If you’re a voracious reader, you may find yourself faced with a lack of clean reading material. Many books, especially ones for the YA audience, are rife with questionable content. This post is a list of the top five middle grade and YA clean fantasy reads I’ve enjoyed, complete with detailed content reviews. Perhaps you’ll find a new favorite among the stories listed below.
First, a couple disclaimers are in order.
- While I consider all of these clean, not all of them are suitable for all ages because of various content (usually violence). The books are listed from least to most in terms of content warnings with detailed reviews of content linked in their respective sections.
- Several of these books/series were among my first reviews on this blog, and as such, were not very good. I have linked both the original reviews and more detailed reviews from other sources.
Table of Contents
The Terrestria Chronicles
The Terrestria Chronicles is a seven-book series that seems to be heavily influenced by The Pilgrim’s Progress. It contains the same type of allegorical names and situations, giving important Biblical truths through compelling storytelling. The creativity of the author, evangelist Ed Dunlop, in writing the allegorical aspects is continually impressive.
The series, beginning with The Sword, The Ring, and The Parchment, follows the adventures and growth of Prince Josiah as he’s saved from slavery to the evil Argamor and becomes a loyal knight of the King. This book is clean and has practically no content warnings; only some sword fights with scarcely a mention of death may qualify.
Reviews of the rest of the series can be found on the Benefield Bookmark here.
The Green Ember
The Green Ember series may repel many older readers based on the cover alone. What teen wants to read a book with bunnies on the cover? But beneath their fur, these sword-wielding rabbits are as human as any protagonists and star in a deep, compelling series. It has few content warnings other than darkness and battles—though the robed, ancestor-worshipping votaries featured in the later books did strike me as odd.
This series makes the list for its amazing, sympathetic characters, and the intriguing world. It also has almost as many spin-offs as Star Wars and more are being written. A prequel series of two books (so far) and a three-book series following a side character from the main series add to the world’s history and enhance the base story.
The Wingfeather Saga
The four volumes of The Wingfeather Saga tell an epic, sweeping story of family, sacrifice, and hope. The series follows three siblings, their mom, and their grandfather as they brave toothy cows, sea dragons, and a nameless villain named Gnag the Nameless. While not explicitly Christian, it contains many Christian allusions and themes.
Content warnings include numerous battles with humans and other creatures, but with no gore; dark and heavy topics, always dealt with appropriately; and magic, which is a whimsical magic rather than witchcraft. The media-reviewing website Plugged In covers all this in-depth in the linked review below.
Not all ages may grasp or appreciate the depth of the story, but for those who can, it’s an incredible read that gets better with every book. With two supplementary books (Wingfeather Tales and Pembrick’s Creaturepedia) published and a multi-season animated series coming over the next few years, this saga is showing no signs of slowing down soon.
Dawn of Wonder
It’s extremely hard to summarize Dawn of Wonder in only a few paragraphs, and it’s only one book of a series with at least three books still to come. The 700+ pages are filled with life-like characters, suspenseful fights, legends come to life, and tragedy that made me unreasonably depressed. The debut novel of Jonathan Renshaw, this book is ridiculously good and more than once made me question why I even try to write anything. As if that weren’t enough recommendation, the author also includes little-featured but important Christian messages.
Content warnings include sword fighting (as typical in the genre) and resulting wounds, but the main concern will be the two crude words used a handful of times. It’s not profanity, but some readers may find issue with it.
The Blades of Acktar
The Blades of Acktar contains the most content warnings of this list by far, primarily in the violence department. As expected for any series with “blades” in the name, there is a good deal of blood and death, but it’s dealt with seriously and not glorified.
That aside, the series is amazing in so many ways. The characters are conflicted, relatable, and real. The world is a welcome departure from the typical European landscape, being more inspired by the American west. And most importantly, the Christian themes are vital and prominent, driving the story and proking readers to thought. The inclusion of Biblical messages is a model for my own stories.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Are there any books you would add to this list? Let me know in the comments!
And as always, thanks for reading, and I’ll write you in the next one!
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3 Comments
Annabelle · February 22, 2022 at 5:59 pm
These all sound like great books! I’ve read the Wingfeather Saga and Green Ember and I highly recommend both of them. Great job putting this together!
Timothy Benefield · February 22, 2022 at 7:42 pm
They are all amazing books. Thanks for reading!
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