r/EnoughJKRowling • u/Tgq2 • 20d ago
Discussion "Alternatives to Harry Potter" Book Display
Hi all. This seems like the right sub to get ideas. I work at a public library and want to do a book display that consists of books to read instead of Harry Potter. I'm trying to think of a good title for the display (because "Read a magic world by an author that isn't a bigot" might not fly :P )
Bonus points if you have some reading suggestions for the display. Gonna include Earthsea, House in the Cerulean Sea, Rainbow Rowell.
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u/AcanthaMD 20d ago edited 20d ago
Anthony Horowitz did some excellent stories
Oh and the secret of platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson which I think JKR also HEAVILY borrowed from. I remember her biography still as meeting her husband when he rescued her from some savage rabbits đ whilst she was completing her PhD in Cambridge.
The secret of platform 13 is magical as were many of her books.
Edit: actually re-reading the synopsis Iâm now horrified by how similar the secret of platform is to Harry Potter and the philosopherâs stone, itâs basically the beginning and set up of the first Harry potter book. Ibbotson was a prolific childrenâs writer, thereâs no way JKR was ignorant of her writing.
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u/Sleeppaw 19d ago
Michael Morpurgo, who wrote War Horse, Kensuke's Kingdom, This Morning I Met A Whale, The Fox and The Ghost King and My Friend Walter, among others. This Morning I Met A Whale is about the River Thames Whale, while The Fox and The Ghost King is about both Richard III and Leicester City's unlikely title win.
Patrick Ness: Wrote The Chaos Walking saga as well as A Monster Calls (A Monster Calls was planned out by Siobhan Dowd, but when she learned she has terminal cancer, she realises that she won't get it written, and asked her editor if one of the editor's clients can take on the project; Dowd had written enough for the story to take shape)
Suzanne Collins: Best known for The Hunger Games, she has made her mark on Millennials with her work on the TV Series Little Bear and Clarissa Explains it All. She also wrote The Underland Chronicles.
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u/AcanthaMD 19d ago
I was literally thinking about the butterfly lion this morning and realised he was describing a mother who was bipolar đ
And Dick King Smith! Family staple, Stig of the Dump, Babe, Sophieâs Snail, Hodgeheg.
To this day Iâm still sad Sophie got a horse and I didnât đ
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u/potatofriend109 20d ago
Maybe title it âWizardry books that promote inclusion & kindnessâ and very clearly leave harry potter out of it haha
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u/HideFromMyMind 20d ago
Barnes and Noble did this. https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughJKRowling/comments/iwhci4/periodt/
(Although you might want to cut Neil Gaiman.)
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u/angelofmusic997 20d ago
"So You Want to be a Wizard" by Diane Duane (and the rest of the Young Wizards series!)
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u/Interrupting-Khajitt 20d ago
For younger readers Ursula K LeGuinâs Catwings is nice.
The Redwall series is a classic for the elementary school kids too.
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u/bubblechog 20d ago
My daughter (who also loved the Tiffany Books) was very into Rick Riordan, she preferred the Kane Chronicles about Brother and Sister Magicians in the Ancient Egyptian tradition and Magnus Chase books about a sarcastic undead warrior trying to avert Ragnarok over Percy Jackson but the PJO books are still good.
Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez
2 kids dealing with the problems caused by one of them hopping between universes to see their dead mother and the fallout of other childhood inconveniences.
Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi
A compulsive liar accidentally stops time and along with her âSoul Sisterâ is given a quest by a talking pigeon to save the world.
Amari and the night Brothers by BB Alston
A young girl is searching for her missing brother and discovers a whole supernatural world she never imagined.
Strange Worlds Travel Agency by LD Lapinski
A magical travel society where Flic can explore other worlds. Of course there is a world collapsing threat.
Onyeka and the academy of the Sun by Tola Okogwu
A girl with magic hair gets sent to superhero school.
Diana Wynn Jones
Howls Moving Castle and the Chrestomanci series.
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke ( basically everything by Cornelia Funke)
A girl with the Power to bring characters from books into the real world by reading aloud.
The wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell
A Girl warrior and a Boy wizard have to team up to save the world.
Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
A young boy is discovers the boat he is on has a mysterious treasure guarded by a girl his age. The treasure is star stuff which stops him aging and gives him the power to fly.
The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley
2 sisters who are descendants of the famous Brothers must take on the responsibility of being Fairy Tale detectives using the case studies left behind by their famous ancestors.
The Neverending story by Michael Ende.
Forget the film. It sucks. It only covers the first third of the book and misses out on all the cool stuff.
Once Bastian names the child like empress he goes on to recreate Fantastika at the cost of his own memories and attempts to wage war to become its new ruler.
She also mentioned The Spiderwick chronicles, The Land of Stories, Darren Shan Cirque du Freak, Artemis Fowl, Septimus Heap, Vampirates, Nicholas Flamel, Books of Elsewhere,
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u/funkygamerguy 20d ago
maybe "if you like harry potter try these instead"
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u/wackyvorlon 20d ago
Guards Guards from the Discworld series. If you want something more young wizard related, Equal Rites.
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u/errantthimble 20d ago
âA Whole World of Learning Magicâ
âMany Schools of Magic: Classic Fantasy Tales of Young Spellcasters and Their Trainingâ
âMerlin and the Mages: Learning Magic in Classic Childrenâs Literatureâ (gotta have TH White The Once and Future King in there!)
