Harry Potter and young readers

[Tanikit]

When my DD was 5 I read her the first Harry Potter - this was probably not the wisest thing to do, but she had asked and had been listening to a lot of other stories normally left for later. She was hooked and asked that I read her the next one, but my DH stepped in and told her she must read them herself thinking it would be a while before she got there. Now at 6 she has started to do so - we have the full set and she is aware of that. However I am not sure I want her reading them all so young. Her reading skills have advanced rapidly lately and as her stamina catches up with her reading ability she will be able to read these books faster and faster. What age did your children read these books and what did you do to prevent them getting scared and also to discuss the matters in these books with the child if they were reading it entirely independently? I am happy for her at this age to read the first 3 - beyond that, I am not so sure.

[lewelma]

I agree, the first 3 are ok if she is ok with them (depends on the sensitivity of the kid).  I waited until my kids were 9 before letting them read the remainder.  Neither one of them argued because I think they got the sense that the books were getting too dark.  However, I did put them out of sight.

 

Ruth in NZ

[Grover]

I always said DS could only read to number 3 until he was 8.  But then he read them and number 4 was on the e-reader, so I let him read it.  And the first chapter of number 5  was at the end of that book.  And he was pretty sensible, so I let him on the understanding that if it was too dark he should stop any time.  And then... well, then he'd read the lot.  Oops.  He's rered the series at least 4 times now, and seems to have survived the experience.

[Laura Corin]

Calvin read them as they came out - that slowed him down a bit.

 

We didn't put any restrictions on when Hobbes could read them.  He stopped at about book 3 of his own accord and came back to them later.

 

L

[SKL]

Miss E got the first HP book around her 6th birthday, 10 months ago.  She hasn't finished it yet.  I think she finds the British dialect a little hard to follow at times.  Plus she is busy reading about 1000 other things.  LOL.    She has book 2 and has read parts of it.  I think she will be around 8 at least before she attempts to go beyond book 3.  (But stranger things have happened.)

 

I think she will be mature enough for it by then, if not sooner.  She is a tough cookie, though.  ;)

[brownie]

ds11 read the first 5 or so at 6yrs old.  At 7 I told him as long as he promised to put them down if he was scared he could read the rest.  He read them and was fine.  Sadly, I miss those days when it was easier to find something to challenge him.  Now I cringe when out of boredom he picks up Encyclopedia Brown to read. 

[Greenmama2]

DD read the first three last year at six and then had a good six or seven month break & is now 3/4 through 4. I actually broke my own "read first" rule and let her watch the movie of four after just skimming the first page of each chapter and giving her a synopsis of the scariest parts. I personally find four to be the most disturbing book of the series. The scene - SPOILER ALERT - where Wormtail cuts off his own arm is quite horrific. However in the movie it is glossed over, as is Crouch senior's murder. So for once I felt better about letting her watch it first.

[Dmmetler]

DD read the first two at age 5-6, and stopped there. Her sense of justice and fair play was very bothered by how people were treating Harry, especially in the second book when he was ostracized by his peers because he could speak parseltongue. She can handle bad characters doing bad things, but the meanness of people who should be nice (Chapter 1 of book 1 required a lot of discussion of fairy tale archetypes and how, basically, the Dursleys were just being Cinderella's evil stepmother to Harry's hero-but she was very upset about someone who would, essentially, adopt a child and treat him so badly).

The Co-op we did this fall is probably going to offer a "Wizard School" class this Spring (one session focusing on various Hogwarts classes or classes that might be taught at Hogwarts). DD wants to do it if so-and has volunteered to lead/teach a class on Mathemagic, so I'm guessing she might read farther into the series then. I think she could handle them now if she wanted to.

[SKL]

Miss E didn't talk about it much, but I wonder if the adoption thing bugged her too.  She was adopted as a baby.

 

Considering that she'll plod through Dork Diaries etc., you guys have me thinking the HP putz has more emotion behind it than I was thinking.  Anyway, I do not push it; the books will be there when she is ready.  Fortunately I have no difficulty encouraging Miss E to read - a lot.  The nice thing about HP is it is a good read no matter how long you put it off.  :)

[jenbrdsly]

My DS read Harry Potter 7 at age 6. He survived too. But... we talked a lot so that I could help him process the themes of what he was reading.

[Pen]

Well, I'll give a different opinion--I think they should be put away and saved for around age 9 and up.  

 

There is a lot that is worth discussing in them with a somewhat older child, that will be largely lost on a younger child (race issues ala the treatment of elves etc., government censorship, and so on).  

 

They can be disturbing and if they get scary and cause fears at some point, it is too late to say stop at that point: the fears, gruesome images, nightmares, have already been implanted in the child's brain.   I think that what is being implanted in a young child's brain is an issue for a young child even if the child does not feel scared by it.

 

Also they are extremely exciting and many other books that one would like the child to read would be then too slow and dull seeming, or at least that was true for my ds, that it is now hard to read the "classics" because they are not exciting like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson etc.

 

 I think something like the Little House books would be far more appropriate and beneficial at that point.  And if you include the ones from pre-Laura and Rose years, there are quite a lot of them.   I also think the Lloyd Alexander Taran books would be more appropriate for that age.

[2smartones]

I agree with Pen.  There are so many OTHER great books out there.  Neither of my kids have read HP yet.  The older watched part of the first movie, but wow... he's sensitive.  That was too much for him.  (Seriously... the kid is THAT sensitive.)  My younger is really interested, and I know he'd love the first 3, but I just don't want to get him hooked and then tell him the other books are off limits for a while.  I'd rather have him read the whole series later.

[The Governess]

I read my girls (7 and 9) one book a year. We finished book four this summer. So far the scariest thing for them has been the dementors. The graveyard scene didn't bother them as much as I thought it would. I think they are too young (and luckily too inexperienced with loss) to really feel the weight of the situation. On the other hand, I had to take several deep breaths to keep from choking up as I read. ;)

[kiwik]

Ds6 is far too sensitive to manage Harry Potter. I do think a lot of books work better if you have got some cultural baggage behind you - basic knowledge of myths, fairy tales etc plus maybe some school stories and just a bit more general reading. They weren't really intended for little kids and there are many worthwhile books that are.

 

That said ds6 has a friend who saw all the movies before 7 so if he really wanted to read the first few because he was feeling badly left out I would probably read them with him. I do not understand why you would let your 6 year old watch the movies but never mind.

[kolamum]

We didn't allow anything beyond book 2 until after they were 10. The author wouldn't allow her own children to read beyond book 1 until after she was 10, so I think that says a fair deal, kwim? My eldest will be 13 in a few weeks & is only just now getting to book 7. He's happily taking it slowly because he really doesn't want the series to end, plus I think he's kinda worried about who may or may not die in the final book. ;)

 

 

ETA: It was simply an unwritten rule in our home. At the same time we never said they could just up & read them either so that helped. ;) Mind you once he'd listened to books 1 & 2 about a hundred times he asked for more & at that point I bought myself a bit of time by saying, "Let's start at the beginning again & listen all the way through!" ;) We did them as audio books as a family too.

[Megbo]

My son (nearly 6) has read all seven books, and reread them at least twice so far. Both my husband and I know the series well, so we were able to answer his questions and talk through a few of the sad parts in the later books. He hasn't seen the movies yet, and probably won't until our younger son has read the books. 

[Greenmama2]

I do agree about the cultural literacy, however I know quite a few kids age 6-9 who do have that cultural literacy already. This is,after all a board for accelerated learners.

Interestingly, DD has shyed right away from the kind of bullying presented in Roald Dahl & similar books but that Harry Potter has been a good discussion opener for her. She absolutely can NOT handle Lemony Snickett. Somehow the scenario is more "real" and thus much more disturbing.

[Greenmama2]

Oh dmmetler, your daughter might want to read a little further then. I think she would love arithmancy as much as Hermione does :)

[musicianmom]

I'm holding off on all of it till oldest dd is 11. Then I'll give her the whole stack of books, at which point she will probably only emerge from her room for snacks and bathroom breaks.

[minuway]

Mine read them all the first time at 7 - it really weirded me out and I wanted her to stop after the 4th, but my husband was totally against keeping her from reading them. So I just kept an eye on her, asked her about it frequently, letting her know they might get a bit scary. The only time that she got freaked out was the scene when Dumbledore takes Harry to go destroy the horcrux in the cave and the zombies (I know there's a more correct term, sorry) come out of the water. Yikes! She was reading it in bed at night and came and sat with me for a long while. But she wanted to move on, and did. She was sad at times when character died at the end as well. She's read it through again since (she's 8.5 now). I know she probably didn't really get a lot of the "boy-girl" stuff that was going on either.  I think it depends very much on the child - she is generally not bothered by scary or imaginary things the way her little sister is, for example. 

[kiwik]

Mmm yes a lot of kids here will have vastly more cultural literacy than most. My son reads and does maths ahead but because he goes to school his history/myths etc is not that comprehensive. Ds6 probably won't read them until ds4 is ready as ds4 is a lot less sensitive.

[Grover]

I thought a fair bit about what I wanted DS to know before he read these books, so he had a fairly good grounding in the background stuff required to "get" these books. 

 

To whoever it was who mentioned it above, DS also could not handle lemony snickett, but recently, having read and reread HP, and also reading The Mysterious Benedict Society, Percy Jackson and lots of other things, he read the first book and asked for more... so it still might happen.