Last year, the most-read children' s books at least in UK were almost all fantasy novels. But why is this the case? What. exactly does fantasy offer to young readers? What' s important to point out here is that fantasy writing has come to be considered as belonging to popular culture, and is therefore generally regarded as being of lower quality than realism. This idea was formed in me during childhood by my mother, who believed that fantasy was "rubbish". She was always trying to persuade my two brothers to let go of their dog-eared copies of American author David Eddings' books and read something "proper". I had also met some people who were against reading fantasy. While living in Finland, where I joined a book club, I was told at my first meeting that the club didn't read "genre" books, which meant that realism was   in", but everything else including fantasy was " When it comes to the subject of children, discussions about which books are "better" for them often focus on the fantasy and realism debate, causing Professor John Stephens to write that: one of the more curious sides to the criticism of children's literature is the strong wish to separate fantasy and realism into competing types, and to state that children prefer one or the other, or "progress"from fantasy to realism or vice versa . A quick survey of the big children's publishing trends over the past ten years confirms that fantasy is as popular as ever in the children' s book scene. From the 450 million copies of Harry Potter books sold over this period to the more recent Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, it would seem that children are as enthusiastic about fantasy as ever before and rather than "progressing" out of fantasy, the popularity of fantasy in the young adult market would suggest just the opposite. What was the author's mother's attitude towards fantasy?
Uncaring. Cautious. Unfavorable. Enthusiastic.