12 books like Harry Potter
If what you miss is the first walk into a place where magic is ordinary and the rules are still being explained to you, these are the books that give it back. Some are gentler than Hogwarts, some considerably nastier, and a few were quietly doing it years before.
Updated September 2026
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Magic schools where you have to pass the trials first
Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend 2017
A cursed child is spirited away to a secret city and set a series of entrance tests, which is Harry's first year in a different key; the magic here is stranger and more whimsical, closer to a fairground than a classroom.
Skandar and the Unicorn Thief by A.F. Steadman 2022
An outsider sits an exam that decides his whole future and ends up at a school on a hidden island, with the same house rivalries and best-friend trio; the unicorns are bloodthirsty rather than decorative.
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik 2020
A school of magic with cliques, lessons and a fiendishly unfair system, written for readers who have outgrown Hogwarts; there are no teachers, no safety net, and the narrator is sour company by design.
Apprentice witches and wizards learning the hard way
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin 1968
A gifted boy goes to a school for wizards and unleashes something he can't control, as Harry does more than once; Le Guin's prose is spare and the real duel is with himself.
Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones 1977
An orphan is taken into a great magical household and finds everyone there knows more about him than he does — a very English sort of enchantment, but the plotting is slyer and the adults far less trustworthy.
The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett 2003
A stubborn young witch takes on the job nobody else will and grows up across the series, much as Harry does; Pratchett is funnier, and his magic is mostly hard work and paying attention.
A hidden world running right alongside the ordinary one
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan 2005
A boy who's been written off as a troublemaker discovers his parentage and a summer camp for others like him, with the same rush of belonging; the tone is breezier and the mythology is Greek.
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud 2003
Magicians run Britain from Whitehall and an apprentice takes on more than he can manage, so the secret-London pleasures are all here; half of it is narrated by a sarcastic djinni with footnotes.
The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud 2013
Three young colleagues in a shabby agency solve cases the adults can't, which is Harry, Ron and Hermione at work; it's a ghost story, and properly frightening in the dark.
Children handed an old war to fight
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman 1995
A child raised in an odd institution turns out to be at the centre of a struggle between enormous forces, and the world-building is as complete as Rowling's; Pullman is arguing with the Church rather than with Voldemort.
The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper 1973
An eleven-year-old learns on his birthday that he is one of the Old Ones and must face a rising evil, which will sound familiar; the mood is wintry, mythic and much quieter.
Sabriel: The Old Kingdom 2 by Garth Nix 1995
A girl leaves a boarding school for a country where the dead don't stay put and inherits a role she never asked for, with the same weight of destiny; the necromancy is genuinely grim and the setting entirely invented.
If you also liked…
- Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
- Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan
Questions
- Which of these is closest to the feeling of arriving at Hogwarts for the first time?
- Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow is the one readers reach for when they want that specific rush of being chosen and shown somewhere wonderful. Skandar and the Unicorn Thief comes a close second if you'd like it with more danger.
- Is A Deadly Education suitable for a younger Harry Potter reader?
- It's aimed at teenagers and adults — the school kills students regularly and later books in the series include brief sex scenes. For a similar wit at a younger reading level, try The Amulet of Samarkand.
- I want something for an adult who grew up with the books. Where should I start?
- A Wizard of Earthsea and Northern Lights both reward adult reading without losing the sense of wonder. The Wee Free Men is shelved as children's fiction but Pratchett wrote it for everyone.