Just for reference, in case anybody thought about trying Goodkind's series, I think the rape/gory death/torture scenes would be much more problematic for the age range under consideration than the politics (and I am currently standing in front of the shelf holding volumes 1-4 of the series).
I got lost on the reading level requirement, but after spending all of last year labeling all the children books in the house by AR/lexile levels it turns out that interest trumps numbers (and that runs both ways). I also probably haven't read a single book at my reading level since I left college, except maybe that book I had to read for an American history class last year. I like to think I am still evolving as a reader.
Strong female protagonists, albeit usually in male-dominated fantasy settings (so that there is a lot about girls proving their value -- your daughter might want something past that?): anything by Tamora Pierce.
In a completely different vein, but sometimes the way to break through a series addiction (and I am a big re-reader, so I understand the pull) is to switch to something completely different, Pratchett's Discworld, starting with the witches books. There is a later sub-sub-thread with a younger witch which might be more appealing to a younger child than the first few Witches books (although the first, Equal Rites, is about a young girl who is told she cannot be a wizard).
