Readers who enjoy stories by Jones may wish to read the fantasies of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, authors who influenced her. In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by Lewis, four children enter a magical world of strange creatures, like a talking beaver who helps them flee from a witch.

In The Hobbit, Tolkien introduces Bilbo Baggins, a small creature drawn into adventures with a wizard, dwarfs, and a dragon. Another fantasy classic, The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum, includes winged monkeys, who may be antecedents of the smelly winged monkey Olga conjures in Wermacht's class.

The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin is an influential fantasy of self-discovery.

Like Jones's six students, Le Guin's Duny attends a "high arts" school to become a wizard. By accident, he frees an evil Shadow that follows him, vaguely like...