Right, so DD has read the first 3 Harry Potters, and I think the rest are too dark for her (she is 6). So, what can I

[katepol]

suggest that has the appeal of HP, that isn't too grown up for her? She is a girly girl at heart, has read Famous Fives/Secret Sevens, some Jacqueline Wilson (carefully selected), but isn't too interested in Narnia/Michael Murpurgo, or anything that is too 'slow' and wordy iykwim?
She has loved being immersed in Hogwarts, and is desperate to get her hands on #4, so I need a really good alternative as a distraction!

Please help! Single books, or preferably a series???

DD1 is also a big Harry Potter fan and at that age also loved more oldfashioned boarding school stories - St Clare's, Malory Towers, Naughtiest Girl in the School. Red House or Book People forget which, were doing a box set of St Clare's at a very good price recently.
She also loves Noel Streatfeild: Ballet Shoes, White Boots and the Gemma books are good - the first two may be a bit of a stretch for six if she is not keen on wordiness, but the Gemma books should be fine.
DD1 is also a fan of the American series Ramona by Beverley Cleary and I would recommend that too.
I would also suggest the Roman mysteries but you are going to come up against the same problem as with HP - the first few are fine for her age but they get progressively darker and the most recent five or six deal with themes that might be a bit much for a six-year-old (a central character dies in childbirth for example, and there are some pretty ugly scenes involving children being killed by wild beasts in the arena as well).
Will have a think, I am sure there are more. Oh yes - the Lionboy trilogy - probably meant for slightly older children but fast-paced and exciting and not too wordy.

How about the Malory Towers and St.Clare's series? Still Enid Blyton but girly too.

My dd loved them at 6/7 - we also liked Roald Dahl.

Put a call out for JackieNo - we regularly discuss what on earth we can give our dd's to read!

Snap Rosa!

How about Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series? Based in Ireland and the premise is that faries are real, they live under the ground with loads of techology. Atemis is 12 and a genius and sets out to steal the faries' gold. Holy Short of the LEPrecon unit has to stop him. My Nephew enjoyed them a lot and he's almost 6. Some of it did go over his head, but then so did some hp. Blyton did bks about St Claires and Mallory Towers schools, also 2 bks about the 'naughtiest girl in the school', She also did a series about the five find-outers and a cat. They all might be a bit too old from what I can remember Robin Mckinley's Blue Sword is a teen sword & sourcery bk, not too heavy, bit of romance (kissing), but again might be a little too old. Judy Blume's good, but she did write a lot of themey type stuff I suspect Jac Wilson is the more up to date version.

Megan McDonald writes a series of books about a character called Judy Moody. The naughty Little Sister books by Dorothy Edwards are girly too.

Judy Blumes Fudge books are good too. Begins with Tales of a fourth grade nothing or something like that.....

Excellent, keep them coming, this is really helpful
Mallory Towers/St Clare's type things sound good, as does Artemis Fowl. I have heard of Judy Moody - wasn't sure which age group this was for - ditto Judy Blume.
DD has read all the My Naughty Little Sister books, loves Roald Dahl (but I think we have done them all now), has read a lot of Anne Fine as well. Hwr she races through books, so the more suggestions the better!

And Pippi Longstocking of course!
Sally Gardner's Lucy Willow (came out last year so must be in paperback by now).
As well the Enid Blyton already mentioned there are quite a few others that she might like - The Children of Cherry Tree Farm etc.
If she likes ballet, Antonia Barber has done a good series too called Dancing Shoes IIRC but will check.