Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Harry Potter: age appropriate?

My DD who just turned 7 just read the first book in the Harry Potter series and wants to move on to the next book. I never read the books and am not sure I am up for it right now so I was wondering how the intensity increases with each book and if there are things I should be aware of in the books. TIA

My dd14 started reading these books in first grade and started part of the way through the series with the Goblet of Fire because the other movies were out before then and she had seen them so she wanted to start with one for which she hadn't seen the movie. She did go back later and read the earlier books.

As I recall, it will probably depend on your personal values and your dd's sensitivity level, but I don't believe that there is anything inappropriate and the characters don't start to get into romantic relationships until the Order of the Phoenix or maybe the Half Blood Prince. The relationships never include sex and only include kissing and jealousy or hurt feelings or teen awkwardness around those they like. No one dies until the Goblet of Fire, but it is a quick death with a wand being pointed at the character and a curse being uttered - nothing bloody or gory. Major characters don't die until the Order of the Phoenix.

Are there specific types of things that you think would be upsetting to her so we can let you know if they'd come into play?

Yes, intensity increases in each book-- my DD had no problems with it, but she is not a good proxy for what is emotionally manageable for most kids. She was watching CSI avidly by the time she was five, too, and expressed interest in "forensic pathology" as career path at Homeschool Days (awkward!).

DD read all five books before she was seven, and then eagerly awaited the publication of the next two. The first two books are relatively tame, but they turn increasingly dark from there on out; by book four, characters--including those one has grown to know well-- are DYING with some regularity.

The movies, though, are different from the books in terms of creep-factor and intensity-- Chamber of Secrets really freaked her out. A LOT. Truthfully that giant snake thing kinda freaks ME out, too, if I think about it too long.

I'd say that the movies are far MORE emotionally intense for most elementary aged kids than the books-- because with the books, they control the mental image that they form, and can keep it within bounds. (Sort of, anyway.)

Book 2: Giant snake thing and ghost-girl
Book 3: Scary prisoner/stalker guy, Dementors (demonic soul-sucking monsters) and a werewolf.
Book 4: Love interests start appearing in the books, this one is quite violent, I'd say-- and some of that is interpersonal strife, too-- and one of the kids dies at the end. We also 'see' Voldemort for the first time at the end of this book, though you meet his alter ego in book 2.
Book 5: Ordinary people can be pretty evil, too, as it turns out. This book is mostly about interpersonal/social things, and may completely escape kids who don't have the social development to 'get' aspects of it. But it is easier from a violence standpoint than book 4. On the other hand, the loss of a central character at the end is pretty shattering.

Book 6: This one, we learn a LOT more about what nasty people the previous generation seems to have been, all in all. More death at the midpoint of the book, and THIS ONE IS A DOOZY. I am not over this one, and probably never will be. You know how you felt when Aslan died? Yeah-- there's no resurrection in Rowling's universe.

Book 7: Bleak, bleak, bleak. Horrifying and very very creepy through and through-- right up to the end, in fact. I cried off and on starting about 1/3 of the way through this book-- and didn't stop until the very last page. Now, I cry. I do. I cried when Beth dies in Little Women when I was 8, and I cried at Les Mis. But this one had moments that made my stoic DD cry, even.

Honestly, I'd probably preread anything past book 4 for a kid this age. If you can, I mean. DD read so fast that all I could really do was to keep up with her and talk to her about anything she found disturbing. Er-- or anything that I found disturbing.

There is some pretty rich territory for deep philosophical discussion in this series of books, which can be read as all manner of allegory. Comparable series in that respect:

LOTR, Wrinkle in Time, Dark Materials (though be aware that Pullman is no Christian, apologist or not).

The intensity is real, but it isn't without purpose in the narrative.

I always find Common Sense Media useful with its descriptions of anything of concern. It's a teensy bit conservative for us in terms of the age recommendations it gives, so I take a year off the age, but I love being able to see what possible issues there could be regarding violence, sex, language etc. I'll be giving DD the first Harry at 7 and drip feeding them from there

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone

Thanks everyone for your input. I knew I could count on this board for some helpful information. I took it all to heart. My DD has been reading Guardians of Ga'Hoole series and Wolves of the Beyond during first grade and they can be intense and violent (many battle scenes in Guardians), but they are animal based so I wasn't sure how she would deal with supernatural creepiness. She found the first Harry Potter book to be exciting, and said it was less intense than other books she had been reading. Some of the later books sound a little disturbing. She is the kind of child who can worry about existential things (oh how I know what that is like) but tends to be very upbeat and doesn't get bogged down by negative emotions so I think she could shake off something disturbing fairly quickly, but I think we will hold off on the later books. It sounds as though book 2 would be perfectly fine though.



She reads very, very fast and I just don't have the time and interest to read them at her pace right now.

DS read the first three HP books soon after he turned 7 , and then we cut him off for awhile (I'll probably ask if he wants to read the 4th book this summer). He has been good at putting down books that are too intense or scary for him recently, so I might let him self-pace for the remaining books. Although after getting hooked on Percy Jackson, I don't know how interested in HP he is anymore anyway.

He and his younger sister almost didn't make it through the second movie, though, so those we are waiting on until they're older.

I stopped being able to pre-read what DS reads a year ago. There just aren't enough hours in the day!

Like HK, we were more worried about the movies than the books. We have yet to let our DD see the final movie although I now think that she could more than handle it she is now 8.5.

It has to be said that DD had to have her mother read the scarier parts aloud to her (LOL) the first time through (she was 6/7 at the time). She has now read/reread them >7 times to the point where the paperback set that Santa delivered is looking pretty ratty and dogeared.

The movies turned out to be a great incentive for her to stay in her room all night without 'getting scared' - I am fully OK with a kid that is scared knowing that they can go into their parents room at any time, DW not so much. When we told her that if she could stay in her room all night without nocturnal visits to us for a month then she could see the first HP movie it amazing to see just how goal orientated she can be. She counted the days down and never came out of her room all night for a month LOL

DS read the first three at 5/6, and then we stopped him going on to Order of the Phoenix "until you're 7". He brought it out on his 7th birthday, and we didn't have the heart to hold him back any more... Although when he was younger he was very easily upset by books, he seemed by then to have developed appropriate defences, and was far less upset by them than I remember being. He hasn't seen any of the movies, and doesn't want to (is not actually keen on movies at all).

reading through this, i can only echo the others about emotional maturity being the key factor. ours had had the entire series read to her at 3.5, and let me tell you that was a shocker every day we were reading. the project was 100% driven by her interest, and i'd thought she would bail at some point, but she never did. she's 5.5 now, and loves all the movies, too - she's become quite interested in the different choices the film-makers have made and the technical aspects of movie-making.

it's a wonderful series - and if you have no time/interest in pre-reading... you could do a family read-aloud - it'll buy you more time because it takes longer! we had to do the read-aloud (given DD's age) but it was a lovely experience and i would recommend it to anyone.

Yes-- they definitely don't read like "children's" books. I personally couldn't stand the Percy Jackson books... but HP was quite different.