Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

Home > Give Me Five! > Books About Magical Houses

Books About Magical Houses

icon - give me 5
books featuring magical houses.

Amy Sparkes  (author of The House at the Edge of Magic) picks out five recommended children’s books featuring magical houses.

Support independent bookshops

C. S. Lewis
 & Pauline Baynes
Chapter book

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the second book in C. S. Lewis’s classic fantasy series, which has been drawing readers of all ages into a magical land with unforgettable characters for over sixty years. This is a stand-alone read, but if you would like to explore more of the Narnian realm, pick up the full series.

The idea that undiscovered magic is on your doorstep, or possibly even in your bedroom, is wonderful. This remains a favourite childhood book and a true classic for children in KS2.

J. K. Rowling
Chapter book

The higgledy-piggledy nature of The Burrow is tremendous fun. It’s the home of the Weasley family in the Harry Potter books (I have the same number of children as Mrs Weasley and can completely identify with her!). The house is delightfully chaotic, but with so many interesting, magical things to find and ponder upon. I love the imagination behind it. I’d love to visit here and explore it.

Sophie Anderson
 & Melissa Castrillon & Elisa Paganelli
Chapter book

This is a wildly imaginative and highly unusual story (in the best of ways) brimming with wonder, magic, folklore and compassion. Marinka is a 12-year-old girl who lives with her grandmother, Baba Yaga. Together they live in a house with chicken legs and move around from place to place, fulfilling their role of ‘guardians of the gate’ by guiding the spirits of the deceased through the gateway between life and death. Before the spirits pass through the gate, Baba Yaga listens to their stories and celebrates their life with them. Marinka’s destiny appears to be already decided; she is to train to become a Yaga like her grandmother and this means that she is never allowed to go to school or make friends with the living. Increasingly Marinka realises that she does not want to live the life of a Yaga and begins to take big risks as she experiences a rising desire to make some real friends and sample a ‘normal’ existence. What follows is an emotive coming-of-age story that sees Marinka working to resolve the tensions between her own desires and the path she is expected to follow.

Sophie Anderson is a wonderful storyteller and has very skilfully crafted a compelling and believable magical world that is an enchanting amalgamation between traditional and modern. I really enjoyed how, through Marinka’s eyes, I found myself able to explore elements of a Slavic folk story in a fresh and relatable way, and how Anderson’s emotive narrative invites the reader to meet the characters and events with a large amount of compassion.

This is a magical and captivating narrative that dances its way through darkness and light, joy and grief and life and death and it is highly recommended for Years 5 and 6

Enid Blyton
Chapter book
The first magical story in the Faraway Tree series by one of the world’s most popular children’s authors, Enid Blyton. Joe, Beth and Frannie find the Enchanted Wood on the doorstep of their new home, and when they discover the Faraway Tree they fall into all sorts of adventures! Join them and their friends Moonface, Saucepan Man and Silky the fairy as they discover which new land is at the top of the Faraway Tree. Will it be the Land of Spells, the Land of Treats, or the Land of Do-As-You-Please? Discover the magic! First published in 1939, this edition contains the original text. Inside illustrations are by Jan McCafferty, and the cover by Mark Beech (2014).
Amy Sparkes & Ben Mantle
Chapter book

A cheeky addition, but I really hope people enjoy the world I’ve created within the House At The Edge of Magic. There is magic everywhere, and nothing is quite as it seems. There is so much to explore in the House. Even I don’t know what is behind every door, or what is going to happen next there. I’m looking forward to discovering more as I write. I echo the words of Professor Digory Kirke: “I should warn you that is a very strange house and even I know very little about it.” And that is undoubtedly, to me, one of the most exciting things about it.

Support independent bookshops

Booklists you might also like...

Subscribe to our newsletter

Your Review

Stone Girl Bone Girl

review

Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:

Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:

Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?

Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?

Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?

yes

Curriculum links (if relevant)

Curriculum links (if relevant)

Any other comments

Any other comments