English teacher here. The fact that is fantasy fine. I promise. Just encourage her to read and give her a chance to delve into one genre before you draw her out it.


I'm not sure if the sexual content is okay.

John Connolly's Book of Lost Things is an adult book and its extraordinarily dark and sad. In my late 30s I read it and cried and cried.

I wouldn't recommend it to a 10 year old, ever.

But remember OP a lot of the YA books out now are based in old stories like Arthurian legend, Beowulf, Quests etc - all of which are rooted in the origins of literature and will help her identify these stories and themes as she gets older and studies English in school (and beyond).

Anonymous wrote:I read a lot of Mary Renault when I was quite young. I remember finding it disturbing, but the plots were so compelling that I kept reading. Frankly, I think it made me less likely to experiment sexually. It made it all seem rather sordid to my young mind.

+1. I was a voracious reader whose parents never limited what I read. We had a huge library at home, full of 'inappropriate' books and so I read a lot of books as a child that make the Sarah J. Maas book referred to by OP seem like a sermon - for example, I read The Golden Ass at 8. It is a "Roman classic" so I don't think my parents would have thought anything of it even if they paid attention to which books I read. Yet it had explicit bestiality, gruesome sexual torture and other similar stuff. I am a well-adjusted adult with a good job, a happy married life and no history of teen promiscuity or other inappropriate behavior.

Just like the above PP, the sex stuff in the books I read made it all seem so sordid. That, or completely went over my head.

If someone did try to keep me from a book, I'd have probably smuggled it to read under my covers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's my 2 cents on good fantasy for 10yo that doesn't have the sex stuff

Abhorsen series (Garth Nix) - excellent female protagonist
Fluff Dragon series (Platte Clark) - comic fantasy
The Book of Lost Things (John Connolly)
The Mapmakers Trilogy (SE Grove) - female protagonist - relationship stuff, no romance
The Shannara series (Terry Brooks)
Beautiful Creatures - dark fantasy/romance - no sex - at least not in the first one
Graceling
Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley (King Arthur Legend so ymmv regarding appropriateness)
Terry Pratchett - Discworld - Witches series
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman - dark

Hahaha! Mists of Avalon is FULL of "the sex stuff"! Did you even read it? (though I wouldn't forbid my kid from reading it, or anything else)

I read it years ago - and as I said - it's King Arthur's legend which is, by definition, full of sex - Guinevere sleeps with Lancelot - etc. etc.

and "worse" than that -- Arthur sleeps with Morgan (his half sister). I loved it.

I know this is an old thread, but after reading it when it originally appeared, I downloaded A Court of Thorns and Roses on my Kindle (I read a lot of YA because I'm a teacher, and am always looking for new things students might love).

I forgot about it over the Christmas mayhem, but then started it a few days ago. I just finished the novel, and I would have LOVED this as a teen. Yes, it has tinges of violence and sex, but it is necessary to the plot, and the main character has depth. I loved Mists of Avalon type fantasy as a teen, and this would appeal to the same type of reader. OP, I hope you let your daughter read this. It would be a great book to read yourself as well, and then you two could discuss it.

Anonymous wrote:I think I read Elie Wiesel's "Night" around that age. I was also obsessed with really trashy YA books by Lurlene McDaniel, who wrote relentlessly depressing books in which all the teenage protagonists died of cancer or organ transplant rejection or cystic fibrosis while trying to solve existential angsty arguments with their hemophiliac diabetic boyfriends. My mom's response was to sigh and roll her eyes. A lot of the stuff went over my head and that was fine. Your DD will probably miss a lot of it as well.

Ha! I also read "Night" at about 9, and at 10 found The Joy of Sex under my parent's bed and read every word. I'm pretty normal now...but sure read too much, still.

Anonymous wrote:

And seriously - did you have to be so snarky with this response? What's your problem? I was just trying to give suggestions. Holidays stressing you out?

I'm not the PP, but I also was surprised to see The Mists of Avalon on a list of books without "the sex stuff".

