Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Harry Potter?

I think you can downgrade the age recs if you're reading aloud or listening together. That gives you a chance to see how the child is reacting, and to discuss. I've been burned before, though, by children reading solo and then coming to me sobbing, or unable to sleep at night.

With DD10, who used to be verrrrry sensitive, we saw a huge jump in maturity and ability to process mature themes when she was in third grade. She still sheds a tear at a few scenes in HP, but so do I. It's not out of control sobbing, like we sometimes had with various books and movies when she was younger. Fears are also under much better control, although it's possible she is just less vocal and more private.

My ds read the series at the start of 2nd grade. His teacher used accelerated reader tests when he finished each book. She also had him write a summary on the content of each book when he finished. She was the coolest teacher.

The series didn't bother him from what I know, now a book or movie on germs or bacteria outbreak and he gets all weird.

He is now 11 and we still read every night. I get to pick the books. I will continue reading to him as long as I can.

Thank you all. Food for thought. TV shows bother him. Books, to this point, have not. He's read 39 Clues and Percy Jackson (thank you-- great book suggestions!), but I think HP is scarier. The wiki is helpful, thank you HK.

DS8 routinely reads much higher level stuff but I too was worried about the emotional content. As typical with him, he glossed over uncomfortable emotional content when reading. So we actually had him watch the movie after reading each book. It was the movie that made him aware of the depth of feeling because he couldn't avoid it or read it faster or whatever else he was doing. He also tends to like the dark side, which sometimes concerns us, like preferring the emperor and darth vader than Luke and Han in Star Wars. Same thing here, he was very interested in voldemort and we really had to explain how evil he really was. DS was too used to cartoon or kid evil, and this really isn't that so we probably pushed a bit more than was comfortable for him. He read the whole series. And saw all the movies. And he is pretty sensitive, he saw his first movie in the theater just last year because of it. But we wouldn't have been able to stop him at book 3, not reading the whole series would have been worse than exposing him to the stuff. Ut we definitely waited until now, he could have read it earlier but it wouldn't have been good for him to do so. He explained to me at 5 that it was ok if the parents were dead before a book starts (all kid lit seems to have dead parents) but he had trouble when characters were killed in the middle of the story. Like Hugo cabret bothered him then. But now he can handle it.

I was also going to chime in on the news thread, he watches the news with us but willingly leaves when we ask him to, when we decide it not appropriate for him. Although sometimes there is no escape, was in a pizza place and they had the news on - you know because you can't eat without watch something!!! And he turns to me and says, what's rape? They was a fun moment as I gathered my thoughts.

DeHe

That's the exact issue-- I'm not sure I'll be able to stop him at book three. Tonight, I mentioned that I've heard they get really scary and that there are deaths later on. He reminded me that he bawled at Charlotte's Web but that he still rereads it every couple months. I know that HP and CW are so, so different, but I'm thinking I'll see how he regulates himself on this one. I remember I read voraciously as a child and read upper level/"too mature" material and did fine. It IS different than TV, because you can gloss over the uncomfortable parts. I'm going to read it with him and see how it goes. I told him he can stop if at any point he is not enjoying it and I will save them for him in a special spot. We shall see!

I was worried about DD getting scared at night because she would still come into our room in the night claiming to be scared due to a nightmare, bad thought or other worry.

I told her that if she could go as month without coming into our room that she could read HP. This would show me that she would be ready for it.. Needless to say that DD counted down every day with no nocturnal visits during that period. She was ready!

There were some bits that were a little scary and the first time through (she has read them umpteen times since) she read the scary bits with DW riding shotgun. She never had any night frights over these books and everything went well.

I did wait until she was 7 before she could watch the films, though.

Ds7 is not interested and I will be happy for him to wait until 10. I have lots of other books I want to share with him.

I really think it depends on your DC. DD is pretty brave and not prone to nightmares. She read them at age 7 (LOVED them and has since reread them). I really would have preferred that she waited even longer to read them, but she was just so excited to read them...so DH read book 3 on through the end with her the 1st time (I was worried about her having nightmares - SHE was fine). She requested her own copies for her 8th birthday - something she rarely does with fiction (we usually get fiction from the library, since she is typically done with them so quickly).

My DS8 read 1 and 2 at age 6, 3 and 4 at age 7, and at age 8 has just started 5, against my recommendation. He made it to the trial in the Ministry of Magic and has decided to set it aside for now.

Works for me. He'll pick it up again when he's ready.

DS6 has watched the first 3 movies several times without any nighttime issues, and he's prone. However, he dislikes the unicorn scene in the first movie and sometimes covers his eyes.