If Charlie stepping from his drafty cottage into Willy Wonka’s edible landscapes thrilled you—the chocolate river, the Inventing Room’s impossible treats, the glass elevator—then Dorothy’s journey from a gray Kansas farmhouse to the bright, unpredictable Land of Oz will hit the same sweet spot. Like Charlie, Dorothy meets a parade of unforgettable figures (the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion), faces strange trials, and discovers that wonder can be both delightful and a little dangerous. You’ll get that same sense of doors opening into rooms you didn’t know could exist.

Loved Wonka’s sly jokes and the Oompa-Loompas’ cheeky songs after Augustus’s dip in the chocolate river or Violet’s blueberry moment? The Phantom Tollbooth runs on that same comic fuel. Milo’s quest through Dictionopolis and Digitopolis—with Tock the watchdog and the Humbug—turns puns, paradoxes, and logic puzzles into set pieces as memorable as the Nut Room’s squirrel tribunal or the Television Chocolate fiasco. It’s playful, brisk, and witty in the same way Wonka’s tours double as punchlines.

If you appreciated how Charlie’s kindness and restraint are rewarded while the other ticket-winners’ greed, vanity, and tantrums boomerang back on them, you’ll connect with The Tale of Despereaux. The brave little mouse’s choices ripple through a castle where cruelty, hunger, and light are all weighed—much like how Veruca’s demands lead straight to the rubbish chute and Mike Teavee’s show-off streak shrinks him down. It’s a gentle, moving tale that, like Wonka’s factory, turns morality into an adventure you can feel.

If Charlie sharing a rare chocolate bar with his family and trudging past the factory gates stirred you, A Little Princess will resonate. Sara Crewe tumbles from luxury to attic drudgery, yet—like Charlie—she clings to kindness and imagination until unexpected generosity transforms her fate. The emotional arc mirrors Charlie’s climb from cabbage soup suppers to the final, heart-swelling elevator ride: poverty and dignity set against sudden, life-changing fortune.

If the Everlasting Gobstoppers, the three-course-dinner gum that turned Violet violet, and the nut-sorting squirrels delighted you, this one’s a treat. In The Candy Shop War, kids discover confections that grant powers and get pulled between rival magicians, leading to capers as gleefully chaotic as any detour off Wonka’s main tour. It has that same fizzy, prankish energy where candy isn’t just tasty—it’s a ticket to unpredictable, good-natured mayhem.