Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Harry Potter--Doling out the books in the series

In a nutshell: I have a preschooler who now loves Harry Potter. At what ages did you let your kids read/see the third installment and up?

Last weekend, I showed my 5yo Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone so he'd have another topic of conversation during a play date. If the circumstances hadn't been what they were--first time meeting another gifted kid his age--I probably would have held off introducing him to Harry Potter for a few years, and I would have started him with the books instead.

Well. To say that he took to his first taste of Harry Potter is an understatement. The following day he asked to start having the book read to him at bedtime. Then he asked if he could hear two chapters instead of one the night after that.

My question: Now what do I do? I can read him the second book, but I can't see how the third would be appropriate for a five-year-old, even one who knows that death exists, and can read a few grades ahead no problem, and is really eager for more.

Has anyone been in this position? I'm assuming we'll have to rotate books and movies one and two for a while, maybe with the Quidditch book and the Fantastic Beasts one thrown in. Under what circumstances did you allow your younger kids to advance through the Harry Potter series and movies?

Both of my DYS have loved those books, but we didn't start with them until age 7...and both of them ended up getting hooked and reading them all rather quickly. I'll admit, that even at age, I was a bit concerned about the content of all books after Book 1. I think it is really about knowing your child.

Can you just "neglect" to tell him about the other books for a bit? So many great books out there...can he read some others first and then you can circle back a little bit later?

BTW, both DC also found the books worthy of re-reading .

It can be tricky! And each kid is different in what they are sensitive to.

Common Sense Media has a good guide to which movies and books may be appropriate at which ages:

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/harry-potter-age-by-age-guide

My DD11 whipped through the HP series between the ages of 9-10 (she wasn't really interested before that). I did try to get her to wait to read the last couple of books, but she really wanted to read them. I ended up reading them along with her, in case there was anything she wanted to discuss...

She hasn't yet seen the movies though beyond the 3rd one.

I started reading the series to DS8 when he was 7. We got up to book 4, but I kind of skipped a lot of the ending because it seemed too dark. He is more sensitive than my DD. I have started reading him book 5, but he hasn't wanted to continue.

DS has seen the first 2 movies (I think - sometimes hard to keep track).

I find it hard to predict sometimes what will or won't bother my kids in terms of media. I thought the last Star Wars movie was quite violent - but neither of them had trouble watching that. However my DS will ask me to turn off or skip parts of wildlife documentaries.

It makes it hard to find appropriate material that everyone will enjoy when I want to read to the kids, or even watch a show or movie together!

A side question bud does anyone know why philosopher was changed to sorcerer in the title of the first book in the US market? It has always troubled me because the aren't really the same thing.

And I haven't had the problem because neither ds7 or ds9 would cope.

Ok, this is helpful, thanks. Part of my problem is my kid isn't great at articulating what he finds scary. I'm left to guess. I guessed right that the first Harry Potter movie was at the edge of what he could handle.

I think I'm going to try to hold the line on not reading him HP3 and up until he's in third grade at least. As for knowing about the existence of the other books--that ship sailed ages ago. He can see all seven books lined up on our shelves, and he notices when we move even the smallest thing on those shelves.

DS8 read books 1-5 just as he was about to turn 6 (in KG). I had read the books and did not feel comfortable with him reading 6 and 7 at that age. He read the whole series at the beginning of this school year (so he was about 7.5) and it was fine.
We have only watched the first 3 movies because DS feels they leave too much out and change too much of the story

At that time, I remember reading that the American publishers thought that Americans would not understand the meaning of the word "philosopher"! So, they changed it to "sorcerer"! Apparently, American kids have a limited knowledge of the english vocabulary according to Scholastic. They feared that no American kid would want to buy a book that had the word "philosopher" in its title ...

To expand on that, they thought that the "philosopher's stone" is a thing that kids in the UK are more likely to have heard of that kids in the US. And without knowing specifically about the philosopher's stone, a philosopher doesn't sound like a very exciting character.

I would tell him that he needs to read the rest of the series on his own. And then dole them out as you see fit. I would not allow him to watch the movies until he has read the books.

I agree with this. I have also always thought that kids often do not imagine things they read in as scary of a way that is portrayed in the movies. The last movie, at least, is rated PG-13, so keep that in mind as you allow the books and movies.

I think DC read the books independently starting in K and ending in 2nd.

DD wanted to read the series when she was four but I didn't think she was ready.

She read Book One through Four at age five on her own, although there were a few chapters I insisted on reading together and a couple of chapters scared her enough that she asked me to sit right next to her. I am not comfortable with her reading Book Five and beyond until she is seven or older.

I've only shown her the first two movies and that was after she read the books over and over.

You're all raising good points about the movies. I told my son he wouldn't see the second movie until after he'd read the second book. I still regret showing him the movie first--I don't like that his visions of the characters and the settings had to have been shaped by the film--but I know I had good reasons for doing so.

To the larger point--I see how I should concentrate on the books and hold the line on the movies. One of my other challenges is my kid doesn't have much in the way of 'currency' that isn't edible, but Harry Potter readings have proven to be one of those rare things. (That and supervised Wikipedia searches.) We let him have two chapters at night IF he tells us three things he did while at school that neither I nor his father could know about. He's been really reluctant to tell us about his day, unless he can use talking to stall eating a meal he's not completely thrilled with. Anyway, my point--Yeah, definitely keep movie 3 and up off the menu for a while and only after he's read the book it's based on.

I do see that maybe we can move on to subsequent HP books, if we keep them in the context of bedtime, because a parent will be sitting right there with him. I am going to rotate in other books after book two, though, simply because we have The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland sitting by ready to go and we want to get to those. And I need to go take notes on that reading recs thread for his age group... useful, that.

This is roughly how it worked out for us-- but only because of DD's age being coincident with publication of books 5-7, that is, and her reading level syncing with the books at age 5.

She read books 1-5 pretty rapidly at ages 5-6. I made her buy books 4 and beyond for herself-- that slowed her down some because she had to save for them. She went through a period of not wanting to read them for a few months after her dad wisely (ahem) opted to let her watch HP2-- with the giant snake. Sigh.

Books 6 and 7 were published when she was those ages. That helped. I would not have wanted her to read book 7 in particular until she was that mature.

I have to add that knowing your own child is critical here-- I've never known another child that I'd have recommended anything beyond HP3 to at anything less than 6 or 7 years old. DD didn't have any trouble with that kind of heavy-weight content, and yes-- she understood it and processed it just fine. She talked to us a LOT about all of it. Our home was lot like an endless book club, basically.

My son is about the same age as Howlers. But DS17 wasn't reading long chapter fiction by himself at quite as young an age as her daughter. (He was an advanced reader, but wouldn't read long chapter books till a bit older.) I read most of the books to him around between 6-7 years old. I dragged the last few books out only reading HP6 to him a few months before the last book was due out. There was HP fever, everywhere including our house and it would have been very difficult to keep from him. But I wanted him to have read (or been read to) the books before seeing the movies. My husband was a HUGE fan before either me or the kids. The last book & 6th movie came out around a family trip to Europe when he was 7. We saw the 6th movie in London, went to Kings Cross station etc.. And I read DS the 7th book shortly after it was released. (I had to read the entire thing to myself first.)

And then when DS was 12. He spend a month long vacation, reading the entire series cover to cover and obsessing about the books in a way he didn't when he was 6. I ended up buying used paperback versions of the books for that trip.

If HP fever hadn't been such a big think at the time my son was 6 & 7 I probably would have put off reading the later books to him till he was a bit older. This is my child who still freaks out about Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and I have NO idea why HP was OK, watching ET was OK, and eventually the LOTR movies before he was 10. But still can't stand ANY version (book or movie) of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.

When DD started asking questions about wars, terrorism, military, dictators, political assassinations, evil beings in general, I concluded that there wasn't much point in shielding her from these concepts since she already was exposed to them and she needed ways to make sense of her expanded understanding of the world. That's how HP came into her life.

Skepchick, as far as social currency for next school year goes, I'm not sure HP would help much. There are a couple of other children in DD's class who are HP fans but they did not exactly bond over HP. Being good at soccer and basketball really helps with recess time and block-building skills come in handy during indoor recess. There are a few boys in her class who gravitate towards playing with girls and those boys tend to be into pretend play and collaborative games. I realize I'm making sweeping generalizations but knowing how to engage other children in simple playground games probably would go a lot further and that is a skill that can improve with coaching and practice.

Oh, I should explain--the social currency was very specific to meeting this boy for the play date. The boy had seen that movie. DS had not so I chose to show it to him to give him one more thing he could talk about with that boy. It didn't come into play on the first meeting. It'll probably help later on, I think.

I don't expect it to help him bond with kids he knows at school right now. I mean, he's going into full K next year, and couldn't move up before due to rigid age cutoffs in our public school system. He got exposed to HP somewhere because when I revealed the name of the movie I was going to show him, he said, 'Oh! Harry Potter!' He could well have read the spines of the books on our shelves--that was his previous favorite party trick/stalling technique at dinner.

The 'currency' I speak of = things that motivate him to do things he doesn't want to do. AKA bribes.

Interesting that you chose to introduce her to HP as a way of helping your DD explore larger, tougher questions. That is a good point. Right now I find them useful for showing him that school isn't always 100 percent fun and sometimes, teachers behave badly toward their students.

DS8 read 1,2, and 3 as a young kindergartener (he may have started in preschool--I'm not sure anymore). I held off on books 4+ till 1st grade (despite many pleas), at which time I caved and he finished them all. I advise far more caution for the movies than the books, as others have said.

I doubt DS processed all the content. He did reread the earlier boks several times. I don't think he's reread 5-7.

One of my DSs read the whole series at age 8, the other at 9. Once they started, it was pretty much impossible to stop them, as they loved and devoured each book. They've seen only the first two movies, though. (They are nine).

My son was 6 when he read the first one-the rest of them came shortly after, and then we watched the movies. He's always been pretty good with processing mature concepts like those in HP and the movies never kept him up at night or anything. (He says the only thing that scares him is jump scares :P)

We are currently on our 3rd read-through of the series, and that's just the times I've read them to him--he's read them on his own at least 3 times. I just hope he likes The Wizarding World when we go in June!

Alright--for those who allowed your kids to advance to HP3 and higher in the books at the ages of six, seven, and eight--how did you handle the introduction of the dementors, and all that comes with them? That's the big objection my husband has to reading him HP3--he finds the dementors to be one of the scariest concepts in the entire series, and I see his point. DS will be 6 in early Sept FWIW.

Or you can be us, and find out at HP5 that the teen has been reading HP aloud to the preteen, while the preschooler is listening.

No apparent deleterious effects on the little one, probably because of not having a frame of reference for scariness.

I read that it troubles JK Rowling to this day, but she was young and inexperienced and still in the heady OMG I am having a book published phase, so she went along with it.
You'd think she has the clout now to insist it be changed back, but who knows, publishing contracts are scary things.
I also think all the money that went to our local publishers might go into finally commissioning a proper translation to replace the current atrocious one...

Edited to actually answer the OPs question:
I had to MAKE DS9 read the books about a year ago because he insisted he wasn't interested in wizards and witches but in "realistic" (read detective and science fictions yea right) fiction.
He then zoomed right through all 7 volumes.
I recall he got a bit stuck on the fifth (heck, I got a bit stuck on the fifth) but by the time he read the seventh, I just let it go and he did not appear bothered in the slightest. This is the kid I still won't let watch a lot of Disney movies, and in the few it did let him watch I skipped parts (eg Simba finding dead Mustafa), and who would, at the age of five still be inconsolable because in one book he read, the postman could not find the house the dragon had Carried away and the family might miss out on their letters...
For some reason, HP was okay all the way through.
So I've decided I will let him self censor with reading material.
I feel different about the movies, but so far we are through the fifth with no issues. Will hold out a bit on the rest because his HP obsession has waned and he is now lobbying for the Percy Jackson movies.
Wondering about DD5 now. The books are around, and DS9 even tried to make her read the first, but she isn't there yet.

My son didn't really need an explanation-I mean, at the time he was reading those books for the first time, he was dealing with his own negative thoughts and it was pretty clear to both of us that the dementors represent depression. Maybe that helps-to point out that they represent a feeling, rather than just being scary monsters.
Sorry-I meant to quote, but this was in response to the question of how we explain to younger kids about the dementors.

I'll admit that this is made easier by a much older cousin's influence, but older cousin happened to be exactly 10 years old when the first HP came out. Subsequent books came out once per year, as he grew up. Cousin has always commented about how he loved growing up with HP. So my plan is to give the first book to DS when he turns 10, and give him each subsequent book on his birthday.

We'll see how it goes. But Cousin's influence has always been mighty.

I agree that the dementors are very scary, and my kids would say the same. DS8 actually went as a dementor for Halloween at age 7 (grade 1). That sounds kind of wrong now that I type it out. It was all his idea, of course.

I'll just take a moment to recommend the absolutely wonderful audiobooks of HP. Though we've all read the series, some of us many times, we still enjoy listening to these, and it's a nice way to go through the series with a child who may not be 100% ready. I personally couldn't read these aloud night by night--too long--but on a long road trip, we've polished off a book or two.

Yes! The audiobooks, particularly the unabridged ones, are brilliant. Unfortunately I have most of them on cassette tape...not very convenient now.

My favorite has to be Stephen Fry's unabridged recording of Philosopher's Stone. Does anyone know if he went on to record subsequent books in the series?

All seven here:

https://soundcloud.com/search?q=harry%20potter%20stephen%20fry

Thank you!

As of Saturday, DS has started spontaneously writing "chapters" of his own Harry Potter book. He's up to chapter five now. Neville Longbottom's inveterate snoring is a recurring joke...

I read these for the first time at age seven. They're awesome, and I don't think they'll be too scary, per say--but the emotional aspect is a whole different story. I'd recommend letting him read the books, but be prepared to honestly discuss some sad deaths and intense scenes with him.