With a reboot series coming and no sign of the author shutting up about her trans-hating (and often racist and even misogynist) views, the most commonly known wizard-school story is still being pushed hard by news orgs and of course by Warner Bros. Surrounding all that talk, I hear a lot of base assumptions that HP is somehow uniquely good or influential, when in fact much of its popularity was originally (if I may) astro-TERFed. (For more on the myth of the books’ original impact, check out Caelan Conrad’s excellent deconstruction here.) It really wasn’t until the movies that the series became a pop culture phenomenon, and even those were unable to conceal many of the horribly flawed storytelling and world-building decisions of the books.

I try to stay on top of children’s media, especially for the middle grades, and it always makes me sad how much the specter of the TERF-slop wizard books overshadows much better books, movies, and television. For that reason, I wanted to compile a list of lesser-known works that I consider vastly superior in writing, production, and creator non-bigotry. I’m sure many people would have other favorites to add, but each of these are things that I would personally recommend to anyone willing to try them.

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