Fantasy with Friends: First Fantasy Reads
Briana and Krysta at Pages Unbound are hosting a fantasy discussion meme this year called Fantasy with Friends. Since fantasy is my favorite genre, I thought it would be fun to take part. This week, their question is:
Is there a particular fantasy that got you interested in the genre? Do you remember any of the earliest fantasy books you read?
I would have to say I took a very early plunge into fantasy thanks to a lot of children’s books featuring talking animals. My mom signed my siblings and me up for a reading club that sent us a few books a month. My favorite was, apparently, one about a bunch of animals going on a very bumpy bus ride, though I remember a few books featuring a cute little bear doing things like making too much popcorn and drawing a cake in sand.
The first actual fantasy books I ever read were probably the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede. I was in fifth grade and obsessed with dragons. There was a literary magazine I subscribed to and a reader’s letter mentioned these books, so I jumped on them. Or maybe it was Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. I suppose it could also have been the Alanna books by Tamora Pierce. Or a Piers Anthony book my mom decided to hand me when I was 10? Why she did that, I don’t know, because all those puns went right over my head. Then again, she thought Outlander was appropriate for a 13 year old.
Honestly, I’m not quite sure why I fell in love with fantasy in the first place. After all, I spent years reading Ann M. Martin’s books and Nancy Drew, so I don’t know where my fascination with fantasy came from. But I don’t remember ever not wanting to have magic of my own, so maybe my interest in the fantastical is inborn.
The books that sealed the deal, though, were the Heralds of Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey. I fondly refer to these as the Arrow books. I read those somewhere between 7th and 8th grade and was completely hooked. It may have been the mind-speaking horse thing. I’ve dipped in and out of many genres since then, but fantasy will always hold my heart, and those books have a very special place there. In 8th grade, we had an English assignment where we had to create a playlist of made up songs for a book. I chose Arrows of the Queen, and I still wonder what my teacher thought considering all of my classmates picked more classic teen books.
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