YA+Fantasy+Fiction

by Adam Kilcrease  ** __Click on the links below for more information: __ ** ||=  **Web Links & Other Resources** || __Introduction and Background Information of the Genre: __ ||
 * =  **Recommended Reading List** ||=  **Instructional Activity 1**  ||=  **Instructional Activity 2**  ||= **Fantasy Unit Test & Rubric** [[file:Fantasy UnitTest.docx]]  ||=  **Articles about the Genre:**  [[file:FantasySettingsArticle.pdf]]
 * = Definition: ||= **The definition of this fictional genre ** could be described as something that contains characteristics that are not realistic, such as magical powers, talking animals, etc. Fantasy is often characterized by a departure from the accepted rules by which individuals perceive the world around them; it represents that which is impossible (unexplained) and outside the parameters of our known, reality. **Make-believe is what this genre is all about. ** ||
 * = Purpose: ||  When we were small children, trying to get to sleep, a creaking floorboard was really spooky. Who or //what// could be making the noise? The only way to make sense of the experience, for which there was no certain answer, was to fantasize: there's a pirate or a burglar, or more probably a crocodile under the bed. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12px;">Retrieved from: []  ||
 * = <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Audience: ||= **<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif';">Although many chilren enjoy the genre, fantasy is the genre least likely to be affected by age. **<span style="font-family: 'cambria','serif';"> Many adults have enjoyed the Hobbit or the Harry Potter books. More recently the success of the film versions of the Lord of the Ring and the Harry Potter stories have dramatically increased interest in fantasy along with C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, and the film version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Fantasy continues to substantially outsell science fiction. ||
 * = <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Craft and Organization: || * **Word choice –**writing to younger students requires the author to become familiar with terminology of today’s young people. If you go into mythology, (like the Percy Jackson series does), it will be important to introduce and describe the mythology in a way that the students will understand. If the students do not understand your writing or the background behind what you are talking about, they will find it hard to connect with your story, plot, and characters.
 * **Organization** – Most short stories or novels in this genre follow a chronological time span which events are described in the order from beginning to end or present. Chapters can be divided into major events, settings, or time periods, which are important to understand the plot of the story.
 * **Voice** – Both characterization and voice is important in this genre. In the short story that I am working on, the boy (in his teens) uses simple language and is highly relatable to the readers of the genre. You can also have god-like voices within the text which speak in a different form of language (which is still easy for them to understand.) The narrator also has a play in this genre by telling you information about the setting, what happens in within the history of the story, and background knowledge needed to understand the story.
 * __In fantasy, characters often deal with the following parts of the genre:__
 * Underdog
 * Heroic qualities
 * Overcoming evil
 * Family
 * Psychology of dealing with opposing forces
 * Personal discovery of yourself and others
 * Possession
 * Mythology
 * Travel
 * Other worlds
 * = <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Quotes from the genre: ||= * “He escorted us into the elevator, which was already crowded with souls of the dead, each one holding a green boarding pass.” – __Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief__
 * “I can’t bring myself to tell her she’s chasing a dream as insubstantial as a wisp of smoke. Perhaps she and Twill can carve out a life somehow in the woods.” – __Catching Fire__
 * “Fantasy is escapism.” – //The Real Purpose of Fantasy// ||