Reddit mentions of The Blue Sword (Newbery Honor Roll)

Some of these were listed on my blog, but here's a list of Fantasy/Romance with Strong Female Protagonists:

• Graceling by Kristin Cashore, about a young lady blessed with the Grace to kill and how she comes to terms with her power and saves the kingdom
  
  
• When Demons Walk by Patricia Briggs, about a thief mage who must masquerade as the Reeve's mistress in order to discover and defeat a murderous, humanoid demon
  
  
• Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
  
  
• Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, a great retelling of Cinderella with a spunky, deep protagonoist
  
  
• Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey
  
  
• The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
  
  
  And of course, as mentioned by everybody else:
  
  
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  
• Sabriel by Garth Nix
  
• Philip Pullman's Dark Materials
  
• The Lioness Quartet and anything by Tamora Pierce
  
• Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
  
  

Don't judge me on this one...but I have a special fondness for the Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. The story and writing style are rather simple but it was the first fantasy book I picked up on my own and started reading. It was really what got me interested in the genre as a kid.

I think a close second is the entire Dragon Prince/Dragon Star series (I think there are 2 for a total of 6 connected books) by Melanie Rawn. The first one is Dragon Prince and it is very good. She did a wonderful job of creating an intricate world and keeping it consistent over the entire series.

Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword

• The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
  
• The Moon's Shadow by Catherine Asaro

I really loved the Wise Child trilogy, The Hero and the Crown/The Blue Sword, and the Sally Lockhart series (and all of Phillip Pullman's books) as a kid.

I've read and loved almost all of the recommendations already here (TAMORA PIERCE). But to add some that haven't been mentioned (and trying really hard to not overload you with 20 books at once), I read and reread Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown and its prequel so. many. TIMES. Maybe even more than I reread Tamora Pierce. Patricia McKillip, Maria Snyder, Patricia C. Wrede (Dealing with Dragons quartet), Althea Kontis, Francesca Lia Block, Libba Bray and Susan Fletcher (Dragon Chronicles) are similar authors to check out for awesome female-driven fantasy, with varying degrees of lightheartedness. Wrede, Fletcher, Snyder and Kontis all wrote books that lean a little less epic/serious, Block writes a lot in prose that's also a very quick (but more intense) read, McKillip tends to be more wordy but beautifully so, and Bray can kind of go either way depending on the series.

For more contemporary fiction, RACHEL COHN (of "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist"). Her Gingerbread series has content a good deal more mature than Angus, Thongs, etc., but her style is similarly irreverent and witty and really fun. Seriously, check her out. Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons is like a much younger version of Cohn, still zingy and sweet. For a quieter modern-day read, Garret Freymann-Weyr writes realistic (more mature) young adult relationships, and introduced me to the idea of bisexuality in a sort of roundabout way.

Julia Alvarez relates stories about the Latina-American experience incredibly well, although I think the first book I read by her takes place solely in the Dominican Republic. According to my reading list, I guess young me got sick of reading about other white people, so I'll add Marjane Satrapi's hilarious graphic novel Persepolis and the more sedate Shabanu series by Suzanne Fisher Staples.

I'd also strongly second comments for Gail Carson Levine, E.L. Konigsberg, and did I mention Tamora Pierce?

(I tried to link a lot of authors to my faves from their work, but I won't be mad if you never look at any of them. Is your reading list long enough now? Also, I know you didn't ask for a ton of fantasy/historical fiction recs, but I think a lot of us defined our teenagerhood by and identified more strongly with one of those series or another.)

tl;dr my top three recs that haven't been mentioned yet are Rachel Cohn, Julia Alvarez, and that one duo by Robin McKinley.

Not necessarily all that close to the Potter books in style, but if she hasn't already read The Blue Sword or The Hero and The Crown by Robin McKinley, she might want to give those a try.

Eon by Alison Goodman has a warrior-sage female protagonist with a disability. The whole story revolves around the society she's in forcing her to pretend to be a man in order to even have the chance of achieving the status she desires. Also political turmoil, tons of honor and morality-based problems. There is eastern magic involved, and for the love of God, don't read the second book if you don't want angst.

Also, The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley was one of my first female protagonist fighters. I read it again just recently, and it held up to my expectations well!

I'd recommend The Blue Sword and The Hero and The Crown by Robin McKinley. I think I read them first in Grade 2 or 3, and I still love them and reread them often. The Blue Sword is about an orphan girl who is kidnapped by a desert king and trained as a warrior to save his nation, and The Hero and The Crown is a prequel about an ancient hero who fought dragons.

She writes a lot of other books that might be acceptable, often retellings of fairy tales. However, absolutely do not let him read Deerskin at this age. It has very disturbing themes, even for adults.