Surely I can do this meme, if not provide great links? I read YA fiction and sci fi all the time.
Mary Frances Zambreno's A Plague of Sorcerors, which is right in the same ballpark, and the start of a series. I think the kid's familiar is a skunk, if I recall correctly.
Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci series, which starts with A Charmed Life, and also her ongoing series that starts with Dark Lord of Derkholm.
Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, which is also a romance, and is set at a college something like Carleton, as part of that semi Goth Tor fantasy series. This one shouldn't be confused with Jane Yolen's more YA fiction one; it's on the border of YA and A.
God, there are so many that are better than Rowling's, although I read and enjoyed hers, and appreciated the crazy publishing phenomenon that they were.
Here: I'll make an anti-recommendation, too: the Charlie Bone series is an even lower-level ripoff of the Harry Potter stuff, mixed with some theft from Roald Dahl. It's aimed younger, too.
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Mary Frances Zambreno's A Plague of Sorcerors, which is right in the same ballpark, and the start of a series. I think the kid's familiar is a skunk, if I recall correctly.
Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci series, which starts with A Charmed Life, and also her ongoing series that starts with Dark Lord of Derkholm.
Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, which is also a romance, and is set at a college something like Carleton, as part of that semi Goth Tor fantasy series. This one shouldn't be confused with Jane Yolen's more YA fiction one; it's on the border of YA and A.
God, there are so many that are better than Rowling's, although I read and enjoyed hers, and appreciated the crazy publishing phenomenon that they were.
Here: I'll make an anti-recommendation, too: the Charlie Bone series is an even lower-level ripoff of the Harry Potter stuff, mixed with some theft from Roald Dahl. It's aimed younger, too.