Yes, Rowling borrowed heavily from Tolkien as did Lucas in his Star Wars themes. But she wrote very engaging stories. While LOTR has depth and is rich, almost dense, with descriptive narration, the Harry Potter stories sacrifice depth for ease of reading. My 13 yo gave up Fellowship OTR after 10 pages.
I can't wait for LOTR to open!!
I read the series aloud to my daughter when she was very small, but she loved it and couldn't wait each evening to hear more of the story. Point: don't give up, it's great read aloud. The language is wonderful . . . She's 10 now and I'm sure she'll read it herself in time.
She also loved Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn! And the Little House series and etc. etc. . . .