I need help .... with some recommendations

Ooo, and I thought of another series you both might enjoy - the Gregor The Overlander series by Suzanne Collins - it's billed as 9 and up, or 4th grade and up, but I would think the content would be fine for a read aloud/together. And the fact that it's a series is good, too.

In a few years, it sounds like she would enjoy the Skullduggery Pleasant series, too, by Derek Landy, but I think she may be a bit young for it still. So, put it on your list for later.

~suki

More classics:

The Borrowers
The MoominTrolls (lots of books in the series)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Catwings by Ursula LeGuin

This thread finally coaxed me out of lurking. Now that I've got my account validated, I see that much of my list has been mentioned. There's a few I haven't seen yet, though:

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, by Patricia C. Wrede. Have read these aloud many, many, many times.

Tatterhood and Other Tales, ed. Ethel Johnston Phelps. (The same editor's highly similar Maid of the North has always struck me as paced for slightly older kids, though there's nothing objectionable in the stories themselves.)

The Door in the Wall

The Hobbit? Even if LOTR is still a long ways away, no harm in getting her hooked young, right?

In the same vein, your daughter might soon be a good age for Terry Pratchett's The Wee Free Men, though probably not the rest of the Tiffany Aching books just yet - I think this is a series that could work well as a once-a-year type gift, as the MC and themes age up.

It's been a long time, but I seem to remember that Lloyd Alexander's Time Cat may have been geared younger than the Prydain Chronicles and so on?

Doesn't particularly fit either the paranormal or mystery element that your daughter is interested in, but possibly Dick King-Smith.

Finally, a couple of classics (which you may well have already hit) that can be fun read-alouds:
Mary Poppins - very different from the movie.

The Jungle Books and some of the Just So Stories

We liked the 100 Cupboards series, a little bit scary, but fun. What about The Thief Lord or Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke? We loved the Thief Lord. We listened to the cd twice. The isn't good though. We love Cornelia Funke.

Yeah, Dragon Rider is much younger than Funke's other books, that's a good one.

I almost forgot my son's fave chapter book series: Kate MacMullan's Dragon Slayer's Apprentice. Dragons galore, but nothing bloody, always hilarious.

Did anybody mention Time Warp Trio or Geronimo Stilton yet?

I forgot, we listened to Dragon Rider. She was awfully wordy in that one. I tried to read it to him at bedtime. We ended up listening to that one too. We listen to a lot of books on cd in the car. Plus, Brandon Frasier did the voice, and he has such a nice voice. The Inkheart series is definetly older. Intense, violent, but such a good story. My son is super sensitive, but we loved those books.

The Thief Lord isn't very violent. Some of the themes are a bit dark.

If she likes dragons, Dragondale or something like that was really fun.

Try:

Matilda by Roald Dahl and also James and The Giant Peach

The Secret Garde by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Charlotte's Web by E. B White

Or my books LOL. They are for children aged seven to twelve.

Velvet Ball and The Broken Fairy
Molly Gumnut Rescues a Bandicoot
Star-Crossed Rascals
Rascals Sing at The Opera House

No one's mentioned HARRY POTTER. My son loved having them read aloud at about that age.

As for PIPPI LONGSTOCKING, my daughter adored those books.

I apologize if I'm repeating, but I didn't see anyone mention either books by Beverly Cleary or Amber Brown books (by Paula Danzinger -- not sure if I spelled last name quite right). I love all of those. Can I come and listen too?

Let me put in a plug for a Canadian author. K.V. Johansen has a series of fantasy books about Torrie, "the oldest of the old things," a magical creature from an enchanted forest, who goes on adventures with a different human in each book. My son and I devoured them when he was about 7. I can't wait for my 5 year old to be ready for them. They work on so many levels. The fantasy is good, the humor is fantastic. And they're great for reading aloud -- something that, unfortunately, is kind of hard to find in newer books for this age group. These stories also all have strong female characters. They don't need to be read in any particular order. My favorite was Torrie and the Snake Prince.

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0981024408/

I may well wind up posting 15 times in a row as I remember other favorites we were reading a few years ago.

We read a lot of historical fiction, and Janet Lunn (another Canadian author) has some very interesting books covering different time periods. One involves time travel. We also loved several books by Elizabeth George Speare and wish she had written more. The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Sign of the Beaver are both great and take place in the colonial U.S. (the witch one is not supernatural -- it's about a teenage girl who does not fit the social norms of a puritan village and is accused of being a witch)

A Series of Unfortunate Events, maybe? It's been a while since I've read them and I've only read the first two.

Seconding Matilda as well. That book is one of my favorites of Dahl's.