Why children love reading fantasy

Author Kieran Larwood shares why child readers find fantasy books so engaging. 

Children are engaged with their imagination

Judging by the amount of fantasy books on the shop shelve sat the moment, it’s safe to say that children love reading this particular genre, possibly above all others. But why is that? What is it about fantasy that appeals so much to children, and grips their attention so easily? 

I can clearly remember the moment when I, as a child, first opened my parents’ copy of The Hobbit and saw the map of Middle Earth inside. For me, it was the first time I understood that stories could take you off to other worlds where magic and dragons existed and it was the gateway for me to start building my own realities, which then evolved into epic stories and adventures, and finally to me becoming a writer, whose day job is to almost permanently live in some other realm, dreaming up battles and monsters and heroes. I now write fantasy series for early readers (Dungeon Runners) and for middle grade (The World of Podkin One-Ear) and I thoroughly enjoy spending many hours in both those universes. 

I think children flock to fantasy because they are much more connected to their imagination than adults, and they have none of the inhibitions that society puts on us regarding ‘make-believe’ and ‘pretend’.

From the cover of The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

As an Early Years teacher, I used to observe my class as they played. The roles and characters they invented for themselves were their own way of processing and understanding the world. They would instantly accept new and imaginative ideas, such as dragon eggs being laid in the playground, or fairies writing them letters from their home beside the school pond.They engaged completely with stories, leaping into the ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ that is necessary for us to accept fiction as real for the purposes of enjoying a book or a film. 

Tooth fairies and playground dragons

Whether it is a factor of development or the pressures of the safe, sanitised adult world we have created, this connection with imagination becomes less instinctive as we age. Older children no longer want to roleplay or believe in magic, because it is seen as immature and babyish. However, fantasy books still remain as a connection to that ephemeral period of early childhood, where dragons flew through the clouds and fairies took your teeth from under your pillow at night. It enables them to keep a foot inside that realm of make-believe and possibility, where perhaps they feel most at home (whether they admit it or not). 

Just by opening the cover of a book, readers are able to slip into other universes where spells can be cast and powerful villains battled. While they are lost in the stories they read, magic still exists, and the real world vanishes. Imagination rules over all and dreams can literally come true. 

Illustration: Emily Rowland

Everyone needs a place like that to escape to which, along with building creativity, helps foster empathy and understanding, and lets readers process real-world events as they relate to characters and stories. Which is why fantasy books are so important, and hopefully why childhood readers will keep coming back, even after the tooth fairy stops visiting. 

Podkin and the Singing Spear by Kieran Larwood is out now.