I think I speak for everyone when I say that escapism sounds pretty good right now. And if there’s a dragon or two to contend with, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. 2025 produced a plethora of fine and fancy fantasies of all ages and stripes. We have salt storms, jewel heists, dragon trainings, and more. You’ll also see how we strain at the tensile strength of what, truly, constitutes a “fantasy” (Undead Fox could be argued either way, I suppose).

If you’d like a PDF of today’s list, you can find it here.

Interested in previous years’ fantasy lists? Then just look here:

• 2024
• 2023
• 2022
• 2021
• 2020

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2025 Best Fantasies for Kids

Picture Books

FEATURED TITLE

Just a quick note. I’m a bit more selective on my “fantasy picture books” list than you might expect. A true fantasy picture book is, to me, a book that goes big. So you might see stories with vampire snails and ghosts that don’t follow house rules out there, but these two books are the only two out in 2025 that I really felt captured the essence of fantasy well.

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Ra! Ta! Ma! Cue! by Howie Shia

[Previously seen on the Unconventional List]

Back in November I interviewed Howie Shia about this eclectic picture book. I asked him a whole slew of questions about the book’s origins. And at one point Howie said, “Picture books are a really special medium because they not only enjoy endless varieties in style, subject, and tone, but they also have a wide audience that advocates that variety. Nobody I know who reads picture books only reads one kind of picture book (whereas lots of people only read crime novels or superhero comics or histories).” Here, the man goes out of his way to find his own particular style and look. The story takes place in a land where the adults have all been kidnapped away from the children. Determined to get their grown-ups back, the children march and, to the beat of their own drums, chant the titular “Ra! Ta! Ma! Cue!” Whence that phrase? Howie said, “Ratamacue is one of forty patterns that drummers learn when they first start drumming. The patterns – called “rudiments” – are basically the equivalent of scales for other musicians (although drummers should learn those too) and they all have really great names that reflect how they sound. Paradiddle, Flam, Pataflafla, etc.” With its epic storytelling, visually eye-popping art, and lesson our 21st century children need NOW, this one stands apart from the pack.

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The Invisible Parade by Leigh Bardugo, ill. John Picacio

[Previously seen on the Holiday List]

Deeply ensconced in grief over her beloved grandfather, Cala doesn’t want to go to the Día de Muertos party in the graveyard. But that’s before four mysterious riders teach her a little about love, loss, and courage. Why yes, one of my favorite picture books of 2025 IS a thinly veiled metaphor starring the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, how did you know? I’m always particularly happy when a book manages to be about a specific holiday (in this case Día de Muertos) while also having a much wider scope. In all honesty, this is a book about a girl trying to wrestle with her grief. Now I’m always a bit wary when authors of YA or adult fare swerve so hard into picture book territory and that goes for illustrators as well. Happily, Bardugo and Picacio must have had a steady editor, because for all that it’s a touch wordy, I don’t think anyone would call this overlong. And, of course, the art is JAW-DROPPING! This is gonna be the weirdest, most beautiful thing you read today, so grab it fast!

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Older Readers

Vanya and the Wild Hunt by Sangu Mandanna

Holy moly! Well, THAT was a pleasant surprise! You know, in the wake of J.K. Rowling’s TERF-dom, I’ve had a fair number of folks ask me if I can recommend fantasies in lieu of her own. And while the middle grade market does not lack for fantasy novels, finding any that align with you-go-to-a-magical-school or you-have-surprising-powers, and are actually original in their own right, can prove to be a challenge. Mandanna, however, really and truly does come up with something one-of-a-kind. Vanya’s ADHD is better delineated than Percy Jackson’s, and the fantasy world she enters into is really comprehensively thought out. Did I figure out who the baddie was before the grand reveal? Sure, but it took me a little longer than it should have (so well done there). I also thought that Mandanna did a great job of keeping Vanya’s parents out of the way realistically, and she does a great job with the sweets, treats, and food. You really and truly would like to step through a magical door to get to the land here (not true of every fantasy land). Plus the book acquires a really fun element near the end that does a great job of making you want to read the sequel RIGHT NOW! A British fantasy adventure import on which we can all agree. 

