic of one kind or another, all are age appropriate (nothing too dark or too mature) and all are right up there with My Father's Dragon in overall marvelousness (if that is a word, LOL:)

Anything by Ruth Chew: witches, time travel, magic, all benign but I LOVED them in 4th grade, devoured them in huge gulps and went back for more:)

No Flying in the House by Betty Brock

Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatly Snyder

Anything by Edward Eager, they are all outstanding. Time Garden was my fav, followed closely by Half Magic

Magic at Midnight and Magic in the Air by Phyllis Arkle, little known but grand

Peculiar Miss Pickett by Nancy Julian

Anna Witch by Madeleine Edmondson

Mr. Pudgins by Ruth Christoffer Carlsen

The Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett

Magic Elizabeth by Norma Kassirer

Bella Arabella by Liza Fosburgh

The Picolinis by Anne Graham Estern

Dragon on the Mountian by Madeline Rose

Mrs. Pepperpot stories by Alf Proysen

Dragon of Lonely Island by Rebecca Rupp (there is a sequel Return of the Dragon)

Bruce Coville's magic shop books, esp, Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher

Dragon Rider and Igraine the Brave (dragons in both) by Cornelia Funke

Hope these help!!