Originally Posted by ultramarina
Your kid is definitely in a different league than mine...BUT...I still think you might want to try to keep her in children's books for a while longer. The older British ones can be very sophisticated with language, and even despite her intelligence AND apparent old-soul stuff, there is a lot with adult books that isn't going to be right. PLus the canon of children's lit contains so much goodness--and IMO, is important to cultural literacy. There's plenty that really isn't worth her time, and there are adult books she could add in, of course. But I'd really try to not let her think that she should be leaving kid lit behind.
Totally agree with this. Fwiw mine was reading similarly at 5 and yet still at 10 reads mostly children's fiction. Exceptions I recall include Douglas Adams of course, some Agatha Christie, Asimov, Tolkien (but not LotR till ?8 - Farmer Giles of Ham was a hit at 5 though). Pratchett's Discworld wasn't a hit, to my surprise.

There is so much written for children that I just don't see why any child would need to skip it. And much adult fiction isn't going to be appreciated without much more life experience. I'd be surprised if any 5yo really enjoyed Wodehouse. I wouldn't advocate forbidding a child to read adult fiction either, but I would treat an impression that children's fiction has been outgrown as an error to be corrected. I frequently enjoy reading DS's books, after all!


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