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An Encantadora’s Guide to Monstros and Magic by Sarah J. Mendonca

Someone pitched this book to me as similar to last year’s A Game of Noctis meets Ocean’s Eleven, and after that I didn’t need any more convincing. Now near the end of every year my tolerance for middle grade wanes. I really and truly need exciting stories or my attention will meander away without looking back. With this book, my attention was riveted. We meet Rosa Coelho, who suffers from a severe case of imposter syndrome. Rosa’s just a basic monster catcher, but when she gets recruited into a gang determined to make the steal of the century, she has to pretend to be a keeper. Keepers use charms on locks, a skill that Rosa’s been practicing independently on her own. Now she’s lost her best friend, she’s in over her head with this gang, and her grandmother will lose their family business unless she figures out not only how to fool the most impressive people in society, but her teammates as well. If I were to rank all the books on this list today in terms of world-building, this title would certainly be at the top. Mendonca is drawing upon a specific color-based, Portugese genre I’ve never seen before, and for all that the tale is about the evils of bureaucratic governments that seek only to aid the rich and powerful, it’s enormously accessible. Did I get confused repeatedly about keepers and trappers and all that? You betcha. But once this ride starts moving you have no choice but to hold on and see where it goes. Incredible.

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The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon by Grace Lin

Lion cub Jin exists as part of an enchanted sculpture. When a mysterious sculptor steals a magical sphere that’s also part of the work, Jin must retrieve it and save the spirit world. It’s funny, but I get so used to reading all these significantly older middle grade novels with death and trauma and all that jazz that when I read something legitimately younger, like Lin’s latest, I have to perform a kind of gear-shift in my brain. They certainly spared no expense for this title either. Full color interior spot art and full-page illustrations, plus whatever it is we’re calling color on the edges of the pages themselves, foil on the cover, the works! Lin also telegraphs a lot of the reveals far in advance, but that’s just going to make the kids who figure out stuff (like the fact that you can only see the head of the dragon by the sea because he’s the baddie) feel like a million bucks. I like its gentle bedtime reading lilt. I like the stakes being high but, somehow, not too high for younger readers to take in. And, as always, no one writes descriptions of food better than Grace Lin. No one.

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Growing Home by Beth Ferry, ill. The Fan Brothers

Technically, I suppose I should call this book Magical Realism or Animal Fantasy rather than straight up “Fantasy” but we don’t carry those categories in the 31 Days, 31 Lists roster (yet). And anyway, Beth Ferry’s big swing of a book doesn’t really slot into any preconceived categories. That’s probably what I like about it. That and the fact that the Fan brothers drew the snarky Oscar-the-Grouch-if-he-was-an-aquatic goldfish Toasty with a small black bowler hat (a genius move on their parts). One might think that having an ivy plant as your hero would be the very definition of a passive protagonist. Perhaps, but Ivy is also hopelessly vain and has the occasional superpower. Again, interesting! Add in a nerdy spider named Arthur, a new houseplant with a tragic past, and a host of other characters and you’ve got yourself a story that no one else could have come up with (suck it, AI). This is a bit of a younger middle grade fantasy, and a gentle one too. Ideal for bedtime reading (particularly if your kid happens to own a fish or is particularly attached to one of the family’s houseplants). There is villainy. There is magic. There are Cheese Puffs. What more could you want? 

Ink Witch by Steph Cherrywell

Another great example of a book that I discovered in just the nick of time. And, may I say, it’s been a particular delight seeing trans authors embracing fantasy in 2025. Between Kyle Lukoff’s A World Worth Saving (not on this list, but only because it just read a little too YA for me), N.D. Stevenson’s Scarlet Morning, and now this beauty, it’s really been heartening. What makes this even better is that Becca, our heroine, is trans herself. Trans and bored. Super bored. She has to help out her mom in running their dilapidated little motel, and even worse is that her mom is weirdly overprotective. Why? Maybe it has something to do with the woman who shows up and uses magic to pop Becca’s mom into an obedience spell. Becca is now determined to use all her latent powers to save her mom (and possibly the world itself, but that is definitely a #2 concern). I should have put this on the Funny List, you know. The ration of jokes that land to jokes that don’t in this book is shockingly high. Plus it’s hugely inventive when it comes to mermaids and other magical creatures. I can’t help it. This is clearly one of the best of the year.

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The Island of Forgotten Gods by Victor Piñeiro

[Previously seen on the Funny List]

A summer in Puerto Rico with his abuela and cousins is just what Nico needs to escape his troubles. New troubles come, however, in the shape of a mysterious winged creature that keeps appearing all over the island. And that’s before they’re attacked by an ancient god… Wasn’t sure what to expect with this one, since I’d never read a book by Piñeiro before. What I found is that this writer is remarkably good at invoking a sense of place. I’ve never been to Puerto Rico before but he knows just how to bring to life not just the big things, like beaches where the waves try to kill you, mountains, etc. but also small local things. Best of all? The man has a serious sense of humor. Like when our hero thinks the “wind witch” he saw on a plane is either delusions or waking nightmares (“I loved that for me”). This was a delight to read, and he does a great job of linking together Taino mythology, chupacabra tales, and PR’s recent spate of tragedies. Extra points for the clear Lin-Manuel Miranda stand-in named (I kid you not) “Juan Miguel Baranda”.

