* [The Foundling’s Tale](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210250.Foundling) series, my all time favourite fantasy series when I was growing up. The worldbuilding is vibrant and unique, with illustrations by the author.
* [The Leviathan series](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6050678-leviathan), a trilogy retelling WWI but with monsters versus mechs. There’s a section at the end of each book explaining the real historical events the books are based on, so they’re educational.
* [Ender’s Game](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/375802.Ender_s_Game), a great classic but the author is incredibly homophobic and a lot of intense religious themes about shame and self-punishment come up later in the series that I wasn’t a huge fan of.
umisthisnormal on
Garth Nix-Shade’s Children
Sensitive-Lobster on
I love love *love* “Wildwood” by Colin Meloy (his wife, Carson Ellis, did the illustrations). It might be something you’d like.
port_okali on
Check out **Raybearer** by Jordan Ifueko! The sequel **Redemptor** in particular gets pretty dark and has some other parallels to *His Dark Materials* as well (>!a manipulative parent, a trip to the underworld, animal companions, topics of radical societal change!<) while being set in a unique, imaginative fantasy world. It’s YA rather than middle grade (but so is HDM in my opinion, even though some younger kids may read it as well).
You might also like **Whichwood** by Tahereh Mafi.
5 Comments
Have you read the next ones in the trilogy by pullman? He’s released another two. La belle sauvage is the first one.
Middle grade:
* [Coraline](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17061.Coraline) by Neil Gaiman
* The [May Bird series](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/563310.May_Bird_and_the_Ever_After)
* [The Book of Three](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24780.The_Book_of_Three) series. It was made into a lesser known animated Disney film decades ago.
* The [Vampire Plagues series](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/469491.London_1850)
* [The Eye of the Heron](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/250260.The_Eye_of_the_Heron) by Ursula K. Le Guin. This author has written a variety of middle grade and adult fiction, but this is the only book of hers I’ve read for younger audiences.
* [Reap the Wild Wind](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/673025.Reap_the_Wild_Wind), part of a long series.
* [The Foundling’s Tale](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210250.Foundling) series, my all time favourite fantasy series when I was growing up. The worldbuilding is vibrant and unique, with illustrations by the author.
* [The Leviathan series](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6050678-leviathan), a trilogy retelling WWI but with monsters versus mechs. There’s a section at the end of each book explaining the real historical events the books are based on, so they’re educational.
* [Running Out of Time](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/227658.Running_Out_of_Time). I read this for school.
Young adult:
* [The Giver](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3636.The_Giver). I read this one for school.
* Some of the books by William Sleator, such as [Marco’s Millions](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/510888.Marco_s_Millions), [Singularity](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24876.Singularity), and House of Stairs.
* [The Monstrumologist](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6457229-the-monstrumologist)
* [The House of the Scorpion](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13376.The_House_of_the_Scorpion)
* [A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54369251-a-wizard-s-guide-to-defensive-baking)
* [Ender’s Game](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/375802.Ender_s_Game), a great classic but the author is incredibly homophobic and a lot of intense religious themes about shame and self-punishment come up later in the series that I wasn’t a huge fan of.
Garth Nix-Shade’s Children
I love love *love* “Wildwood” by Colin Meloy (his wife, Carson Ellis, did the illustrations). It might be something you’d like.
Check out **Raybearer** by Jordan Ifueko! The sequel **Redemptor** in particular gets pretty dark and has some other parallels to *His Dark Materials* as well (>!a manipulative parent, a trip to the underworld, animal companions, topics of radical societal change!<) while being set in a unique, imaginative fantasy world. It’s YA rather than middle grade (but so is HDM in my opinion, even though some younger kids may read it as well).
You might also like **Whichwood** by Tahereh Mafi.