The Books of Magic, by Neil Gaiman

The artwork in these is just something else. Each of the four volumes is done by a different graphical artist and while styles vary a bit, the results are great. The story is somewhat similar to Harry Potter in that one fine day a young kid is visited by weird people to tell him he is a powerful wizard. That's where similarities end, however. The four visitors take the kid into an exploration of different aspects of the magical universe so he can later decide whether he wants in or out. Great, great story.