Books to Follow Harry Potter series for 8yo girl

[CDMforever]

My niece is an avid reader. Not sure of her actual reading age but know she devours books and is a very bright girl. Though her parents obviously wouldn't want her to read anything in the "teenage" market, they are quite traditional.
She's just finished the Harry Potter series and loved it.
Any ideas?? She also loves animals particularly cats.

[thumbwitch]

Philip Pullman, HIs Dark Materials series. lots of animals in there!

[Checkmate]

has she read the Narnia chronicles? You can get lovely christmas gifts. My DD is 8, likes HP (though I've only let her read as far as number 3 so far), but prefers Narnia.

[FranSanDisco]

Michael Morpurgo does lots of books with animals. DD loved Adolphus Tips. Also DD loved Wind in the Willows at this age and Black Beauty.

[ragged]

Crikey, no teenage stuff but The Deathly Hallows was considered ok? ((Raised Eyebrow emoticon)).

Erin Hunter, The Warrior Cat series, heaps of those. And all about cats!

DD9yo has recently devoured The Sprite Sisters and every Jacqueline Wilson she can get her hands on. If those seem too babyish, there are Lemony Snicket series, Beast Quest, The 39 Steps, Artemis Fowl, Percy Jackson (often called the American Harry Potter), The Railway Children, The Swallows and Amazon series...

[Takver]

DD is 8, she's just worked her way through the Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones.

A bit 'Harry Potter' in feel, particularly the first one, Charmed Life, though much less dark than the later Potters.

[Takver]

Also, just thought, old but not that well known, what about the three Carbonel books if she loves cats?
Cats (well, one cat), magic and also I think they're only relatively recently back in print, so she's less likely to have read them.

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

The Book People had a a very good Michael Morpurgo set on offer last time I looked which included Adolphus Tips and the one about the Savoy hotel (both featuring cats) and lots of other animal related ones.
Lionboy by Zizou Corder is another good one featuring a boy who can speak to cats.
There is also Anne Fine's Diary of a Killer Cat series - again on offer with Book People atm.
I agree with ragged about Deathly Hallows - if they allowed her to read that, they are either not that traditional or they hadn't read it themselves. If the former, Philip Pullman is a good bet, if the latter, perhaps not.

[thumbwitch]

Garth Nix might be good as well - the Seven Keys series.

Second the Carbonel series too.

[bigchris]

Has she read any Enid blyton - magic faraway tree, etc

[CDMforever]

WOW! Loads of great ideas here. Thanx!
Just spoken to my 12yoDS who has read all the HP books and he informed me that The Deathly Hallows is indeed quite dark, so I imagine she hasn't read them all. My brother and SIL are pretty hot on that sort of thing.
Off to amazon!

[CDMforever]

Have ordered a Chrestomanci and Carbonel book. LOVE those names!!

[TheMeow]

Angie Sage has a series which she might like, the first book is called Magyk, they are all about a boy called Septimus Heap who is the 7th son of a 7th son.

[fivecandles]

Jeremy Strong. Jacqueline Wilson. E Nesbit.

[DilysPrice]

Second most of these, but you have to watch yourself with Jacqueline Wilson, some of hers are definitely teenaged material and they all have the same bloody covers.
My DD (8) was obsessed with the Percy Jackson books so I'd highly recommend those, though they have their darker moments, like HP (no sex though). Artemis Fowl, though great, is just a bit more grown up IMO.
Gobbelino The Witches Cat is good (younger reading age than Carbonel as I recall).
Nesbit is a very good call - nothing remotely unsuitable apart from class prejudice, good stories and would really stretch her reading ability.

[onimolap]

You could also try the Percy Jackson series, like HP the main protagonist is a boy, but there are plenty of strong female characters too.

[comewhinewithme]

My DD loved Septimus Heap.

[Spinaroo]

Deathly Hallows??? My 10yr old is working her way through the series. Why should she avoid this one? What's in it?

[DilysPrice]

Lots of death and sadness in Deathly Hallows, but to my mind not that much worse than books 5 and 6. An average 10 year old should cope fine, but it's pushing at the edge of what a 7/8 year old can cope with (I suggested to DD (nearly 8 at the time) that she should stop after book 4 but she was adamant that she wanted to continue.

[mankyscotslass]

Off the top of my head, a few regular characters get killed off.

Hermione gets tortured at one point while the boys are locked up and have to listen to her scream.

Ron Hermione and Harry have a massive fight.

Harry nearly drowns.

A corpse is taken over by Voldemorts snake...

It is quite dark. And in parts hopless in feeling.

I'm sure theres more!

It just depends on your dc and their emotional maturity. JK Rowling actually intended for the readers to be the same age aas Harry as the books progresses, so this was initially aimed at the mid teens, although obviously it's more widely read than that.