On the button, CarolC, with that post comparing JKR with the rest. Surprisingly no mention of Jaqueline Wilson, the one who sets her characters in broken homes etc - but does it well, and constructively. One of her books is The Illustrated Mum (mum likes tattoos) and there's one with a Mrs Beaker in the title. Among others.

But right now I'd settle on anything to wean my daughter off the Nancy Drew books. She seems determined to read every damn one of them, being just not quite old enough to realise that they're all the same.