Books like Harry Potter are hard to come by.

When once has finished a beloved series, it’s can be hard to move on. For Harry Potter fans, the pain is real. The other day, one of my students gently closed the last Harry Potter book, looked up at me, and smiled. “I finished, Ms. Fleming,” she said with a dazed look.

And you understand her pain, right? Because, now what? It’s hard to find books like Harry Potter that transport you. Luckily, this list of hard-to-put-down books like Harry Potter will get your students addicted to new worlds.

Mind you, when I state these are books like Harry Potter, I don’t mean they are read-alikes. You won’t find wizarding schools with villains who remain nameless. But they will settle into your bookshelf and become well-worn favorites.

Books Like Harry Potter

Greenglass House by Kate Milford

The Greenglass House may be one of the most unusual tales out there. Imagine a cozy mystery, enveloped in mountain top snowstorm. Young Milo only wants to read his books on winter vacation. Unfortunately,  a sudden onslaught of guests appear at his adopted family’s inn.

This book is not all it appears to be. That’s all I’m going to say. Whenever a student finishes reading it, we give each other meaningful looks and ask, “Did you figure it out?” Nobody — myself included — did before the spectacular ending. 

In fact, the waiting list for Greenglass House got so long, I got a Donors Choose grant to buy a set for reading groups. 

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens (The Books of Beginning series)

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

Suzanne Collins wrote the Underlander Chronicles before her Hunger Games series.

Gregor is stuck at home for the summer in his hot apartment in New York City. He takes care his grandmother (and her failing memory) and his little sister Boots. His father disappeared many years ago, and rumor has it he left them for someone else. Everything changes, though, when Boots starts exploring the laundry room. There, she tumbles downward through a grate, far below the city itself. Gregor follows and they make some discoveries! 

The Hunger Games is a great series, but honestly? The Underlander series might be better. 

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan

Echo follows a harmonica that threads its way through several lives. Each story is seemingly independent of the others. Until you get to the end. Then you realize you were a little ant walking across a quilt, completely missing the big picture.

This is a very very special story. Don’t finish your life on this little planet without reading this gem. And the audiobook is one of the best out there. 

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

Three Times Lucky has that southern, summer feel of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s not like Harper Lee’s classic, nor does it pretend to be. But it radiates that same safe, heartwarming feeling, mixed with the hard knocks of growing up.

Mo, short for Moses, is our spunky sixth-grade heroine. She lives with the Colonel and Miss Lana, who found her in a basket floating down the river. She and her best friend, Dale, are shocked with the rest of their small town when there is a murder of one of their own. While solving this mystery, Mo dreams of finding her “upstream mother.”

This story has heart and is super fun to boot! It’s sweet without ever trying to be so. The audiobook of this story (and its sequels The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing, The Odds of Getting Even, and The Law of Finders Keepers: Mo and Dale Mysteries) is perfection. Get yourself an iced lemonade or iced tea, and settle back.

The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson

The Mark of the Dragonfly is so hard to describe! It’s s dystopian tale set on another planet with poisonous meteor showers. Piper, an orphaned girl who deals in scrap metal and who has an uncanny mechanical ability — machines seem to start working around her — suddenly becomes the caretaker of a young amnesiac with a dragon tattoo, who is in danger from someone very bad. They board the old 401 steam train and things get interesting.

When you’ve finished this tale, continue with the sequels:

• The Secrets of Solace
• The Quest to the Unchartered Lands

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Confession. After reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a child, I was broken-hearted by the ending. I didn’t want the story and that particular setting to be through. So I refused to read the rest of the series. Which doesn’t make sense, right? Why not read the next book to find out what happens next? I know. But it made sense at the time.

Last summer, though, I decided to read the rest of the series, and what a great decision that was. I wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self to keep reading it! She would have been so pleased! Particularly with all the connections from story to story. I especially loved The Magician’s Nephew. While C.S. Lewis wrote it after Greenglass House by Kate Milford

The Greenglass House may be one of the most unusual tales out there. Imagine a cozy mystery, enveloped in mountain top snowstorm. Young Milo only wants to read his books on winter vacation and not be bothered by a sudden onslaught of guests at appear at his adopted family’s inn.

This book is not all it appears to be. That’s all I’m going to say. Whenever a student finishes reading it, we give each other meaningful looks and ask, "Did you figure it out?" Nobody — myself included — did before the spectacular ending. 

In fact, there was such a long waiting line for Greenglass House that I got a Donors Choose grant to buy a set for reading groups. 

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens (The Books of Beginning series)

Oh boy. If you’ve never read The Emerald Atlas, I’m jealous. Prepare to be hooked.

From the first sentence, you are pulled into the world of Kate, who is awoken in the middle of the night by her frantic mother, begging her to care for her younger brother and sister. Her mother and father then deliver her to an strange old man waiting outside, who speeds away the three siblings from an unknown danger. That is the last memory Kate has of her mother. From then on, the children remain in various orphanages.

This book has everything. The characters are incredible. The ideas fantastic.

Go order it now! In fact, get the second and third books. Because you’re not going to want to stop until you get to the end.

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

The Underlander series was written before the author’s blockbuster Hunger Games books brought Katniss-fever to the world.

Gregor is stuck at home for the summer in his hot apartment in New York City, watching over both his grandmother, whose mind is beginning to become confused, and his little sister Boots. His father disappeared many years ago, and rumor has it he left Gregor’s mother and the family for someone else. Everything changes, though, when Boots starts exploring the laundry room and tumbles downward through a grate, far below the city itself.

One of my students is reading this series as of this writing. Just yesterday, he kept bopping over to my work area, chattering away about the characters in book three and begging me to give him hints about what was going to happen. (Of course, I gave him none. I only nodded maddeningly and said, "It’s really good. You won’t believe what happens at the end." And he stomped away with pretended indignation and a delighted smile on his face.)