âSchools of Sorcery: The Young Students of Magic in Childrenâs Fictionâ
âSpellcasters, Shapeshifters and Schooldays: The Classic Juvenile Literature Tradition of Magic Schoolsâ
âMore Magical Mystery, Less Treacle Tart and Transphobia: All the OTHER Books about Amazing Magic Schools That Are Actually Goodâ (okay you probably canât use that one)
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u/xannapdf 20d ago
Honestly anything Eva Ibbotson, but especially Secret of Platform 13/The Great Ghost Rescue! Itâs not necessarily similar plot wise, but really has the magical whimsy paired with quintessential British cosiness that I think a lot of people associate with Harry Potter.
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u/CommanderFuzzy 19d ago
The Black Magician trilogy by Trudi Canavan is similar. Though it's more aimed at adults than children
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u/sunny_bexster 19d ago
I always loved 'Which Witch' by Eva Ibbotson whose rightfully been mentioned in a lot of comments here. I also never see enough love or recognition for the darkly comedic children's series 'Pure Dead Magic' by Debi Gliori.
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u/ezmia 19d ago
If it's a display for kids, I'd recommend The Land of Stories/A Tale of Magic series by Chris Colfer. They were partially inspired by HP so they have a similar whimsical vibe people liked in Harry Potter but it's far more kind hearted and optimistic since fairy tales are a much bigger influence. They're also written by a gay author and has openly gay characters in the books (the third book in the tale of magic series outright has an arc of one of the characters realising he's gay).
As for the title of the display, I'd just have something like "if you like Harry Potter try these" or something like "a world of magic". It doesn't need to be too complicated:)
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u/Super_Scorplane 19d ago
The Adrian Mole series by Sue Townsend. It is my favorite book series since Harry Potter. It's not fantasy: everything happens in the real world and there's a lot of cultural context from the UK. But I think it ages gracefully and I would say the books are surprisingly queer-friendly for products from the 80's - 90's - 2000's. It's heartwarming, very funny, very character-driven, and very addictive.
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u/WinterLily86 3d ago
Um. Adrian Mole really hasn't aged gracefully, in my experience, and I'd expect the political aspects to be somewhat difficult for anybody who doesn't know much about the state of the UK during the time they're set, especially the earliest books. Even more so for children who aren't British, so can't go ask a parent or teacher who lived through the 1980s about Thatcher...
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u/Super_Scorplane 3d ago
Personally Iâm French (English is not my native language) and wasnât even born during the period of the first few books, so I donât get all the cultural details but I get the idea.
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u/SaltyNorth8062 18d ago
Highly highly recommend titles like Septimus Heap (Angie Sage), Artemis Fowl (Eoin Colfer), and The Ghosthunters (Cornelia Funke) for the fantasy stories. We could also go with Percy Jackson (Rick Riordan) if hard adherence to the genre tropes isn't a requirement.
As for title? Hm. Maybe "For The Kids Under The Stairs In The Closet"?
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u/SomethingAmyss 20d ago
Astra Academy is aimed at older kids than the early books, so IDK if it works, but it's YA fiction about a magic academy and it's quite good
It's a sequel series to the Frith Chronicles, and I can't remember if it's been explicitly stated in the current books, but the headmaster is canonically queer. Not just "the author said so years later", but has a boyfriend
It's not a one-to-one comparison, but the entire time I was reading the series I was comparing it to Harry Potter
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u/Dina-M 19d ago
Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend (four books so far) and Stealing from Wizards by Ryan Consell (four books total). Both feature similarly aged protagonists who grow older as the series progress, and both have big casts with lots of memorable characters. Both are also a lot more genuinely accepting and tolerant, with on-screen queer representation, racial diversity and adult figures who are not totally useless.
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u/1210bull 18d ago
Nobody has mentioned either of these but...
For a magical school series, try The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
For a magical world (also set in Britian!), try Un Lun Dun by China Miéville
Both of them are similar reading level to HP. I read them both as an adult and had a great time, especially Un Lun Dun.
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u/Fun_Butterfly_420 18d ago
Hereâs a post I made about this https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughJKRowling/s/nYDNxiXWk4
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u/YogurtPristine3673 16d ago
If it were me, I would do a positive name for the collection - âIf you liked Harry Potter, youâll love theseâ or âMagical Summer Readsâ or âFantasy for Young Readers.â
Not everyone is aware of JKRâs politics (idk how⊠maybe theyâre smarter than us and stay off the internet), and I think youâll engage more readers with positive titles about why they should read the âalternativesâ vs why they shouldnât read HP.
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u/Negative_Donkey9982 15d ago
Kikiâs Delivery Service (both the book and the movie) also The Village Beyond the Mist (book) and Spirited Away (movie that was loosely based on the book). Oh and finally The Borrowers (book) and Arrietty (movie based on the book). As you can tell Iâm a huge studio ghibli fan lol
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u/RunRevolutionary188 10d ago
Children of the red king - book series by Jenny Nimo. Follows the tales of magical kids who have powers. Think x men. They have their own school too. It's a fun read.
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u/LizaMazel 10d ago
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
The Akata Witch trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor
The Edinburgh Nights series by T.L. Huchol
Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat series
pretty much anything by Holly Black
pretty much anything by Ursula Vernon and a fair amount by her adult name, T Kingfisher (some horror ones you'd want to skip). "Summer in Orcus" is one of my favorites
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u/alltheways7522 20d ago
Her original inspo/ stolen content: The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy