What are some captivating fantasy books for teens?

Whether you call it young adult fantasy, YA, or just fantasy – fictional worlds and magical elements have inspired readers for generations. They can be a gateway to reading in a way that real-world-based stories cannot.

What fantasy books do you recommend for teenagers (or even tweens or pre-teens) to hook them into the fantasy genre? These could be books set in a fictional universe, books with magic elements, or anything else that plays with magical realism to tell a compelling tale that school-aged readers can identify with.