5 Great Fantasy Book Series for Tweens

If you're looking for just the right book to give your child, and he/she is interested in heroes and battles, magicians and sorcerers, hidden worlds or unique twists on old fairy tales, these five authors have series that will provide your child with hours of enjoyment and excitement. And I know, because not only have my kids read and delighted in them, I have too.

1) Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan: Rick Riordan presents an interesting twist on the old Greek and Egyptian mythologies in his two series. The stories really appeal to any kid who may have considered themselves different or outcasts, but have a bit of the undiscovered hero inside. The main characters of Riordan's stories discover that they are children of, or can channel, the Gods. Because of their abilities they face many enemies out to destroy them. And ultimately, it is up to them to lead many quests to help win the battle between good and evil.

2) The InkHeart Trilogy by Cornelia Funke: Anyone who has ever become immersed in a book, or dreamt of joining their favorite characters, will love the InkHeart series. Meggie, a young girl whose father repairs books, discovers that he has a secret talent to bring book characters and scenes to life by simply reading a book aloud. The book he read when Meggie was a toddler, InkHeart, had the unexpected consequence of causing her mother to disappear into the world of InkHeart, and some unsavory characters to be released into the real world. Years later, the characters return to seek out the InkHeart book so that it can once again be read aloud.

3) The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel Series by Michael Scott: Josh and Sophie Newman are twins that appear by chance to meet the immortal Nicholas Flamel, the Alchemist, and his wife. They are sucked into a battle of good and evil that will determine the fate of the world they know, and the worlds they have not even imagined. In order to fight this evil, Josh and Sophie will have to be taught all the elemental magics, and will discover that many Gods and Immortals move freely about the world as they know it. Parents will love the role that many historic figures play in this series.

4) Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins: Like the InkHeart Trilogy, the Underland Chronicles focuses on a child who has had a parent disappear early in his life. Gregor and his younger sister, Boots, accidentally discover a world underneath New York City, where humans and giant creatures coexist. Gregor will learn of a prophecy and more importantly he will learn about the whereabouts of his missing father. This series, written by the author of the Hunger Games, has some dark themes that may raise some discussion with your child.

5) The Sisters Grimm Series by Michael Buckley and Peter Ferguson: The Sisters Grimm is a great combination of fairy tale and detective series. Sabrina and Daphne Grimm go to live with their mysterious grandmother and learn that they are descendants of the Brothers Grimm and live in a town where fairy tale characters exist. They run into a series of events that require their detective skills to solve, such as the kidnapping of their grandmother and the murder of a teacher. A fun ride for both boys and girls with some strong female characters for the girls to relate to.

C. J. Mackey is a working mother of three, balancing a full time career while taking an active role in her children's lives. She has an advanced degree in engineering and over twenty years making technology decisions for fortune 500 companies. For more information on Great Fantasy Books Tweens you can visit Great Book Series Tweens.

A Brief Overview on the Life of Classic Author, Charles Dickens

His rags to riches story began on 7 February 1812. At the age of nine he was sent to school only to be taken out again shortly after due to his father being jailed for bad debts. The young Charles was made to work in dreadful conditions in a blacking factory, where he remained for a further 3 years. He returned to school after that but never forgot his experiences in the factory and drew upon them to write two of his better known classic fiction books of all time, David Copperfield and Great Expectations.

As a small boy, barely 12 years old, Charles Dickens spent days of humiliation and neglect pasting labels onto jars of black boot polish, in a rat-infested London warehouse. He saw his relatives only on Sundays, when he visited Marshalsea, a debtor's prison where his whole family, with the exception of one sister, resided. During these years, Dickens swung back and forth between what friends and acquaintances later recounted as either an overwhelmingly cheery disposition or crippling depression.

During the course of his life, Dickens never told another soul, other than his wife and his best friend, about those years of poverty, abandonment, and fear. This period of his life defined him and his books and it is absolutely essential to know this in order to understand the author himself. This period seemed to put a stain on Dickens who was a clever and sensitive boy, that coloured everything he accomplished, though as previously mentioned he never told the story except obliquely through his fiction.

Some little known facts about Dickens are that when he was a young boy he saw a beautiful house and was enchanted by it. His father told him if he worked hard he could one day live in a house like it. Charles went one better and actually purchased the same house he'd seen all those years ago.

Some of the characters in his books, Monks from Oliver Twist; Guster from Bleak House and Bradley Headstone from Our Mutual Friend, suffered from epilepsy and it was believed that Dickens himself suffered from the condition also. Experts came to this conclusion after reading some of Dickens' journals in which he describes the symptoms of epilepsy accurately.

Dickens is well-known for his books about Christmas but despite his efforts couldn't get anyone to publish the very first one. Nevertheless, at a considerable loss to himself he published it on his own. Published in 1843 it is now a Christmas classic - A Christmas Carol.

Many of the characters in his books often have rather peculiar nicknames like Sweedlepipe and Pumblechook to name but two. Dickens was also known to give nicknames to his own children, of which there were 10, for example Boz and Skittles.

Dickens began his literary career as a journalist which allowed him to publish his works on a regular basis, starting with the very successful Pickwick Papers which was just the beginning...

As well as a large number of novels Dickens also wrote travel books and plays, edited periodicals and was an administrator of some charitable organisations. Dickens died of a stroke in 1870 before the completion of his novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood (which has just recently been finished and made into a TV series) and was buried at Westminster Abbey.

Today these novels, many of which closely mirrored Dickens' own life, continue to have a powerful emotional impact on readers.