Holiday Gift Guide: Six Inclusive MG Fantasies, a guest post by Marieke Nijkamp

To me, the holidays and winter are the perfect time for fantasy stories. Perhaps it’s because there’s a bit of magic in the air already. Perhaps because the days are dark and cold and there are stories hiding in the shadows. Perhaps because snow (if we’re lucky) inevitably reminds me of lampposts and worlds hidden behind wardrobes. But whatever it is, whenever the days get shorter and then nights get longer, I turn to fantasy. It’s not a coincidence that my own middle grade fantasy series Splinter & Ash starts at the Midwinter Festival, with a masked ball and two outcasts whose friendship will shape the future of their kingdom.

Thankfully, fantasy is everywhere. With cozies and romantasies, exciting new series, and long-awaited video games that *cough* take up far too much writing time. And not just that: with so many books that show that every reader can be the hero of the story.

From stories with subtle to not-so-subtle magic rooted in our own world (like Clare Edge’s Accidental Demons or Alechia Dow’s Just A Pinch Of Magic or Natalie Lloyd’s The Witching Wind or Gail D. Villanueva’s Lulu Sinagtala and the City of Noble Warriors, all of which are wonderful and you should read them) to middle grade adventures in secondary worlds, more and more tween readers can pick up a fantasy book and feel welcomed.

So if you’re looking to foster a love for fantasy that’s sure to last a lifetime, here are six spectacular, inclusive (and more or less recent) middle grade fantasy books to gift this holiday season. And because secondary-world fantasies are still the books I love best for curling up on long winter night (whether or not with a flashlight under the covers until you fall asleep across the pages) all six take place in other worlds.

Kali Wallace’s The Secrets of Underhill

Nick Sixsmith is the daughter of a traveling arborist, and she and her mother travel from town to town to care for the magical ironwood trees. When blight starts to affect the trees, Nick and her friends have to try to find its cause or lose their home completely. But there are secrets in the ironwood groves that reach far more deeply than any of them could have imagined.

Nick’s world is rich and atmospheric, the friendship at the heart of the story is heartachingly beautiful, and this one is especially suited for readers who are interested in the world and in the magic of nature around them.

Joanna Cacao’s The Secret of the Ravens

This middle grade graphic novel, written and illustrated by Joanna Cacao and lettered by Kyla Aiko, follows orphan twins Elliot and Liza, who are trying to survive on their own until they stumble across a mythical raven. The bird carries a magical task which, upon completion, offers coin and a way out of their life on the street. But when they follow the ravens across the kingdom, one of the quests goes wrong, and suddenly it isn’t just Liza’s life in the balance but the world as they knew it.

Underneath Elliot and Liza’s beautiful sibling bond lies a story about identity and belonging and home, and it’s so full of heart. I can’t wait to see where this goes next.

Claribel Ortega’s Witchlings series

Since Witchlings: House of Elephants came out just a few short months ago, I can’t ignore the Witchlings series—nor would I want to. Seven Salazar, Valley Pepperthorn, and Thorn Laroux are my favorite witches in recent middle grade. As Spares, they’re not placed in one of their hometown’s five covens, but between the three of them, their found coven can take on anything. Impossible tasks, magical competitions, petrifying monsters, and surprising ceremonies, the Witchlings can face it all. Together.

If you aren’t reading Witchlings yet, you’re missing out on some spectacular magic and a beautiful, affirming friendship.

Esme Symes-Smith’s Sir Callie series

And speaking of series, the third part in the Sir Callie series hit shelves several weeks ago, and I love a good story with dragons and knights! This series follows a young nonbinary knight-in-training, a reluctant crown prince, and twins with magic, who all discover that the epic world they’ve been promised is nothing like the life they know. Despite their struggles with prejudicial and cruel adults, the four tweens’ friendship and determination helps them face even the most dire of times.

I wrote my own Splinter & Ash because I longed for more knightly adventures on my shelves, and as such, I immediately devoured this series. It’s such a joy to know that Sir Callie and my own characters exist on the same spectrum of squires carving out a place in the world for themselves and their found families. I’d like to think they would be great friends. 

K. O’Neill’s The Moth Keeper

Anya is a Moth Keeper: she protects and guides the lunar moths that allow the Night-Lily flower to bloom once a year.  It also means she lives nights and sleeps days, and many of those nights are spent far away from her village and despite the moths as company, Anya is lonely. When she starts to wonder what the sun looks like, what its warmth feels like, it sets in motion a chain of events that changes everything for Anya—and for her village.

