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My DD7 has loved the Harry Potter series and devoured that, she liked Wolves of the Beyond last year as well as Guardians of Ga'Hoole, Warrior Cats, etc. Nothing has captured her attention very deeply since Harry Potter. Her lexile level is around 1,000 and I want age appropriate content. Any ideas?

My DS7 loved the Familiars series. I think it's a bit easier than Harry Potter, but he loved those books. He's currently enjoying the 39 Clues series.
For more challenging books, I would recommend Half Magic. I think the lexile is a bit higher. Matilda by Roald Dahl is a favorite. You might consider A Wrinkle in Time or the Chronicles of Narnia for more classic books.

Anne of Green Gables
The Secret Garden
Septimus Heap Series
By Scholastic there is a Dragon series as well

DS7 just finished Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books. He liked those as much or more than Potter. "The Book of Three" is the 1st of 5.

My DS6 is passionate about the Lucy and Stephen Hawking books starting with George's Secret Key to the Universe. There are three in the series with a fourth coming out in June. He loves anything by Kate DiCamillo. Chronicles of Narnia! and we haven't started the Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper yet, but it's fantastic! Might start spark an interested in Arthurian legend.

Try "A College of Magics" and "A Scholar of Magics" by Caroline Stevermer? The setting is historical and it's not as "fun" as Harry Potter, but it has some similar elements (a boarding school for magic at which the protagonist must survive, then use her magic talents against real evil later).


Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede have co-written some others in similar sorts of worlds, and have individual YA novels as well that might be of interest.

Have you tried Rick Riorden novels?

Maybe "Beauty" by Robin McKinley? Scholastic lists the "interest level" as grade 5, but I feel like the complexity of the text is higher than that. A retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

If you are moving towards books like Susan Cooper's, you might also like Nancy Farmer's "Sea of Trolls" series. It is the next fantasy series on the list for DS7.

DS7 read alot of mythology back in the fall... greek, norse, robin hood, arthur, versions of the illiad, odyssey etc, etc. This was popular and good for both general cultural literacy and for reading fantasy type books. "Sea of Trolls" is heavily viking/norse mythology based. Mythology could be a hook to make it more popular or it could be a hook to encourage an interest in mythology. Either way, reading kids versions of mythology could be worthwhile.

Second the Rick Riordan and Madeleine L'Engle novels; I still read those. :-)

The Beyonders seems to be a decent series as well.

Murderous Maths and Horrible Science are quite entertaining. :-)

She loved the Narnia books last year and just brought one of the Narnia books home last week from school. She has been bringing home biographies, but she seems to prefer fantasy worlds.

It seems like this topic comes up about every months. I'll say what I tell everyone who asks this question.

Diana Wynne Jones - Chrestomancy Series
-- There are 6 or 7 books in this world. You can start with any the the books but I like to suggest "The Lives of Christopher Chant" These are excellent for a HP lover. It's a magical alternative world.