Reading in a post-Potter world: some suggestions

My sister-in-law asked the other day for some post-Potter recommendations; my niece plowed through the last Harry Potter tome in two days, and hasn’t found a replacement yet for the Potter books. I wasn’t able to get into the first Harry book–I just didn’t care for the writing–but I was able to rattle off a short list of my favorite fantasy series from my pre-teen reading. No doubt there are newer series out there that are just as good as these trusty-rusty books; if anyone has any suggestions, please pass them along.

Harry Potter has been a mixed blessing, it seems, for YA literature: he’s brought a lot of attention to a class of books that are often overlooked, but his shadow is a bit too long.

• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin: LeGuin is still on my reading list (I’m working through the amazing stories of The Birthday of the World right now); this series is a little dark at times, but absorbing and compelling; and since LeGuin has a remarkable body of work for readers young and old, this is a series that can lead to many hours of reading for years to come.
• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper: my mother discovered this series, and read it my sister and me until she became so absorbed by it that she couldn’t wait a whole day between chapters.
• Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey; adventure and romance and dragons!
• The House With a Clock in its Walls and the rest of the Lewis Barnavelt books by John Bellairs: an orphaned boy becomes an apprentice wizard–familiar situation, perhaps?

A YA tale of magic that I haven’t read yet, but that intrigues me, is the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. And a menacing little tale I’d recommend only to children of a stern constitution is Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, which features a dark parallel world and terrible things in the cellar. While I do enjoy frightening children–I pick my candy-distribution outfit for Hallowe’en around whether it will make our neighbor Pat’s knees knock–I also believe in giving fair warning . . .