A few weeks ago, the instructor in a workshop I was watching mentioned a character in Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones as an example, and it had been so long since I read the book that I checked it out of the library to revisit it.

This is a book that’s hard to describe without telling the whole plot and giving away too much. A witch curses a young woman to turn her into an old woman, and she then realizes it just made her outside match her inside because she was old before her time, so she sets out to find the Wizard Howl, whose castle roams the country, to get help. Once there, she makes herself at home and takes over as the wizard’s housekeeper, gradually discovering her own abilities along the way while also learning the truth about the wizard. I’m not sure why, but this was published as young adult, although the main characters are functionally adults. The heroine may possibly be in her late teens, but she’s essentially running the family business while her younger sisters are of an age to get married. The male main character is in his 20s. Their problems are all adult problems.

I loved this book the first time I read it, years ago, and I still love it. The heroine is a great character who can be snarky and stubborn but who is good at heart. The fantasy elements are so much fun (there’s even a bit of reverse portal fantasy). I know there’s a much-loved movie based on it, but the clips I’ve seen are so different from my mental images that it bothers me, so I haven’t watched the movie.

I didn’t know that there were sequels until I went looking for this book in the library and found two more books, conveniently labeled by the library as a series. I would say they’re very loose sequels. They take place in the same “universe” and the main characters from the first book make appearances in the later books, but the main characters in each of the sequels are entirely new and their adventures just happen to make them cross paths with the characters from the first book.

The second book is Castle in the Air, in which a young man dreams of a life different from being a rug merchant — and then when he buys a magic carpet he starts finding that life coming true, as the rug brings him to a wondrous garden where a lonely princess waits. When the princess is captured by a djinn and taken to his cloud castle, our hero sets out to rescue her. This book is very different in tone and style from the first book, so if you’re reading them as a series it takes a little time to shift gears, but the main character is utterly delightful, and it’s satisfying seeing how everything is set up and pays off. This is very much a “kindness wins” story, which is heartwarming to read. Like the first book, this one is published as young adult, even though the main character is functioning as an adult. He runs his own business and is concerned with marriage.

The third book, House of Many Ways, is the one that actually does feel more like young adult. In it, a teenage girl gets sent to take care of a distant relative’s home while he’s away for medical treatment, but she also wants to use this as an opportunity to get out from under her controlling family so she can apply for a job in the king’s library. Things get complicated because the relative is a wizard, his house is magical, and his would-be apprentice shows up, so she has to share the house, and then the two of them have to help deal with a potential invasion of the kingdom. This book is a lot more whimsical than the other books, although they’re also up against some serious obstacles. I particularly like the concept of the magical house that changes depending on which path you take through it. I could use a few hidden rooms.

If you’re looking for some gentle fantasy based mostly on kindness, without it being too treacly, these are a good option, even for adults.