Books like Pantomime — picked by fans

This was one of the first books that showed me fantasy could be bold and heretical.

The world was so rich—daemons, armored bears, oppressive religions—and Lyra felt like a character who’d been waiting to burst off the page for centuries. It’s a coming-of-age tale wrapped in cosmic questions and rebellion, and it sparked something in me that’s never gone out.

It would be the most extreme of criminal acts for this beloved book not to be my ‘list topper!’ Reading this book instilled an instant love of good fantasy storytelling in me early on. It defines the fantasy genre, exemplifying the absolute best extremes in great world-building, characters, and epic storytelling.

Tolkien set the high bar I strive for in all areas in my own writing with one of the most memorable stories in one of the most unforgettable worlds of all time … and he managed to pull it all off within the context of a single book! No matter how many times I go back and re-read this one, I find something new to cherish, and you will too!

The late Sir Pratchett was a hero of mine. The Discworld universe is one of the most well-put-together, zany, yet relatable places. The amount of depth that he was able to achieve with a setting that others might consider a joke is astounding.

In order for a universe to connect with me, it has to have characters that I love dearly. Granny Aching and her granddaughter Tiffany are among the few literary characters that have ever brought me to tears on multiple occasions. I used to read this book to my students, and there is one scene in particular towards the end that causes me to choke up every time I read it.

It’s simple and powerful, and it speaks to me on a personal level. I lost my mom back in 2008, and the scene to which I am referring here hits on that sense of loss so well… show more.

This has a quite classic theme of good versus bad. I was really rooting for Zacriah from the start. He was more of your “has hidden magic” hero, but he came from humble beginnings. I do like an underdog, but more than that I like everyday people (or elves!) and seeing how they rise against adversity. Maybe because, especially in the current climate, it feels like we need to do this more and more. Zacriah is an everyday hero. Hadrian, the other protagonist is, however, a prince. The writing is such though that I was rooting for him too. Maybe because it was obvious that he cared for Zac from the start and I’m a sucker for a love story. 

After I read this book, #1 in a trilogy, I wrote to the author (something I rarely do), enthusing about how much I loved almost-orphan Lucky and her inspiring, tragic, hopeful, and heartwarming story. Ten-year-old Lucky’s greatest fear is that she’ll end up in an orphanage following the death of her mother, leaving Lucky to be raised by her absentee father’s ex-wife, Brigitte.

I was drawn into the lives of each of the splendidly flawed, quirky, and very real people in Lucky’s life, but it’s Lucky herself who I fell in love with because she’s so believably innocent and imperfect, working hard, with the support of her friends of all ages, to find her way in her tiny world of Hardpan, population 43.

Since my own book is marketed for young readers (and adults BTW) I thought I’d give a nod to one of the voices in that genre that got set in my brain years ago.

Philbrick’s voice in Max the Mighty might be my favorite young reader first-person voice. Told in retrospect, Maxwell’s voice is both wise and self-effacing, and believable from the jump. “...even though I’m a big dude with a face like a moon and ears that stick out like radar scoops…I’m a real weenie. A yellow-bellied sapsucker. A gigantic wuss. A coward.”

The voice carries the banner of strength in the vulnerability of the human condition. A lesson we should hold dear to our heart. Different is cool. Different is good. This book and its voice are timeless. 

I was 10 when I read Tom Sawyer. Which I loved but didn’t entirely get. To boy Mike, the midnight graveyard scene, featuring two thuggish bodysnatchers and a young unthuggish doctor, was mysterious, unmotivated. I didn’t know why bodysnatchers snatched bodies. But 19th-century readers, even children, did know: bodysnatchers stole cadavers for medical students to dissect. (Anatomy was in vogue, and medical schools lacked a supply of legal bodies.) But that’s not all.

A few chapters later, Twain presented boy Mike with another anatomical episode to puzzle over: Mr. Dobbins, Tom’s ill-tempered schoolmaster, discovers that some student has managed to unlock the drawer in his desk where he keeps his prized anatomical atlas. Dobbins is furious: a page has been torn. Unbeknownst to Dobbins, the culprit is Becky Sharp (Tom’s crush), who thereby gets to see something naughty that only anatomy books can show: “a handsomely engraved” color illustration… show more.

I can honestly say that I felt a tingle of happiness after reading this book. I’m attracted to stories with different points of view. In this case, an 8-year-old girl has become fixated on the disappearance of her 16-year-old sister, who she was very close to.

I was fascinated by this child’s maturity while surrounded by her parents, a neighbour and the police. It was apparent that the dysfunction between the mother and the teenage daughter made her leave for good. I got wrapped up in the little sister’s world of worry and responsibility while receiving little comfort from her mother.

This book was unputdownable, as they say. I had to know what would happen next.

I liked the suspense baked into this story of a runaway girl, Bea. The entire novel was written in emails, mostly between her and her brother, Erza. Each exchange demonstrated their tight sibling bond and their unhappy home life since their parent’s divorce. 

Bea leaves home after receiving a mysterious Twitter message from who she believes is her birth father. She hasn’t seen her dad in years and lives far from him. The story centers on escaping her abusive stepfather, apathetic mother, and her need to reconnect with her father. But she’s taking a risk by meeting a stranger from Twitter. Could he really be her long-lost dad or someone else?