This study aims at drawing a distinction between the world of fantasy and reality in Al-Ansari’s novel Bassma and Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden. It investigates how the protagonists in both novels travel from the world of reality which is full of hopelessness, despair, and loss to the world of fantasy full of hope, happiness, and maturity. In other words, the study explores how the world of reality makes both protagonists create an imaginary or mythical world to compensate for what they lost in the world of reality and to entertain the freedom of childhood period. The study methodology is based on the comparative close reading analysis, in which some quotes are selected from both novels to illustrate the protagonists’ journey from reality to fantasy. The study concludes that in the children and young adult literature, most protagonists travel from the world of reality to fantasy in order to become self-actualized, mature, experienced, and to restore the joyful moments of childhood
Keywords: Loneliness, Loss, Reality, childhood, fantasy, garden, past memories, self-actualized
