* Charlie and The Chocolate Factory  40th anniversary edition   Roald Dahl  1964

Charlie and The Chocolate factory is a classic novel for any age.  This particular edition of the book was a very long picture book, it had fantastic illustrations and made the wonderful world of willy wanka come alive.  The story is excellent for any age, but it best suited for 3rd through 5th grades when their reading skills have advanced and reading long stories is not a problem.  The story is centered around a young poor boy named Charlie who lives in his poor home with his mom dad and two sets of grandparents.  As a birthday present his parents use their last coins to buy him a chocolate bar, and hidden inside of his bar is a golden ticket that gets him into a very secret tour of the chocolate factory owned by willy wanka.  Charlie takes his grandfather as his tour mate and gets into a strange and fantastic world of candy with the eccentric Mr. Wanka.  There are other children who get the lucky ticket too, but all of those families cheat to get their ticket.  Those families are all well off and can buy more than one candy bar, as opposed to Charlie whom is dirt poor and gets his by chance alone.  Inside of the factory strange situations occur due to the behaviors of the bratty participants and their parents.  Charlie and his grandfather are the only ones who listen to Mr. Wanka and are grateful for the chance to be in such a honorary place. 

This book is fantasy, and is a great read.  The wonderful world of willy wanka is any candy lovers fantasy and by far the greatest fantasy for children ever told.

* If Dogs Were Dinosaurs   David M. Schwartz   2005


This is such a fantastic fantasy story for young elementary aged children about things being bigger than life and how it would effect life if these things happened.  It is very encouraging to young children because it talks about how if things were different and people were different the world would not be as it should be.  The ending of the story is also very encouraging to young elementary aged children about being themselves, and how great they are as themselves.  The fantasy aspects are the ideas that people can be as big as a monument, pickles being surf boards and dogs being dinosaurs.  It is very entertaining and imaginative.  It is great for 1st grade and up in elementary school. 

Skeleton Crew   Allan Ahlberg*   this is a author from the companion website    1992

The Skeleton crew is a small children's book that is fantasy because skeletons are living like they are people and having adventures.  It is designed for young elementary aged school children because the words are easy and the story is not complicated.  It is about this skeleton crew who went on a boat on the sea to go fishing, and while fishing a skeleton crew of pirates comes and takes over the boat and sends the skeletons off on a raft in the middle of the sea.  The good skeletons get away on their raft from the evil pirate skeletons and find what they think is an abandoned island.  While the skeletons and their dog is on the island King Kong chases them off of his land and then the skeletons wake up.  It has the common theme of good vs. evil and fantasy characters such as skeletons and king Kong.  It is great for 1st grade up and is pure entertainment. 

Robot Zot    Jon Scieszka   2003

This story is about Robot Zot, a brave robot warrior.  He is challenging and fighting all of the other robots in the kitchen.  These happen to be the kitchen appliances, such as a TV and blender.  This is a hilarious book that young children will love to laugh with.  It is fantasy because it is dealing with robots and the personification of inadamant objects.  It combines humour and great illustrations.  The best part is when Robot Zot encounters the General, a black lab puppy who likes to chew on toys.  He tries to shoot the puppy with his lasers and gets away to head back to his planet with his telephone shaped queen who rings.  It is very entertaining and young children will think this story is great, especially with their imaginations.

* Hans Christian Andersen   THE NIGHTINGALE   JERRY PINKNEY    2002

     This is a wonderful story about a king, palace, and nightingale bird.  The Moroccan King expects all the most splendid of things, and has them.  He wants everyone to yearn for the materialistic things that he has.  He soon hears of a Nightingale bird that is said to have the most beautiful song, and is very unattainable.  The palace men are sent out to find the bird because if they can not find it then the King plans to trample the whole town to death.  The palace men soon get wind that a small servant girl knows of the nightingale.  The men ask her about it and promise her food in return.  She takes him to the nightingale and the bird agrees to come to the palace and sing for the man.  When the Nightingale gets to the palace and sings for the king, he wants her to stay forever and places her in cage where she is only to be let out two times daily.   The king has a replica made of her that is saturated with gold, rubies and all  precious stones.  It also can sing just as beautifully as the real bird.  The king, and town worship the bird, and the real bird soon escapes the cage.  The king then banishes the real bird from ever coming back into the palace.  The king soon becomes sick and is too weak to even lift his arm and turn the fake bird on to hear its song.  Soon death comes to visit the king and he wants to drown out the horrible sounds of death but can not due to weakness and the bird breaks and can not be fixed.  The real Nightingale visits the king and makes him cry and scares away death.  The king is so grateful he gives the nightingale a spot to sing for him, and gives the little servant girl a gold nightingale shaped medal. 
It has spectacular illustrations that enhance the culture and diversity of the Moroccan culture.    It is great for any age, but 3rd grade and above would enjoy and comprehend the story.  It has some aspects that may be challenging for younger students. such as death coming to visit and the depiction of death.  It is also a long story and may have difficult language for younger students. 

The Garden of Abdul Gasazi    Chris Vanallsburg


This is a terrific read.  It is about a young boy named Alan who hates dogs, and his aunt brings her dog to visit and expects Alan to watch it.  As he walks the dog they stumble onto Abdul Gasazi's garden where it is posted no dogs allowed.  Fritz the dog takes off into the garden and Alan must chase after it.  They run into Abdul Gasazi- a retire magician- and he tells Alan to take Fritz and go before he turns him into a duck.  Alan tries and Fritz can not be handled and Gasazi turns Fritz into a duck, and Alan must go home and tell his aunt what has happened.  He gets there and is so upset with what has happened and tells his aunt, who says Abdul is lying and a trickster and Fritz is there and must have found his way home.  Alan is relieved until he sees his hat in Fritz mouth, the same hat he stole as a duck.   It is a great read and very fantasy like because it deals with magic and morphing into other animals.   It is an easy read and young children everywhere will love it!  It has myth, magic and humor.  Its great for 1st-5th grade and has amazing illustrations.    This is another one of my author study books and Chris Vanallsburg has the most magnificent stories and each has a twisted ending that is surprising and satisfying. 

Just a Dream   Chris VanAllsburg


This is a great fantasy story about Walter who does not like to recycle.  He throws his garbage down and thinks that the girl down the street who plants a tree for her birthday is a dork, until one night he has a dream that the world is full of garbage and can not exist the way it is supposed to.  He dreams there are no streets or houses and is all a garbage dump, and when he wakes he decides to change his ways and goes and picks up trash and he too decides to plant a tree for his birthday, and he marries that young girl who started the whole thing and tells his grandchildren about that tree when they get older.  This is a great fantasy story because it is realistic in nature but has futuristic tendencies in having flying cars, and the possibility of a garbage filled future if things do not change.  It also has amazing illustrations done by Chris Vanallsburg, which he is known for.  It is great for any age group, but is especially great for 1st-4th because it has a moral obligation and also has great content and is interesting.