Until Christmas break, the Library Learning Commons will be featuring fantasy fiction. These stories revolve around magic, feature supernatural elements and paranormal characters, and contain stories of adventure. The classic fantasy story features a hero who hasn’t understood or fully realized his or her potential or powers. There is often a series of tests (a quest) or encounters that highlight or develop some aspect of the protagonist. This often includes conflict and a showdown between good and evil, light and dark. The stories can be light and humourous or very dark.
Fantasy stories can take place in our very recognizable world (with a few twists thrown in). Think Harry Potter or The Mortal Instruments series. An important aspect of others of these stories is world-building, in which the author constructs an imaginary world, which is sometimes associated with a whole fictional universe. Authors who are famous for this are J.R.R. Tolkien and Terry Pratchett.
Magic and the paranormal are essential elements, whether characters are wizards (The Dresden Files) or werewolves (Twilight), hobbits (Lord of the Rings) or vampires (Cirque du Freak), or mythical creatures (Percy Jackson) or talking animals (Narnia).