Omnibus

Despite increasing competition from Internet search engines and online encyclopedias, quality information titles for children continue to be produced in Australia. Well-researched non-fiction books that bring their subject matter to life can have a much greater impact on an inquisitive mind than is the case with the fact-bites of Google.

Here we have five seemingly disparate books linked by genre: fantasy. Yet even fantasy, an often devalued term used to categorise a range of speculative and other fictions, doesn’t quite describe these entertaining and evocative texts. Rather, the common thread running through these stories and uniting them in a continuous and universal yarn is that which weaves its way through many tales: the hero’s journey.

Whether drawing inspiration from epic and mythological pasts or contemporary issues around young people’s search for identity within and against mainstream forms, each story seeks to capture the reality of the timeless and often heroic search for the self using a fantastical backdrop.