We finally have a trailer for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone TV show, and it is brilliant. One comment on YouTube said, “It feels like seeing new people living in your old home,” and you couldn’t ask for a more perfect description. It felt like the Harry Potter I read, rather than the one I watched, which is good, because those subtle differences in tone have given me a reason to watch the show. The strong reaction to the trailer speaks volumes about the franchise’s enduring appeal. Obviously, adults like me who grew up with the novels will tune in. But you also have children who only recently discovered J.K. Rowling’s world. Harry Potter is beloved because the novels turned an entire generation of children into readers. Kids who could not have cared less about the written word, adopted the habit overnight. But what if your child doesn’t like Harry Potter? Or maybe they finished the series, and it ignited within them a voracious appetite for reading, but you don’t know what else to get them? Well, publishing has plenty of whimsical and magical stories in the vein of Harry Potter. The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson triggers alarm bells among Harry Potter fans because it centers on a forgotten door on a disused railway platform in King’s Cross Station that opens for nine days every nine years, allowing travelers to visit a magical island where humans live alongside fantastical creatures. The protagonists are an ogre, a hag, a wizard, and a fae who undertake a journeyto rescue a young prince who was stolen from the island. For this band of would-be rescuers, the hardest task is sneaking around London without attracting attention. Platform 13 sounds a lot like Platform 9 3⁄4 from Harry Potter. But before you accuse Ibbotson of plagiarism, The Secret of Platform 13 was published in 1994, years before Harry Potter landed on bookshelves. If you prefer fiction from the 21st Century, Knights of the Borrowed Dark by Dave Rudden was published in 2016, and it follows Denizen Hardwick, an orphan who spends his days reading fantasy. Hardwick knows that real life does not mirror fantasy. In the real world, orphans should not expect wizards and warriors to rescue them from their dark and dreary lives. But then, a man visits Crosscaper Orphanage one random night and changes Hardwick’s life, introducing the orphan to a hidden world in which knights fight shadowy monsters. Knights of the Borrowed Dark is darker and edgier than Harry Potter, but only by a small margin. It also fits comfortably within that genre of books where young, disadvantaged characters discover worlds of myth and magic. The Iron Trial by Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, and Scott Fischer (illustrator) takes Harry Potter’s tropes and upends them. Callum Hunt, the protagonist, does not want to enter the Magisterium, his world’s school for gifted magicians. Callum’s father told him that playing with magic would ruin his life. But then Callum was forced against his will to take the entrance exam, eventually earning a place at the Magisterium despite doing everything in his power to fail. The Iron Trial works best when you know the tropes in Harry Potter because you will appreciate the author’s attempts to subvert those clichés and expectations. If you want to expose your children to something new, get them Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens, which takes readers to a boarding school in 1930s England. Hazel and Daisy are 13-year-old girls running a detective agency/club at the Deepdean School for Girls. Their search for enticing mysteries to solve takes a surprising turn when they discover Miss Bell’s dead body in the gym. When the body disappears five minutes later, the girls realize that finding the killer is not enough. They must first prove that a murder took place. And that should do for now. Happy Reading! katmic200@gmail.comThe post Harry Potter was the only standard appeared first on The Observer.