[quote=@Kirah]
<Snipped quote by Saltwater Thief>

What book series?
[/quote]

It's officially called the Children of the Red King series, but I always called them the Charlie Bone books after the protagonist. Plot revolved around a really old school in England that catered to intelligent students or those with talent for the arts, but it also had a select bunch of students from particular family lines (all leading back to a legendary magician called the Red King) that all had unique abilities, like summoning thunderstorms, turning into birds, and talking to/traveling into photographs and paintings.