Top 10 Best Literary Fantasy Worlds for Children (OK, and Adults)

Wizards, wonder, wisdom...These words appear over and over in children's fantasy stories. As promised, below is a follow-up list to our top 10 best literary fantasy worlds for grown-ups posted last week. Joy and fear play central roles in all of these worlds (who can forget Pinocchio's terrifying transformation into a donkey in Play Town?), as do speaking animals: the Chesire Cat in Wonderland, snakes in Hogwarts and lions in both Narnia and Oz. Perhaps it's time to blow the dust off of the cover of your favorite children's book, or discover a new one! What classic or contemporary fantasy worlds did we leave off this list?

 

1. Terabithia (Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia) 
2. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series)

3. Wonderland (Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland)

4. Oz (L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)

5. Kingdom of Wisdom (Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth)

6. Narnia (C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia)

7. Whoville (Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!)

8. Never Never Land (J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up)

9. Hundred Acre Wood (A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh)

10. Play Town (Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio)