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Opinions of Harry Potter book #7


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For those of you who have read book #7 could you tell me if it is darker, scarier or more mature than the other books in the series. My daughter (who is only 8 but reads avidly) has read 1-6 in the past few weeks and now wants to read book 7. (Kind of wished we had waited to open this can of worms!)

 

I told her I would read the series now and she could wait to read 7 until I've finished it. She is, of course, not too happy with this decision but is waiting. I'd appreciate your thoughts on the content of book 7. Thanks.

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It's been a while since I've read it, but if I remember correctly it is dark in parts, yet it ends on a bright note. However, 5 & 6 were also dark, so if she's made it through those... I really loved 7. I think Rowling did a fabulous job of wrapping it all up. You learn even more in 7 than you did in 6, and in 6, I felt blown away!

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I think if you've let her read 1-6, there's no real reason to put off number 7. After the first two, each book is incrementally darker and more mature than the ones before it. But by the 7th book, important characters have *already* died, the "kids" have already had first kisses (nothing beyond that is ever described -- though I think Rowling handles some of the conflicting emotions of adolescence really well), there have already been betrayals and double-crossings... Book 7 just sort of picks up the pace. There's more heartache, but if she's read through book 6, she's already encountered a fair amount of that.

 

My own 8yo dd just finished book 7 in the last week or so. I had put off her older brother when he initially got to books 3 and 4, but with her, I just felt like she would stop if it became too much.

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Spoilers (just in case) ....

 

 

 

 

 

The earlier deaths can be tough - especially Sirius and then Dumbledore in Bk 6, but the death of Fred or George (can't remember which twin) has made rereading earlier books a bit rougher for me. I think Colin Creevey also dies (boy who followed Harry around in Bk 2 taking pictures).

 

It may be cruel to prevent your child from finishing the series at this point. I know I'd have found it very unfair... and waiting after Bk 6 would probably be tougher than finishing, but I do think it's pretty dark.

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Yeah, if she's made it through 5 & 6, 7 is more of the same with a happyish ending.

 

I quit reading them out loud to the kids at book 3 - I think my youngest was 9 at the time.

 

Then they started reading them on their own but my now 12 & 15 yo still haven't made it all the way through as they found 5 so dark. They're putting it off, though dd 15 did go and read the last few pages of 7 just to satisfy herself about how it ends :D

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It's been a while since I read it, but I thought it was darker than the others. Although 5 and 6 got pretty dark too. Rowling kills off several fairly central characters, which made even my teen sad. However, it was the natural outcome of the war - people die and that is sad. In the end I thought it was redemptive in many respects.

 

If you're trying to get through all 7 before your daughter, can you try listening on CD? The narrator is fabulous.

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I think it's inhumane to stop her now. If you let her read the first six why would you worry now?

 

:iagree:

 

Edited to say - agree that HP is also fabulous on audio book. The narrator IS fabulous! My son read and enjoyed them at age 7-8.

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Haven't read the other responses yet. I think book 7 is both dark and hopeful. There are beautiful themes of enduring friendship, loyalty, redemption. While there are some gut-wrenching scenes in the Deathly Hallows, I think books 5 and 6 were darker - they didn't have that hopefulness and sense of closure that I feel book 7 gives at the end. It is my favorite of all the HP books. If you let her read up to this point, I can't see a point to stopping now.

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I think if you've let her read 1-6, there's no real reason to put off number 7. After the first two, each book is incrementally darker and more mature than the ones before it. But by the 7th book, important characters have *already* died, the "kids" have already had first kisses (nothing beyond that is ever described -- though I think Rowling handles some of the conflicting emotions of adolescence really well), QUOTE]

:iagree:emphasis mine

 

It's been a while since I read it, but I thought it was darker than the others. Although 5 and 6 got pretty dark too. Rowling kills off several fairly central characters, which made even my teen sad. However, it was the natural outcome of the war - people die and that is sad. In the end I thought it was redemptive in many respects.

 

If you're trying to get through all 7 before your daughter, can you try listening on CD? The narrator is fabulous.

:iagree:emphasis mine

 

Haven't read the other responses yet. I think book 7 is both dark and hopeful. There are beautiful themes of enduring friendship, loyalty, redemption. While there are some gut-wrenching scenes in the Deathly Hallows, I think books 5 and 6 were darker - they didn't have that hopefulness and sense of closure that I feel book 7 gives at the end. It is my favorite of all the HP books. If you let her read up to this point, I can't see a point to stopping now.

:iagree::iagree:emphasis mine

 

To me 6 was the darkest. The idea of horcruxes was awful. At this point I'd just let her finish, there's nothing in 7 that she hasn't already encountered except the hopeful ending. I cried multiple times reading book 7, but I loved every minute of it and have reread several times. I've been reading them one and at time with dd13 (started when she was 9 and made her wait a year in between the first 4, now we're just finishing them up together, she's mature enough to handle it).

 

If your dd handled 6 then 7 shouldn't be a problem.:D

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#7 is no worse than books 5 & 6 although even more favorite characters die. I would let her finish the series if she wants to. None of my children read #7 nor did I do this one as a read aloud. My children wanted me to read it and just give them the bad news. They were older too. Anyhow, they know how the story ends but the next two movies will be the first time any of them of heard the rest of the story. I am going into them with a sense of foreboding. If they do it well, it will be gut wrenching, if they don't it won't be satisfying.

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I thought 6 was darker than 7, although He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named really gave me the chills in the last book. However, there is a lot of redemption, and it ties up the entire series (characters from ALL of the books are here) in a perfect way. If she's already made it through 6 without nightmares, she would do fine with book 7.

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I don't think 7 is any darker than 6, but I do think there are some parts which are more sad. I cried more than once. However, as others have said, 7 has the benefit of containing themes of unconditional love, loyalty, friendship, forgiveness, trust, and hope. It goes into the very best and worst of human nature. This is making me want to read it again.

 

Really, I think 5 and 6 are the most depressing. They're filled with anger, fear, and angst.

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I think if you've let her read 1-6, there's no real reason to put off number 7.

 

:iagree: I read it to my 5 & 6 year olds. It was darker than the others, but just by a bit. Besides, if you let her read the sixth book, it's sort of cruel to make her wait to read the seventh.

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...I just don't know that younger kids get as much out of them as adults and older kids do.

 

Sort of a tangent here... But isn't that true of a great many books that we give children to read? That, reading them as adults, we get *more*? Isn't that, in many ways, the mark of a really good book? That when we come back to it later, there are still more layers for us to uncover and new meanings that come to us only when we're older and more mature?

 

So on the one hand, sure, you're right. An 8yo will *not* get as much out of HP7 (or a lot of books) or the same things, at least, as an adult. An 8yo may not really contemplate the ideas of sacrifice and redemption in the same way. And so many other things...

 

But on the other hand, that doesn't mean that HP7 (or any of the jillions of other books that could fall into this category of "more meaningful to adults") is meaning*less* to a younger child. It's still a wonderful story. There are still plenty of things to find intriguing and heartbreaking and delightful. Maybe not precisely the same things that that same child would discover at 18 or 30 or 65... But meaningful things nonetheless...

 

And certainly I agree that there are times to say, "Yeah, this isn't really an appropriate book for you at this time in your life -- we're going to set it on the shelf for a few years." Or even, "I don't think this particular book is edifying in any way, so you'll have to wait until you're an adult to decide whether or not to read it. For now, the answer is 'no'." ... But I don't think that applies in this case (since clearly the mother doesn't have strong objections to the basic premise of HP). ... And since the child has read HP1-6 without objections from her mother or any obvious ill-effects, and she *wants* to read the last, I can't see denying her. ... If the mom were asking me about delaying the child between books 2 and 3 or 3 and 4, I might have a different answer. Once a child has read all of the first 6? Let her go! Read 7!

 

And, yes, maybe she'll pick it up again in a few years or quite a few and discover layers of meaning she missed the first (or second or third) time around. And so much the better. :)

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Book 7 is intense, mature and sophisticated. The main issue I would have with an 8yo, even an avid-reader 8yo, is that she probably won't be able to keep track of whose wand does what and why. It's full of deaths, even of beloved characters. One of the best lines in the whole book nevertheless has a cuss word in it. (Molly Weasley breaking Mama Bear on Bellatrix. Love that fierce mother love and it couldn't have been phrased better, but still, uses the *girl dog* name.)

 

My dd was 10 when she read it. She's an avid reader, coped okay with it's dark themes, but still didn't really *get* it. Honestly, I didn't appreciate the book as much until I read John Granger's Deathly Hallows Lectures and had re-read it another two times.

 

And, BTW, determining that I would pre-read the HP books for my dd is how I became a fanatic!

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Now *I'M* wanting to go back and re-read them all. Maybe I will...outloud to the kids! I agree with the others...7 IS darker, but if she got through 5-6, might as well. I really hesitated on letting my 9.5 yr old ds read #6, but in the end, I let him. He's no worse for the wear. I'm waiting for him to ask for #7, lol.

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Thank you for all of your replies - they are so helpful.

 

When she read book 1 a few weeks ago I had no idea that she would tackle them all within weeks. She's been very excited about the books and emotionally very engaged. She hasn't seemed frightened by them but she has always had a strong sense of the difference between fantasy and reality. I feel more comfortable letting her read book 7 now and especially like you telling me about themes of hope and redemption at the end.

 

 

P.S. When she told my MIL she was reading them (I was on the phone too) my MIL was silent for a moment. She is (spiritually) wary of these books so I started to get worried. That's when I decided I better read too so we can talk about them together.

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I think if you've let her read 1-6, there's no real reason to put off number 7. After the first two, each book is incrementally darker and more mature than the ones before it. But by the 7th book, important characters have *already* died, the "kids" have already had first kisses (nothing beyond that is ever described -- though I think Rowling handles some of the conflicting emotions of adolescence really well), there have already been betrayals and double-crossings... Book 7 just sort of picks up the pace. There's more heartache, but if she's read through book 6, she's already encountered a fair amount of that.

 

:iagree:

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P.S. When she told my MIL she was reading them (I was on the phone too) my MIL was silent for a moment. She is (spiritually) wary of these books so I started to get worried. That's when I decided I better read too so we can talk about them together.

 

You should still read them so you can discuss. As one poster mentioned, the plot in 7 gets a little complex, and even if she understands everything, I know I wanted to talk to someone about it when I was done. Plus, they're a darn fun read.

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Sort of a tangent here... But isn't that true of a great many books that we give children to read? That, reading them as adults, we get *more*? Isn't that, in many ways, the mark of a really good book? That when we come back to it later, there are still more layers for us to uncover and new meanings that come to us only when we're older and more mature?

 

So on the one hand, sure, you're right. An 8yo will *not* get as much out of HP7 (or a lot of books) or the same things, at least, as an adult. An 8yo may not really contemplate the ideas of sacrifice and redemption in the same way. And so many other things...

 

But on the other hand, that doesn't mean that HP7 (or any of the jillions of other books that could fall into this category of "more meaningful to adults") is meaning*less* to a younger child. It's still a wonderful story. There are still plenty of things to find intriguing and heartbreaking and delightful. Maybe not precisely the same things that that same child would discover at 18 or 30 or 65... But meaningful things nonetheless...

 

And certainly I agree that there are times to say, "Yeah, this isn't really an appropriate book for you at this time in your life -- we're going to set it on the shelf for a few years." Or even, "I don't think this particular book is edifying in any way, so you'll have to wait until you're an adult to decide whether or not to read it. For now, the answer is 'no'." ... But I don't think that applies in this case (since clearly the mother doesn't have strong objections to the basic premise of HP). ... And since the child has read HP1-6 without objections from her mother or any obvious ill-effects, and she *wants* to read the last, I can't see denying her. ... If the mom were asking me about delaying the child between books 2 and 3 or 3 and 4, I might have a different answer. Once a child has read all of the first 6? Let her go! Read 7!

 

And, yes, maybe she'll pick it up again in a few years or quite a few and discover layers of meaning she missed the first (or second or third) time around. And so much the better. :)

 

Oh - no, no! I wasn't trying to tell her she shouldn't let her read it - I was just trying to explain why it might be more difficult for her to read. I agree - everybook I love I re-read about every 10 years. I gain a whole new perspective each time :)

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Let her read it. She has come this far - she needs to get the full ending of the story as Rowling wrote it.

 

I am 51 and STILL remember when in 8th grade, my mom took away a copy of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, which she admitted she had not read that I had checked out of the school library.

 

Don't stand between your dd and her finishing the book series.

 

That said, if you haven't read all the books, do so, too.

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Haven't read the other responses yet. I think book 7 is both dark and hopeful. There are beautiful themes of enduring friendship, loyalty, redemption. While there are some gut-wrenching scenes in the Deathly Hallows, I think books 5 and 6 were darker - they didn't have that hopefulness and sense of closure that I feel book 7 gives at the end. It is my favorite of all the HP books. If you let her read up to this point, I can't see a point to stopping now.

 

:iagree:

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Haven't read the other responses yet. I think book 7 is both dark and hopeful. There are beautiful themes of enduring friendship, loyalty, redemption. While there are some gut-wrenching scenes in the Deathly Hallows, I think books 5 and 6 were darker - they didn't have that hopefulness and sense of closure that I feel book 7 gives at the end. It is my favorite of all the HP books. If you let her read up to this point, I can't see a point to stopping now.

 

My gut was wrenched a lot. Nicely written.

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I think it's inhumane to stop her now. If you let her read the first six why would you worry now?

 

:iagree: Book 4 and beyond are similar in "darkness". Book 7 brings closure and understanding and ends on a positive note. It is my favorite book of the series, despite the deaths. My oldest listened to the whole series via audiobook by the time she was 8. She loves HP and so do I (as you would know by my screen name). :)

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