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Fantasy

Stories of fantasy include an element that is not based in reality. Imaginary elements might center around the setting, events, or characters.

Books

The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat

by Thornton W. Burgess

The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat tells the story of Jerry, a young muskrat, and his adventures in escaping the Farmer and his son, and saving the Laughing Brook and his home at the Smiling Pool from drying up. The story also features Grandfather Frog, Joe Otter, Billy Mink, and Paddy the Beaver.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

by Lewis Carroll

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a work of children’s literature by the English mathematician and author, Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, written under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy realm populated by talking playing cards and anthropomorphic creatures. The tale is fraught with satirical allusions to Dodgson’s friends and to the lessons that British schoolchildren were expected to memorize. The Wonderland described in the tale plays with logic in ways that has made the story of lasting popularity with children as well as adults. The book is often referred to by the abbreviated title Alice in Wonderland. This alternate title was popularized by the numerous film and television adaptations of the story produced over the years. Some printings of this title contain both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.

To access artwork from the 1889 Harper's publication, visit the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland collection on ClipArt ETC.

A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol is a Victorian morality tale that focuses on the life of the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge. First published by Charles Dickens in 1843 as a means to relieve personal debts, A Christmas Carol has become one of the most enduring Christmas stories of all time.

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

by L. Frank Baum

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is the fourth book set in the Land of Oz (though most of the action is outside of it) written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by John R. Neill. It was published in 1908 and reunites Dorothy with the humbug Wizard from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This is one of only two of the original forty Oz books (with The Emerald City of Oz) to be illustrated with watercolor paintings.

The Emerald City of Oz

by L. Frank Baum

The Emerald City of Oz is the sixth of L. Frank Baum’s fourteen Land of Oz books. Originally published in 1910, it is the story of Dorothy and her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em coming to live in Oz permanently. While they tour through the Quadling Country, the Nome King assembles allies for an invasion of Oz.

Baum had intended to cease writing Oz stories with this book, but financial pressures prompted him to write and publish The Patchwork Girl of Oz, with seven other Oz books to follow.

Flatland

by Edwin A. Abbott

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is a classic 19th century novella that satirizes the social hierarchy of Victorian society using mathematical figures and ideas.

Just So Stories

by Rudyard Kipling

Just So Stories are considered some of Kipling's best works. They give fantastical explanations for various phenomena.

The Little Lame Prince

by Maria Dinah Mulock Craik

The Little Lame Prince and his Travelling Cloak (often published under its shorter title The Little Lame Prince) is a story for children written by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik and first published in 1875. In the story, a young prince whose legs are paralysed due to a childhood trauma is given a magical travelling cloak by his fairy godmother; he uses this cloak to go on various adventures, and develops great wisdom and empathy in the process.

Peter Pan

by J.M. Barrie

Peter Pan (also known as the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up or Peter and Wendy) is the story of a mischievous little boy who can fly, and his adventures on the island of Neverland with Wendy Darling and her brothers, the fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, the Indian princess Tiger Lily, and the pirate Captain Hook.

Squinty, the Comical Pig

by Richard Barnum

The readers find out the origin of Squinty’s name. Squinty and his brothers and sisters grow up. Squinty wants to see the world and have some adventures, so he escapes. However, he’s caught by the dog.

The Story of Doctor Dolittle

by Hugh Lofting

The Story of Doctor Dolittle is the first of his Doctor Dolittle books, a series of children's novels about a man who learns to talk to animals and becomes their champion around the world.

Sylvie and Bruno

by Lewis Carroll

Sylvie and Bruno, first published in 1889, and its 1893 second volume Sylvie and Bruno Concluded form the last novel by Lewis Carroll published during his lifetime. Both volumes were illustrated by Harry Furniss.

The novel has two main plots: one set in the real world at the time the book was published (the Victorian era), the other in the fictional world of Fairyland. While the latter plot is a fairytale with many nonsense elements and poems, similar to Carroll’s most famous children’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the story set in Victorian Britain is a social novel, with its characters discussing various concepts and aspects of religion, society, philosophy and morality.

Sylvie and Bruno Concluded

by Lewis Carroll

Sylvie and Bruno, first published in 1889, and its 1893 second volume Sylvie and Bruno Concluded form the last novel by Lewis Carroll published during his lifetime. Both volumes were illustrated by Harry Furniss.

The novel has two main plots: one set in the real world at the time the book was published (the Victorian era), the other in the fictional world of Fairyland. While the latter plot is a fairytale with many nonsense elements and poems, similar to Carroll’s most famous children’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the story set in Victorian Britain is a social novel, with its characters discussing various concepts and aspects of religion, society, philosophy and morality.

Tik-Tok of Oz

by L. Frank Baum

Tik-Tok of Oz is the eighth Land of Oz book written by L. Frank Baum. Published in 1914, the book actually has little to do with Tik-Tok and is primarily the quest of the Shaggy Man (introduced in The Road to Oz) to rescue his brother, and his resulting conflict with the Nome King.

The Tin Woodman of Oz

by L. Frank Baum

The Tin Woodman of Oz is the twelfth Land of Oz book written by L. Frank Baum and was originally published in 1918. The Tin Woodman is unexpectedly reunited with his Munchkin sweetheart Nimmie Amee from the days when he was flesh and blood. This was a backstory from The Wizard of Oz.

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle

by Hugh Lofting

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle was the second of Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle books to be published, coming out in 1922. It is nearly four times longer than its predecessor and the writing style is pitched at a more mature audience. The scope of the novel is vast; it is divided into six parts and the illustrations are also more sophisticated. It won the Newbery Medal for 1923.

The Wind in the Willows

by Kenneth Grahame

The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a pastoral version of England. The novel is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

by L. Frank Baum

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children’s book written in 1900 by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow. It was originally published by the George M. Hill company in Chicago, and has since been reprinted countless times, sometimes under the name The Wizard of Oz. The story chronicles the adventures of a girl named Dorothy in the land of Oz. It is one of the best-known stories in American popular culture and has been widely translated. Its initial success led to Baum’s writing and having published thirteen more Oz books.

Passages

The Chimes, a Goblin Story

Dickens' Christmas Stories

by Charles Dickens

This is a greatly abridged children's version of Dickens' 1844 Christmas novella. An old fellow named Trotty thinks the church bells are talking to him when they chime each quarter hour. When he visits the church to see why they are saying things to him he has a dream in which the bells really do speak to him, and the dream changes Trotty’s life.