Anonymous wrote:Here's my 2 cents on good fantasy for 10yo that doesn't have the sex stuff

Abhorsen series (Garth Nix) - excellent female protagonist
Fluff Dragon series (Platte Clark) - comic fantasy
The Book of Lost Things (John Connolly)
The Mapmakers Trilogy (SE Grove) - female protagonist - relationship stuff, no romance
The Shannara series (Terry Brooks)
Beautiful Creatures - dark fantasy/romance - no sex - at least not in the first one
Graceling
Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley (King Arthur Legend so ymmv regarding appropriateness)
Terry Pratchett - Discworld - Witches series
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman - dark

The 12-year-old and I like the Abhorsen series, and also the Mister Monday series by the same author. We also found the Mapmakers Trilogy really interesting and unusual (although we haven't read the third book).

Terry Brooks and Shannara, though? Derivative and hackish.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's my 2 cents on good fantasy for 10yo that doesn't have the sex stuff

Abhorsen series (Garth Nix) - excellent female protagonist
Fluff Dragon series (Platte Clark) - comic fantasy
The Book of Lost Things (John Connolly)
The Mapmakers Trilogy (SE Grove) - female protagonist - relationship stuff, no romance
The Shannara series (Terry Brooks)
Beautiful Creatures - dark fantasy/romance - no sex - at least not in the first one
Graceling
Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley (King Arthur Legend so ymmv regarding appropriateness)
Terry Pratchett - Discworld - Witches series
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman - dark

Hahaha! Mists of Avalon is FULL of "the sex stuff"! Did you even read it? (though I wouldn't forbid my kid from reading it, or anything else)

And seriously - did you have to be so snarky with this response? What's your problem? I was just trying to give suggestions. Holidays stressing you out?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's my 2 cents on good fantasy for 10yo that doesn't have the sex stuff

Abhorsen series (Garth Nix) - excellent female protagonist
Fluff Dragon series (Platte Clark) - comic fantasy
The Book of Lost Things (John Connolly)
The Mapmakers Trilogy (SE Grove) - female protagonist - relationship stuff, no romance
The Shannara series (Terry Brooks)
Beautiful Creatures - dark fantasy/romance - no sex - at least not in the first one
Graceling
Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley (King Arthur Legend so ymmv regarding appropriateness)
Terry Pratchett - Discworld - Witches series
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman - dark

Hahaha! Mists of Avalon is FULL of "the sex stuff"! Did you even read it? (though I wouldn't forbid my kid from reading it, or anything else)

I read it years ago - and as I said - it's King Arthur's legend which is, by definition, full of sex - Guinevere sleeps with Lancelot - etc. etc.

Anonymous wrote:Here's my 2 cents on good fantasy for 10yo that doesn't have the sex stuff

Abhorsen series (Garth Nix) - excellent female protagonist
Fluff Dragon series (Platte Clark) - comic fantasy
The Book of Lost Things (John Connolly)
The Mapmakers Trilogy (SE Grove) - female protagonist - relationship stuff, no romance
The Shannara series (Terry Brooks)
Beautiful Creatures - dark fantasy/romance - no sex - at least not in the first one
Graceling
Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley (King Arthur Legend so ymmv regarding appropriateness)
Terry Pratchett - Discworld - Witches series
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman - dark

Hahaha! Mists of Avalon is FULL of "the sex stuff"! Did you even read it? (though I wouldn't forbid my kid from reading it, or anything else)

Thanks. Still tracking the recommendations, and I'm sure others will appreciate them. -OP

Here's my 2 cents on good fantasy for 10yo that doesn't have the sex stuff

Abhorsen series (Garth Nix) - excellent female protagonist
Fluff Dragon series (Platte Clark) - comic fantasy
The Book of Lost Things (John Connolly)
The Mapmakers Trilogy (SE Grove) - female protagonist - relationship stuff, no romance
The Shannara series (Terry Brooks)
Beautiful Creatures - dark fantasy/romance - no sex - at least not in the first one
Graceling
Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley (King Arthur Legend so ymmv regarding appropriateness)
Terry Pratchett - Discworld - Witches series
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman - dark

Anonymous wrote:

Perhaps add some older fantasy/sci-fi too, like McCaffrey's Pern or Anthony's Incarnations or Xanth. Plot becomes more important in adult fantasy/sci-fi, and while relationships are discussed, it's a much better model.

Pern is not a better model of relationships.

As for Xanth (or Piers Anthony in general), I tried reading them when I was 11 or 12, and even at that age and in that time, I couldn't stand the sexism.

Some how hit enter too soon, some additional series to consider are:

Sisters Grimm
School for good and evil
Wings of fire