Books like The Children of the Red King, Books 1-5: Midnight for Charlie Bone, Charlie Bone and the Time Twister, Charlie Bone and the Invi

I had wanted to review all 8 books in the series, but I will settle for the first five. This book was an easier read than Harry Potter, but also not as good. It has the magic element, the good guy and the bad guy.There were a lot of things I didn't like about the book. I thought the children were too young to be dealing with the evil that was in the book. The good and evil lines were too severely drawn. If a child was raised by a good person, he was automatically good. If a child was raised by a bad person, he was automatically bad. And bad was bad. The bad children could just as easily lie, bully or murder. I thought that was rather harsh. In the fifth book, a mystery is solved. But it took entirely too long. That should have been resolved in book 1. Also, there was little secrecy in series. If someone was good, they got to know the entire plan. It just seemed that that wasn't prudent.Parents were also very neglectful in the book. Charlie is put in a horrible position living in the home he lived in. I get that his mom is poor, but there's no reason they couldn't have moved to a safer, happier environment instead of the one that constantly put him in danger. It also seems that most if the parents simply don't care about their kids. They leave them to fend for themselves or let them get into too much danger.Even though there are many things I didn't like about the series, kids seem to enjoy it. I just don't think I would re-read the series.