This extract is for Years 7 & 8 and focusses on the dementors in the third book of the Harry Potter series. I really do think Harry Potter is the Rolls Royce of fantasy fiction for younger readers. I love the audiobook by Stephen Fry too. 

Here is a section taking from the extract students will read: 

"Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the shivering flames in Lupin's

hand, was a cloaked figure that towered to the ceiling. Its face was

completely hidden beneath its hood. Harry's eyes darted downward, and

what he saw made his stomach contract. There was a hand protruding from

the cloak and it was glistening, grayish, slimy-looking, and scabbed, like

something dead that had decayed in water.."

Books like this:

  • Small Spaces — by Katherine Arden
  • The Screaming Staircase — by Jonathan Stroud
  • Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children — by Ransom Riggs
  • Whispering to Witches — by Anna Dale
  • Measle and the Dragodon — by Ian Ogilvy