Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion History books and developmental appropriateness

DS, who is in first grade and turned 7 a couple months ago, brought home some books from a book swap. One was entitled "Attack on Pearl Harbor: The true story of the day America entered World War II." I figured he picked it out becasue of the cool-looking airplanes on the front and if he even opened the book, he wouldn't make it past the first page. Well I was wrong. He read the entire book in a half hour or hour and then told me all about it, and said how much he loved the book and was going to read it again. I asked him why Pearl Harbor was bombed and he said "Because the Japanese were trying to be tricky." This morning I found the book in his bed (he did apparently read it again), and there are sentences in there like "Rescue boats had trawled the harbor under the moonlight, pulling oil-covered bodies out of the water like slippery fish. All through the night, nervous marines, sailors, and soldiers had scanned the horizon waiting for the Japanese to return. They had even shot down five of their own planes in their panic. In the hospital ship, George saw burned sailors from the Arizona. Some looked like human sticks of coal, charred and black. Others were burned raw, their skin pink and puffy. That's when he knew how lucky he was. The attack was over, but for some, the nightmare was just beginning."
DS did not appear to be upset by this book but I wonder if it's really appropriate to let a 7 year old read about ugly historical events, killings, etc. Now I can sort of see why teachers are worried about kids reading books that are too advanced (although I still disagree)....but maybe I need to monitor more closely?