MG Contemporary Fantasy Recommendations

thisprovinciallife

hi! i'm reese.
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Hello there! :) It's been a long time since I've posted on AW...

My current WIP is MG adventure fantasy-ish, even though I read mostly MG contemporary. I'm running into issues because I'm not sure how my MC would be able to go off adventuring without her parents freaking out. In the MG fantasy I've read, it seems like the MC is always an orphan or a Chosen One who gets whisked away to start a new life. My book also has no time travel (A Wrinkle in Time) or time standing still (Narnia!)

Does anyone have recommendations where the absence of parenting is handled smoothly? I know I need to read more in the genre anyways, so I'm looking forward to your responses!
 

SuperKate

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Anne Ursu's Breadcrumbs is great for this. Bigger than a Bread Box by Laurel Snyder. Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee handles this issue well. Skellig by David Almond. Ah, I love all these books. Have fun!
 

DavidBrett

Alas, poor Yorick, he fed me 'nanas
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Skulduggery Pleasant is probably my favourite contemporary MG (bordering on YA as the series draws to a close) series ever, far above Harry Potter. In that, the female MC has a fully-functioning family, but is also a training magic-user who helps a talking skeleton PI solve sinister cases plaguing the wizard community. The author employs a clever narrative device to balance the two lives by having the skeleton enchant her bedroom mirror - when she touches it, her reflection steps out, fully formed and intelligent enough to do her day-to-day average stuff (school, family things, etc). Then, when the MC returns for the night, the reflection simply steps into the mirror again, they touch once more, and all memories and knowledge of the day is transferred.

Not sure if that helps, but I thought it was clever.

Dave