Almost nobody asking this question wants another book about a boy wizard. They want the specific thing they liked — the school, or the hidden world running alongside this one, or the fact that there were seven of them and no reason to stop. So each book below is tagged with which of those it replaces.
The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
If it was the school. Two best friends are kidnapped and dropped into a school that trains fairy-tale heroes and villains — and each ends up in the wrong half. Classes, uniforms, rankings and a sorting that everyone insists is not a mistake. The closest thing on this list to the Hogwarts-shaped hole.
See The School for Good and Evil →
The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare
If it was the school, and you want it darker. Callum has been told his whole life to fail the magic entrance exam. He fails at failing. The first of the Magisterium books plays the boarding-school-of-magic setup straight for about a hundred pages and then starts pulling it apart. Best for readers who finished Harry Potter and immediately wanted something meaner.
Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger
If it was finding out you were never ordinary. Sophie is twelve, telepathic, and discovers she is not human. She is moved to an elvin world with its own school, its own politics and its own conspiracy. Long books, a long series, and the most common answer we see when a Harry Potter reader asks what is next.
See Keeper of the Lost Cities →
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
If it was the summer camp and the prophecy. Percy finds out his father is a Greek god and that a great deal of what happens to him is not random. It is funnier than Harry Potter, faster, and the mythology gives it a structure that keeps paying out for ten more books.
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
If you secretly liked the villains best. A twelve-year-old criminal mastermind kidnaps a fairy for ransom, and the fairies turn out to have an armed tactical unit. Colfer writes the hidden magical world as a bureaucracy with helicopters, which is a very funny idea and holds up across the series.
Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
If it was the sense that the magic was always there. Kendra and Seth are sent to their grandfather’s farm and discover it is a preserve for magical creatures, most of which are dangerous and none of which are charming. The rules-of-the-house structure — do not go into the woods, do not accept anything from a fairy — gives it real tension.
The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer
If it was the fairy-tale machinery. Twins fall through a book into the world of the fairy tales and have to collect eight objects to get home. Lighter than the rest of this list and very good on the jokes about what those characters would actually be like as adults.
See The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell →
The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland
If it was the prophecy and the long haul. Five young dragons are raised underground to fulfill a prophecy they never agreed to. The series is now well past twenty books, and a reader who takes to it disappears for months. That is usually the point of the question.
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
If it was the quest across a map. A silver dragon, a brownie and an orphan set out to find a place in the Himalayas where dragons can still live. Funke writes it like a walking tour of a fantasy world rather than a chosen-one story, and it is a good landing spot for a reader who is tired of prophecies.
The short version
If the school was the point, start with The School for Good and Evil and go to The Iron Trial next. If it was the double life, start with Artemis Fowl or Fablehaven. If what you actually miss is having a very long series in front of you, Keeper of the Lost Cities and Wings of Fire are both more than twenty books deep and still going.
A note on reading age
Harry Potter gets older as it goes, and readers who finished book seven are often further along than a shelf label suggests. The Iron Trial and Keeper of the Lost Cities sit at the upper end of this list; The Land of Stories and Dragon Rider at the lower. All nine are middle grade rather than young adult.
Keep browsing
Every book above has a page in our catalog. If you are working through the original series first, see our Harry Potter reading order, and for the two long series named above we have a Wings of Fire reading order and a Percy Jackson reading order. For more in this vein, see fantasy books for tweens.