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Kindred Dragons by Sarah Mensinga

I’d be the first person to tell you that the tagline that this is Anne of Green Gables meets How to Train Your Dragon is annoying… and 100% accurate. Happily, Mensinga appears to be the kind of author/illustrator who is perfectly at ease with taking some basic source material and then spinning it into something bright, shiny, and new. In this story Alice is 100% obsessed with dragons. She’s convinced that soon she’ll be given an egg of one by the fairies to bond with (so, yes, there’s a bit of the old Dragonriders of Pern in this tale as well). Even though her strict grandmother tells her it’s impossible, she believes… but it never happens. What does happen, however, is that she becomes friends with an old dragon named Brim in the woods. But what happens when that dragon gets sick? The art of this book? Gorgeous. The tone? Ideal. The story? SO much fun. Oh, and I probably shouldn’t even say this (it’s a little bit of a spoiler), but can I tell you how relieved I was at the end that Mensinga managed to find a way to give Sarah a happy ending utilizing her special skills? Find this one!

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Lost Evangeline by Kate DiCamillo, ill. Sophie Blackall

Found in the heel of a shoe, tiny Evangeline is raised by a shoemaker who yearns for the sea. When unscrupulous forces tear the two apart, they must decide what it is they want and if following their dreams will make it happen. This would be the latest entry in DiCamillo’s “Norendy Tale” series and this time she’s taking on both the Elves and the Shoemaker and the Thumbelina fairytales simultaneously. The thing is, with a DiCamillo book I never feel quite safe. I know that there will probably be a complicated happy ending after quite a bit of strife, but the percentage of happiness in that ending is always unknown. This falls into some of the more happily ambiguous endings DiCamillo has dreamed up, if only because there’s a possibility of a much wanted reunification without proof that one occurs. It is a very Stuart Little ending, if you get my meaning. That’s not a bad thing, it’s more a warning to my third grade self that had some serious issues with how E.B. White chose to end that book. All that aside, this is really good. You’ve got Blackall back in the saddle with the illustrating (no one does a disdainful cat better than she) and plenty of good heroes and villains with names like Stumphaulf (inarguably an amazing choice of name). Doggone it. I like it. Nice and complicated. 

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The Magician Next Door by Rachel Chivers Khoo, ill. Alice McKinley

 10-year-old Londoner Callie moves to rural Northern Ireland and misses city life and her friends terribly. So terribly, in fact that she manages to cause a magician’s house to land upside down in her new backyard! It can be difficult to find fantasies for the third grade set sometimes, but this book hits that sweet spot right on the nose (pairing nicely with that aforementioned Grace Lin). It’s inventive, but not unfamiliar. I was particularly keen on local kid Sam, who sort of struck me as an Irish version of Dickon from The Secret Garden (if Dickon lived in 2025, loved science, and had a penchant for recording the doings of magic). The central hub of the book focuses on Callie’s overwhelming homesickness for London, which is a trope I don’t see a lot of. And, personally, I got quite worried when things got grim, glancing nervously at the remaining pages and wondering how Khoo was going to wrap everything up. I am happy to report that she manages it with aplomb. Charming but gripping too. 

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A Method for Magic and Misfortune by Craig Kofi Farmer

Marcus has trusted community leader Mr. O since the man rescued him and his sister from their abusive dad. So when Marcus discovers he can do magic, Mr. O is the one to help him… or is he? I walked into this expecting something along the lines of Craig’s previous book Kwame Crashes the Underworld and instead ended up with something a lot more nuanced, difficult, and complex. In this title, Farmer’s wrestling with the concept of toxic mentorship, which is NOT something I’ve ever seen in a novel for kids before and certainly not in a fantasy. It’s a lot of words on a lot of pages (355, to be precise) but I can’t imagine excising a one of them. Amusingly, I read this shortly after reading The Experiment by Rebecca Stead, and now I don’t think I’ll ever be able to put my faith in an authority figure again! Pairs exceedingly well with last year’s The Wrong Way Home (if only because I kept screaming at the main character to stop doing the wrong thing).

