Tween Tuesday: Fablehaven

I am so excited for the release of the fifth Fablehaven this month because it is one of my favorite fantasy series for middle grade readers. The series is about Kendra and Seth, who are brother and sister, who discover that their grandparents are caretakers of a preserve for magical creatures called Fablehaven. In the first book they have to rescue their grandmother who is being held captive in the preserve. One of the things that is great about these books is that the preserve houses all kinds of magical beings, good and evil, so wandering around in the forest is not a good idea. Seth is the more impulsive younger brother who tends to get into trouble, while Kendra takes the things she learns about Fablehaven and her responsibilities there very seriously.

I think these books fly really low under the radar, we know of them here where we live because the author visited our schools. (I was teaching kindergarten at the time and we don't go to author visits because we can't sit still--so I missed out). Also, in the fourth book, the Dragon Sanctuary is located near here (or at least that's what we can assume since they fly into our town before heading to the sanctuary--nothing gets kids more excited than when they see our town being talked about in a book they love). Anyway, they are published by a small publishing house and I don't think they get the exposure they deserve. But they deserve more exposure because, and this is KEY, this is one of the only series I know of that has a female as the lead character, but that boys read just as much or more than girls. It could be the cover art that draws them, but I have never heard of a boy complaining about a girl being the main character, they just read them anyway. How rare is that?

The other thing is that, although a fantasy world is created, I didn't feel that the author was trying too hard to model the series/world after Harry Potter. I do feel that way about some series that have come out since Harry changed the face of children's publishing. This one seems to come together more naturally, it doesn't try as hard.

See if this series is available at your library for your middle grade readers. I guarantee some of them will get sucked right into the world of Fablehaven!

Tween Tuesday is hosted by GreenBeanTeenQueen! Thanks so much!