The Hunger Games is a great series, but honestly? The Underlander series might be better. 

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan

Echo is stand-alone book that follows a harmonica, of all things, that makes its way through several lives. Each story is seemingly independent of the others. Until you get to the end, and you realize you just were the little ant walking across a patterned quilt, completely missing the big picture.

This is a very very special story. Don’t finish your life on this little planet without reading this gem. And the audiobook is one of the best out there. 

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

Three Times Lucky has that southern, summer feel of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s not like Harper Lee’s classic, nor does it pretend to be. But there’s something about it that gave me that same safe, heartwarming feeling, mixed in with the hard knocks of growing up.

Mo, short for Moses, is our spunky sixth-grade heroine. She lives with the Colonel and Miss Lana, who found her in a basket floating down the river. She and her best friend, Dale, are shocked with the rest of their small town when there is a murder of one of their own. Throughout the meandered solving of this mystery, Mo dreams of finding her "upstream mother."

This story has heart and is super fun to boot! It’s sweet without ever trying to be so. The audiobook of this story (and its sequels The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing, The Odds of Getting Even, and The Law of Finders Keepers: Mo and Dale Mysteries) is perfection. Get yourself an iced lemonade or iced tea, and settle back with this love of a book.

The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson

The Mark of the Dragonfly is so hard to describe! It’s s dystopian tale set on another planet with poisonous meteor showers. Piper, an orphaned girl who deals in scrap metal and who has an uncanny mechanical ability — machines seem to start working around her — suddenly becomes the caretaker of a young amnesiac with a dragon tattoo, who is in danger from someone very bad. They board the old 401 steam train and things get interesting.

There are two sequels, which have outstanding reviews:

• The Secrets of Solace
• The Quest to the Unchartered Lands

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Confession. After reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a child, I was broken-hearted by the ending. I didn’t want the story and that particular setting to be through. So I refused to read the rest of the series. Which doesn’t make sense, right? Why not read the next book to find out what happens next? I know. But it made sense at the time.

Last summer, though, I decided to read the rest of the series, and what a great decision that was. I wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self to keep reading it! She would have been so pleased! Particularly with all the connections from story to story. I especially loved The Magician’s Nephew. While it was written after The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, the story takes place before. And it’s a real thrill to see how it births the series. (Hint: pay attention to the tree.)

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

How to describe this book without giving anything away?

I can’t. So if you love love love surprises and a whomping of a good ending, read this. Once you finish book one, there will be no stopping you — you’ll just have to read the whole series. And don’t read anything about book two or beyond. It will make the first book that much more fun.

This has been a classroom read-aloud staple for years, and the kids go bonkers at the end and rush for the next book in the series. (Luckily, I stocked my classroom library with about five copies of book 2.) My favorite of the four-book series was book 3.

The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove

Oh, The Glass Sentence. What a treat! In the late 1700’s there was a disruption of time. Now each continent is in a different time period. Enter Sophia Tims, a Boston-based girl who is born into a family that is trying to map this new world. (The maps are CRAZY COOL.) Her cartographer uncle gets kidnapped and, left alone, her only chance of finding him means trekking out into the unknown world. Pretty phenomenal. I’ve only read the first book in the series so far, and just got the second and third. (In fact, I wrote the author to tell her how much I loved the first and she sent our classroom the advanced readers edition of the second book!)

The Time Travelers by Linda Buckley-Archer

More time travel! The Time Travelers was originally released as Gideon, the Cutpurse, which had an equally cool cover.

The story opens on Peter’s birthday. His father cancels their plans — again — and Peter is forced to go with his au pair to the countryside to visit her friend’s farm instead of celebrating as he was supposed to. Once there, he’s talked into visiting a scientist’s antigravity machine and things go awry.

The second book in the series is The Time Thief. And the third is Time Quake.

This series is so well written and the ideas and twists will have your head spinning long after you close the pages. This is one of those books like Harry Potter that I’ll revisit several times over my life.

” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer” data-wplink-url-error=”true”>The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, the story takes place before. And it’s a real thrill to see how it births the series. (Hint: pay attention to the tree.)

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

How to describe this book without giving anything away?

I can’t. So if you love love love surprises and a whomping of a good ending, read this. Once you finish book one, there will be no stopping you — you’ll just have to read the whole series. And don’t read anything about book two or beyond. It will make the first book that much more fun.

This has been a classroom read-aloud staple for years.  The kids go bonkers at the end and rush for the next book in the series. Luckily, I stocked my classroom library with about five copies of book 2. (My favorite of the four-book series? The third book.)

The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove

Next is The Glass Sentence. What a treat! In the late 1700’s there was a disruption of time. Now each continent is in a different time. Enter Sophia Tims, a Boston-based girl who is born into a family that is trying to map this new world. (The maps are CRAZY COOL.) Then her cartographer uncle gets kidnapped. Left alone, her only chance of finding him means trekking out into the unknown world. Phenomenal world-building. 

The Time Travelers by Linda Buckley-Archer

Now It’s Your Turn!

Tell us in the comments below:

• How do you see online books improving your classroom?
• OR … What titles did you discover on these sites you think other 4th grade teachers should check out?

Know a teacher who works too late? Want to send them time-saving tips? Then share this article with them on social media using the links up top.

Want more good stuff?

Click here and get “8 Ways to Create Lifelong Readers.”   Want your kids to love reading? In 8 easy steps, you’ll have a well-loved book haven in your classroom.

Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store and click on the green “Follow” star under the store name. You’ll get monthly messages and first dibs on ways to save time in your classroom.

Follow me on social media for daily ideas to get you out the door on time.