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Scarlet Morning by N.D. Stevenson

[Previously seen on the Funny List]

Orphans Viola and Wilmur have lived all their lives on the boring island of Caveat. When an exciting stranger appears, they trade a strange book for a life of adventure. But is their captain the infamous pirate Scarlet Morning? I’m so sorry, folks. I’ve just discovered, quite late in the game, my favorite fantasy novel for kids of 2025. It’s sort of what you’d get if you combined The Pirates of the Caribbean with Lemony Snicket. I don’t know that I can describe it any better than that. N.D. Stevenson is best known for the graphic novel Nimona, but here he’s just using his art skills to illustrate his own book. I forgot that at one point and found myself thinking, “Man. The illustrator here is WAY better than I’m used to on these books.” Is it a standalone? Not really. I mean, some threads get tied up but some are definitely dangling. Still, I was just GRIPPED by this and the writing is absolutely jaw-droppingly good. Definitely on the older side, but so much fun and funny funny funny. Hugely imaginative too! Please give it a read

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A Song for You & I by K. O’Neill

An aspiring ranger. A shy musician. An injured winged horse. All learn to heal again and gain confidence in this quietly fantastical tale. See, now I’m mad at the reviews that said that this graphic novel was YA. This is 100% middle grade (with some very light flirting thrown in there). O’Neill is extraordinarily good at creating complex characters with minimal words. To be perfectly frank, I’m surprised that they haven’t done a fully wordless comic yet (though, knowing the state of the publishing industry today, it’s probably a hard sell). They have a talent for long visual sequences with almost no dialogue. This particular story, for all that there’s some conflict, is overall dreamy and interesting. Just not sure if that title is grammatically correct.

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The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Audrey Hartman

An undead fox named Clare helps usher recently deceased animals into the afterlife. However, things go awry when a mysterious badger shows up at his door and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. What is it with foxes and Newbery contender titles? Between this and Scary Stories for Young Foxes we’ve apparently got an entire genre of zombie foxes on our hands. This is much less creepy than Scary Stories, of course. Audrey Hartman seems dedicated to wringing every drop of sympathy out of poor Clare. I mean, you just FEEL for this guy. You can see where he’s coming from and you are with him. The world just seems terribly terribly unfair for a long time, until it miraculously manages to resolve itself in an emotionally honest and satisfying way at the end. I am maybe most impressed with how well Hartman pulled everything together by the end. A masterclass in fiction, right here.

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The Village Beyond the Mist by Sachiko Kashiwaba, ill. Miho Satake, translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa

[Previously seen on the Translation List]

You can’t do much better as a translation in the American children’s book market than to proclaim loudly and proudly that your book was the “Inspiration for the film Spirited Away”. One might look upon such a statement skeptically, but the fact of the matter is that it’s true. Sachiko Kashiwaba isn’t a household name here in the States, but in Japan she’s one of the greats. A children’s and young adult fantasy writer who has been working for five decades, we’re not entirely unaware of her work here in the States. I mean, her books Temple Alley Summer and The House of the Lost on the Cape (both of which, to my chagrin, I missed reading) won Batchelder Awards and Honors, respectively. This particular book (originally published in Japan in 1975 or so, which is how Miyazaki knew it) is so friggin’ charming that once you’ve read it you’re convinced that you must have known it your whole life. You know when parents or grandparents come into the library asking for something “classic” or a good readaloud bedtime story? Give ‘em this. The illustrations by Miho Satake, for starters, are a great match. But then the tale itself is also fantastic. A girl is sent for the summer to “friends” in the country, but when she gets to the train stop no one is there to meet her and no one has heard of where she’s supposed to go. She soon finds herself in the strangest little village where she befriends a wild array of people, all the descendants of wizards. Magic and fun, tons of sweets and toys, enchanted princes and cowardly tigers, this book has it all. Best of all? It’s a sweet little 146 pages.

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That’s it for today! Be sure to stay tuned for more lists on 2025 titles. The full roster is here:

December 1 – Great Board Books

December 2 – Picture Book Readalouds

December 3 – Simple Picture Book Texts

December 4 – Transcendent Holiday Children’s Books

December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books

December 6 – Funny Picture Books

December 7 – Caldenotts

December 8 – Wordless Picture Books

December 9 – Bilingual Books for Kids

December 10 – Math Books for Kids

December 11 – Books with a Message / Social Emotional Learning

December 12 – Easy Books

December 13 – Translated Children’s Books

December 14 – Fairy Tales / Folktales / Religious Tales

December 15 – Gross Books

December 16 – Poetry Books

December 17 – Unconventional Children’s Books

December 18 – Early Chapter Books

December 19 – Comics & Graphic Novels

December 20 – Older Funny Books

December 21 – Science Fiction Books

December 22 – Fantasy Books

December 23 – Informational Fiction

December 24 – American History

December 25 – Science & Nature Books

December 26 – Unique Biographies

December 27 – Blueberry Award Contenders (Celebrating the Environment)

December 28 – Nonfiction Picture Books

December 29 – Nonfiction Books for Older Readers

December 30 – Middle Grade Novels

December 31 – Picture Books

Filed under: 31 Days 31 Lists, Best Books, Best Books of 2025