Keeper Of The Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger is a middle-grade urban fantasy book. High fantasy takes place in a fantasy world, and urban fantasy means unbelievable things happen in the real world. The best quality middle-grade book you can get is super creative imaginative, has some good humor in there, and is thoughtful and heartwarming.
The protagonist is Sophie Foster, who is a 12-year-old girl. She has telepathic abilities and can read people’s minds. One day she goes to a museum on a field trip with her class, and she meets a boy called Fitz. He is an elf and takes her to Eternal Year, a world of the elves. Then he realizes that Sophie is an elf, and that’s why she’s so intelligent.
From there on, she meets more elves, and she gets kidnapped. Sophie almost gets herself and her friend killed. She gets involved in a love triangle. Also, she has to unlearn an entire set of knowledge and learn a new set of knowledge. That’s hard for Sophie. You are on the right platform to read more adventure and fantasy books like Keeper of the Lost Cities.
7 Books Like Keeper Of The Lost Cities
Keeper Of The Lost Cities represents many similar plots, themes, and characters like Shangri-La, Atlantis, and El Dorado. You may have heard myths of all those cities, but they’re different from the legends. So when Sophie gets there, she starts to discover that all of these incredible creatures she never knew existed.
There are amazing people for her to become friends with, and she also starts to discover that she’s way more powerful than she ever realized. It made her start to wonder, and we saw that unique way. Do you want to be more wonderful? I will review 7 books like Keeper of the Lost Cities to keep your excitement alive. Let’s go!
1. The Tale of Despereaux
Winn-Dixie won a Newbery honor that was Kate DiCamillo’s first book. She has written several Newbery Honor and Ward books, including The Tale of Despereaux, which won the Newbery Award. The book story is about a little mouse with huge ears. It is so cute but so deep, and it’s about light and darkness and what love means.
The story is told in a fairy tale style because the mouse lives in a medieval castle in unknown fantasy land. The author has a narrator who breaks the fourth wall. The narrator will make little commentary along the side during the mouse’s adventure, which is super duper fun. It has a bittersweet but heartwarming ending, like Keeper of the Lost Cities.
Author: Kate DiCamillo
Average Customer Review: (4.8 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Folk Tales & Myths
Number Of Pages: 272
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
2. The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic
This is a lesser-known book, but it is good, creative, funny, and heartwarming. It is about a made-up island that thinks they are the only island in the world. On this island, a mountain rises and falls every day. Hence, the rise and fall of Mount Majestic. The people on the island do not know why the mountain climbs and falls. It is because of the stomach of a giant who is asleep under the island. If he were to wake up, that would be very bad because he would crush the island.
The protagonist, Persimmony Smudge, goes on a quest to stop a race of people on the island called leaf-eaters from waking up the giant, even though no one will believe her that there is a giant. It is a light-hearted, funny, and very adventurous, action-packed book with a similar vibe and characters similar to Keeper of the Lost Cities.
Author: Jennifer Trafton
Average Customer Review: (4.6 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Fantasy & Magic, Action & Adventure
Number Of Pages: 352
Available: Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
3. The Girl Who Drank the Moon
This is another one of the Newbery Award winners, which is very thoughtful and heartwarming. The story is about a town, and every year the city brings the youngest child in it to be sacrificed to a witch who lives in the forest. They don’t know that the witch is very nice, and she’s not requesting these children at all. Nobody knows where the ritual came from, but it did not come from her.
So, every year the witch comes, and she finds the baby. She takes them and finds a new good home on the other side of the forest. This is an exciting situation. She finds one of the children. When she’s taking her across the forest to the new home, she feeds her moonlight. As they said on the back of the book, there is magic in starlight. The girl becomes magical, so she can’t give her to any family sell. The witch decides to raise herself, and it is the story of this girl growing up and how her magical abilities start to flourish.
Because of that, she and other consequences going on this whole system with the witch and the babies. Also, the other force all start to become aware of each other. They break down, and some nefarious evil is uncovered. There are a lot of flashbacks to the story, so it’s very mysterious also very imaginative. The dialogue is very lyrical and whimsical as Keeper of the Lost Cities.
Author: Kelly Barnhill
Average Customer Review: (4.7 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Multigenerational Family Life
Number Of Pages: 400
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
4. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
This takes place in ancient China. It has a lot of Chinese cultures, and it has a very Chinese vibe. Minli lives in the valley of Fruitless Mountain, as it says on the back of the book. This mountain never grows things on it. Because of that, the village where she lives is impoverished. There are many stories in the book, and one of the characters will start telling a story. It’ll break into a different font and a different style of writing.
Minli hears this story about why a fruitless mountain is so fruitless and how there’s possibly this legend that you could bring the mountain back to life. So she goes on a quest to bring the mountain back to life. Every story that she hears throughout the book all ties together. Grace Lin is a master when it comes to writing myths with adventure. Minli is brave as Sophie in the Keeper of the Lost Cities. If you like historical tropes, then you will love to read them.
Author: Grace Lin
Average Customer Review: (4.8 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Asian Literature, Historical Fiction
Number Of Pages: 278
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
5. Furthermore
The language in the book is very creative. It’s about a town where everyone has a magic ability. In their world, magic is signified by color, so the people of color have in their hair, eyes, and skin. The main character, Alice Alexis, has no color. She is completely pale and white. So people think that she does not have any magic. But she has a highly complex relationship with her magic, and you’ll see why it’s a bit of a plot twist.
Alice’s father left years ago to a magical land called Furthermore. One day she teams up with an old friend to rescue him from the magical land. It was inspired by Alice in Wonderland. If you’re a fan of it, you will love this book about family, love, and friendship and accepting yourself for who you are. Along with that, it also has the very creative, nonsensical side of Wonderland once again. As Keeper of the Lost Cities, Alice uses her magical power as Sophie to discover something new.
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Average Customer Review: (4.5 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Children’s Friendship, Magical Fantasy
Number Of Pages: 432
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
6. The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor)
Some people call it the next Harry Potter because it is trendy, and you may have heard of it. This is the first book about a girl called Morrigan Crow. She is supposed to die on her 11th birthday because she was born on a specific day that is considered unlucky. Every child born on that day dies on their 11th birthday in this world.
Morrigan doesn’t die on her 11th birthday. Instead, someone saves her. The magical land of Nevermoor is also a super quirky place. The only way she can stay. However, it is to compete in the trials to enter the wondrous society for people with magic powers. The person who saved her and is her guardian Jupiter insists that she enter and starts to do pretty good.
Author: Jessica Townsend
Average Customer Review: (4.7 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Mystery, Detective, & Spy
Number Of Pages: 512
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
7. Lydia Green Of Mulberry Glen
It is about a fantasy world called the Valley Lands, a young girl named Lydia Green. There is a mysterious force in this world known as the darkness, which has taken up residence in the dark forest of Tenebrae. This dark force starts to creep into Lydia’s head and take over her thoughts.
So she has to go on a mission to stop it, and some of her family members are in intense trouble because of it. There’s a lot of Latin in this book which is the language of the fairies. If you like enchanted libraries or themes of light against darkness and found family, then you will love this book. As a fan of Keeper of the Lost Cities, you must read it.
Author: Millie Florence
Average Customer Review: (4.8 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Coming of Age Fantasy
Number Of Pages: 360
Available: Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
Read More Similar Books: 7 Science Fantasy Books Like Cradle
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