(Found) YA fantasy series from late 1980's; scholastic book fair; 6 books

[RonDonderevo]

Hi guys!

I'm having a devil of a time figuring out what this series is. It showcases some great magic school tropes.
I remember that I bought books 1&2 from the scholastic book fair at school (northeastern US, probably late 80's, maaaaybe early 90's). I saw one other book (maybe book 5?) in a classroom in 7th grade, but I had read the first two when I was younger than that, maybe 3rd or 4th grade.
There were six books.
They were fairly shortish paperbacks.
The book's covers each had a different color. Book five may have had lightning on the cover.
The premise was pretty standard, young mage goes to magic school to learn to be a wizard.
I'm pretty sure that the first book ends with the teacher turning out to be a bad guy—he maybe tried to summon a demon in a ritual and lost control at the climax of book.
I'm pretty sure that the MC injures his hand in this confrontation, an injury that follows with him into book 2.

I figured out the name of the series years ago, but cannot replicate the feat.

The main clues I think are that it was a magic school/young mage kind of thing, there are 6 books in series, and it was a SCHOLASTIC book fair product. Does anyone else remember those book fairs so fondly? I just went to the modern equivalent with my kid recently and it got the old wheels spinning.

Thanks,
Ron

 

[Le Panda du Mal]

Possibly the Crestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones?

 

[RonDonderevo]

Nope, not Crestomanci, but thanks!

I figured it out a moment ago.
It's the Circle of Magic series, by Debra Doyle and James Macdonald.

I don't remember the covers at all apparently, but looking at the spines in an ebay listing I see that they are all different primary colors—so that must be where the color memory comes from.

Book five does have a tiny bit of lightning on the cover, but most of the image is a weird ghostly wolf thing. Seems like that would have been more prominent in my memory.

Definitely the right series though, and beat Harry Potter to the punch by 10 years. Cool!

 

[RichardTillman]

Nope, not Crestomanci, but thanks!

I figured it out a moment ago.
It's the Circle of Magic series, by Debra Doyle and James Macdonald.

I don't remember the covers at all apparently, but looking at the spines in an ebay listing I see that they are all different primary colors—so that must be where the color memory comes from.

Book five does have a tiny bit of lightning on the cover, but most of the image is a weird ghostly wolf thing. Seems like that would have been more prominent in my memory.

Definitely the right series though, and beat Harry Potter to the punch by 10 years. Cool!

View attachment 90566 Some time ago when I got a task to write a small review of any book, I chose my favorite one from this series. I used some help from http://essaypapers.reviews/ but still, enjoyed rereading it!

Those books had been my favorite ones for years! I still have two of them in my home library