This middle grade graphic novel is a gorgeous, lush story filled with a gentle magic that makes Anya’s night—and her day—come to life. Plus, there’s found family. Every story is better with found family.

(By the way, if you’re looking for more magical and soft graphic novels, Fern Haught’s The Baker And The Bard is an absolute delight too, and suited for younger readers as well.)

Lisa Stringfellow’s Kingdom of Dust

Amara’s homeland of Kun used to be lush and green, but she only knows it as a dry desert controlled by a powerful and cruel king. When the king’s soldiers target Amara, she has to escape them, travel the lands, and find a way to bring Kun back to life, all the while figuring out her own identity and where she belongs.

Inspired by West-African mythology, Amara’s fast paced story is filled with action and danger, with storytelling and discovering who you are. Once you start reading it and fall into the rich worldbuilding, it’s impossible to put down.

And finally, if you’re looking for even more inclusive reads, my own Splinter & Ash is the first in a new series about a brave and loyal squire and a clever and determined princess, who are both seen as outsiders in the palace—Splinter because she isn’t a noble boy like all the other squires, and Ash because she uses a cane and braces but she’s determined to prove she isn’t as weak as the cruel nobles say she is. Together, Splinter and Ash face bullies, complicated families, long-hidden secrets in the palace, and deadly conspiracies.

Splinter & Ash is my homage to books like Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness and Protector of the Small series, but written for the queer and disabled readers I’ve met throughout many of my other books and for the nonbinary, disabled tween reader I was, once upon a time. Because we all deserve to be heroes who wield swords, canes, a bit of magic or, simply, the power of friendship.

Happy reading <3

Meet the author

Marieke Nijkamp (she/they) is the author of Splinter & Ash; Ink Girls, a middle grade graphic novel illustrated by Sylvia Bi; and several books for young adults, which include New York Times bestsellers like This Is Where It Ends and Before I Let Go, a critically acclaimed anthology, graphic novels, and comics. Marieke studied philosophy and medieval history, and when she isn’t writing, she loves to garden, roll dice, and daydream. Marieke Nijkamp lives and writes in Small Town, the Netherlands.

Find Marieke at www.mariekenijkamp.com and on Instagram and Bluesky (@mariekeyn).

About Splinter & Ash

“A winning addition to boundary-defying heroines like Alanna of Trebond and Sir Callie.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“An essential middle grade fantasy where all readers will find heroes to love and to cheer!” —Alex London, author of Battle Dragons and The Princess Protection Program

New York Times bestselling author Marieke Nijkamp’s middle grade prose debut is an immersive fantasy for fans of B. B. Alston’s Amari and the Night Brothers, Soman Chainani’s School for Good and Evil, and Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books. For two young misfits, a dangerous quest to save their kingdom will also mean saving each other.

Ash—or Princess Adelisa—is the youngest child of the queen, recently returned to the city of Kestrel’s Haven after spending six years on the other side of the country. Ash was hoping for a joyous reunion, but the reality is far from it. Her mother is holding the kingdom together by a thread; her brother has only taunts and jibes for her; and court is full of nobles who openly mock and dismiss Ash, who uses a cane and needs braces to strengthen her joints.

Splinter is the youngest child of one of Haven’s most prominent families. She’s fierce, determined, and adventurous, and she has her sights set on becoming a knight just like her older brother. Even if everyone says she can’t because she’s not a boy. So what? She’s not a girl, either.

A chance encounter throws Ash and Splinter into each other’s orbits and changes the course of the kingdom’s history. The princess and her new squire will face bullies, snobs, gossips, and their own disapproving families. But when they uncover a shadowy group of nobles plotting to overthrow the queen, they will show everyone how legends are born. Together.

The first in a trilogy by bestselling author Marieke Nijkamp, Splinter & Ash evokes the classic adventure and atmosphere of fantasies by Lloyd Alexander and Tamora Pierce and the fresh, inclusive lens of writers such as Rick Riordan, Angie Thomas, and Soman Chainani. It invites everyone—no matter who they are or what they look like—to fight for what they believe in.

ISBN-13: 9780063326262
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 09/10/2024
Series: Splinter & Ash #1
Age Range: 8 – 12 Years

Filed under: Guest Post