Category Archives: Fantasy

337V: Society that enjoys watercress sandwiches

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I read this book in six grade in the mid-80s.  I think it was a fantasy type story.  This society had once been in contact with humans (or maybe just one human).  He may have come over the mountains on a hot air balloon.


They got a few things confused about humans.  For example, they had a painting of a tree and a diagram of a family tree (genealogy chart).  They called the genealogy chart a picture and the painting of the tree a family tree.  So everyone in this society had a very carefully tended “family tree” in their yard.  Unfortunately, I remember nothing about the actual plot.

337A: The Adventures of Merlin the Magician (Solved!)

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I am looking for two books from the 70’s featuring Merlin the Magician.
A little boy and his dog (Max?) go for a walk in the fog and find a store. The store is actually run by Merlin, who tries to trap the boy. The boy damages Merlin’s hat, which is the source of his power.
The boy and his dog escape, and are later unable to.find the store.
In the sequel, Merlin poses as “Auntie Nilrem” and bakes pies – all the while looking for the boy.
Illustrations were black and white with some pink for Merlin’s clothing.
I hope this helps.

336V: Funny Dragon-ish creature (Kaz?)

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I think the book was to be one of a series, but I only read the first one. It was set in a land with a limited map, like a world within a land, and the people who lived in the land where unaware of the wider world.

There was a red dragon or lizard named Jaz or Baz or Kaz who was funny and the best friend of the human, who I believe was female.

The cover had the lizard-type creature perched on a roadside boulder, with the road winding down a hill and maybe clouds around the edges.
I believe I read it in the 90’s or 00’s

 In addition, my son says this:
Kaz is the name of the dragon for sure. The land is separated by walls, and one or some start breaking down and that’s the main conflict. Later they find out that the world is set up that way because of fantasy space computers.

336M: Captive Mage Falls In Love With Woman Captive In Tower

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I’m looking for a fantasy novel, likely written in the 90’s, as I read it between 1998-2003, I think.
It was about a woman who was captive in a tower with a Druid/mage who produced alchemical fireworks. He was also some kind of captive in the city-kingdom, and naturally they fall in love.
My parents pitched it out and I’ll never let it go

332T: Atlantean? Girl Next Door

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I am trying to find the name of a book I read as a child. The plot is basically that the girl who lives next door to the protagonist is weird and can 'float for joy' - that is, levitate. She turns out to be a descendant of Atlantis or something similar - an elder race in decline now living discretely amongst humans. They cannot interbreed - at one point the Atlanteans are described analogously to horses and humans akin to donkeys. The result is something like a mule. I think it might have been hazardous for the humans and the others to touch? Painful?

Media - Single Book / Novel

Date of Publication - Pretty sure it was in either a children's section of a public library or a school library and it pre-dates 1995. Might even pre-date 1988.

Major Themes - Decline of a race / empire?

Characters - Two children, one human, one otherwise. However, I cannot remember if the protagonist was male or female.

Language - The book was in English and I read it in England.

Target Audience - Older children? Teens?

332H: Gnomes, Elves, Dwarves, and Humans Band Together

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Looking for a fantasy series where gnomes, elves, humans and dwarves must band together. The fantasy series has gnomes who raise an ancient evil. A wizard is trying to become king. Humans, elves, dwarves & gnomes band together. A young gnome woman finds a dog that she thinks is a wolf, so she names it Wolf. The wizards have some magic plant that makes people work harder. Elves and dwarves are set to invade the gnome tunnels.

329Z: Humans and Beasts

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I read a book about 20 years ago. It was a Christian fantasy/sci-fi. What I can remember is there were humans and there was an elite class that I think were beasts. They ate a delicacy that it turned out were human babies. There was a salvation story as part of the plot. I also believe there was a part where 2 prophets die, lie dead for 3 days, and then rise again, and it’s all broadcast on t.v. It’s possible I am mixing up two different books. The book I’m looking for was not part of the Left Behind series, or any other series like that. I believe it was a stand alone book. Another part I remember is one of the beasts standing over another character, possibly female, and the character on the ground looks up into the beast’s eyes and sees basically into her soul, or sees the truth. She kills the beast standing over her, which was a good thing. The beasts are human-like in their behavior, walk on 2 legs, etc. I would really appreciate your help in finding this book. I remember it being very good, though now I realize so many of my memories of it are vague.

329L: Boy Who Could Unmake Things

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I’m looking for a book I read in the 80s (I think) about a world in which the typical magic was to be able to create things, but one boy is able to unmake things and everybody either wants to use him or kill him. It’s possible this boy is actually a girl, but I’m leaning toward it being a boy.

328V: Early 2000s Fantasy Novel

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I'm looking for the title of a book that's been bugging my bf for years - he read it in the early 2000s (he thinks that's when it came out) and when I asked him for a description, he said he thinks they were teens and all versions of classic monsters. One of them was Medusa in disguise hunting some kind of agents (and there are cutaway chapters where she's hunting them) and she maybe had braided hair? They may have either been ON an island or IN Ireland and were maybe collected together because they were told that Medusa was after them, but she was actually after these agents/government guys and there to protect them. Also, one of them was maybe a swamp monster?

328U: 60s-70s time-travel medieval fantasy, siblings, beautiful illustrations

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I checked this book out multiple times from our public library. Author’s name must begin with Bu-Ea based on shelf location (preceded Eager; after Burnett), is not Ruth Chew after reviewing her catalog. Previous helpful respondents from other attempted search sites have suggested A Walk in Wolf Wood (Mary Stewart) or A Walk out of the World (Ruth Nichols), which are lovely and similar, but incorrect (my lovely childhood public librarians were not illiterate enough to repeatedly mis-shelve this book, and my memory is solid about where it was located on the shelves).

This is a beautifully illustrated, middle-reader American (I think) fantasy book about a brother/sister or possibly male/female friends who somehow stumbled from their somewhat urban home/apartment building into a medieval setting when coming home from school one day in the woods near their home.

Sister ends up spending time with women from the group (I remember some looming?) and brother with the men (possibly becoming a page/squire?) There is maybe a joust, some magic or Merlin-y magician, the illustrations were very lovely with lots of woods/trees. Cover art and some interior pen+ink drawings reminded me of the cover to the film adaptation of Camelot.

I was born in 1970 and was a very early and voracious reader, so this book cannot have been published much later than 1976; my guess (contextually) is that it’s most-likely a little earlier than that.

Many thanks!!