harry potter books - Page 2

[phathui5]

My 9yo ds read the books when he was seven and enjoyed them. He never seemed scared or upset by the books or the movies.

[MissRubyandKen]

I think it would be fine. The books are not scary and tension filled like the movies. Especially the first couple books. I've read them all.

[merpk]

Originally Posted by elizawill

thanks everyone for your feedback. i agree that it should be her call to make. i realized that earlier this morning & stated that above. she's a smart kid & i trust she will either enjoy the book or put it down. i've never read the books, so i'm excited as well.

LOL

Be forewarned: They're like crack.

LOL

... not my line; borrowed from Jason Isaacs (an actor from the movies) ...

LOL






FWIW I only picked up the first one because I'd given it to my son (8 at the time) to read and figured, hell, I'd better read the thing so I can use it to good homeschooling ends, right? Except the kid stayed up all night two days in a row and finished it in two days. And then the second. He finished through book six within two months, and I'd barely managed to get through the first.

That was a few years back ... and now we're both addicted. LOL

[linclane]

I read the first two books aloud to my ds (5 y/o at the time). I had not read them before, and quickly bought and read the entire series myself. And I will probably read them again at some point. And in a couple years, I imagine ds will want to read them on his own - and be ready to read more of the books.

He has seen the first 5 movies. He was not scared about anything that happened in them. In fact it opened a lot of questions and we've been able to talk through some issues that come up in the movies. And he really liked comparing the books to the movies, and talking about the differences, and why he thought they changed things for the movie. (Mostly he thinks it's silly to add in extra stuff to the movies, when the stories are so good in the first place).

Like others have said ... you can start, and do it as a read-aloud, and there's no pressure to finish them.

[ebethmom]

We're all huge HP fans here. My dh read them all to our 8 year old ds, and now ds is reading them on his own. My ds likes scary books and shows. Not much creeps him out, except for werewolves! The werewolf theme in HP just about did him in.

He just told me that the werewolf in the movie was much scarier than the book. I asked him if the books were scary for him, and he said "Not much."

[tammyw]

I know this is an old thread, but sort of related, so I thought I'd post here rather than start a fresh thread.

My daughter is 7.5. Recently I read book 1 to her (aloud) and she fell in love. Apparently I didn't get to book 2 quickly enough, because she wanted to read it immediately after finishing book 1. No problem. She finished it in just over a day. Then moved onto book 3. Same thing. After hearing from friends that book 4 is darker/scarier/more mature, I suggested that maybe she not move onto book 4 (or more) for a while, so she started over with book 1. I did allow us to watch the first three movies together, and she of course loved those also.

Does she find them scary? Yes, a bit, but can't pull herself away. She's always been a reader, but I've never seen her like this - she is reading them ALL the time. Having a hard time pulling her away from them.

I haven't read all the books (and won't have time for a while), so I'm just coming here to ask if I did the right thing, do you think?

[Storm Bride]

I'm late to this thread, I think, but my two bits:

DD1 had me reading the Harry Potter books to her (she'd seen the movies to date, because of her big brother) during "kindergarten". She loved the first two, was a little iffy on some of the content of the third, and asked to switch to something else partway through book four. She hasn't chosen to go back to them yet. (We haVe all seven, because ds1 is - well, was - a big fan.)

Personally, I found the movies harder to handle than the books, for the most part. Many of the scary scenes (the spiders, the basilisk, the encounter with "Fluffy" and the one with Voldemort, etc.) are a little less intense in the books, imo.

[Bluegoat]

Originally Posted by zinemama

All fiction is derivative to a certain extent, but I thought HP was especially so, particularly of the British boarding school novel. I didn't like the world portrayed, where instead of creating something unique, she simply "magicized" contemporary institutions. Wizard banks, sports, etc. struck me as ridiculous and rather sad, rather than imaginative. For a fantasy book, I felt it lacked entirely a sense of the numinous, and of the truly creative. And frankly, after you've read about the school for wizards in Ursula le Guin's Earthsea trilogy, HP is annoyingly juvenile. To me, anyway. (Although I do give Rowling credit for linguistically clever spell names.)

I don't want to argue, either. I fully realize that I'm in the minority here! I'm sure I would have enjoyed these books very much as a child. But they didn't do it for me as an adult reader.

I feel the same way, so you aren't alone. I also think that the writing in them is poor.

But I love the Earthsea books! The Wrinkle in Time series and the Dark is Rising sequence are also much better than the Harry Potter books IMO.

[WCM]

Tammy, my kids were the same. Once we read one, they wanted the next (of course!). But the books content ages with the reader, and they usually came out a year apart. So my then 7-8 year old was reading 3 books in one summer, going from Harry at 11-13.

Like Star Wars, there is no waiting a few years in between, like we had to as kids. They are all available now.

anyway, he read up to I think book 5, and found Professor Umbridge made him really uncomfotable, and I suggestd he just walk away from it for now.

We did watch the movies up to Book 4. I think it's harder to walk away from a movie than a book. My middle child was 'reading' along in HP as read aloud the earlier books to her (DS read them on his own) and she found so much of it confusing (terms, situations, foreshadowing) and we had to stop and explain so often it really derailed the fun of reading aloud. Ditto she found the movies hard to follow (because so much of the plot and storyline from the books get cut out, so they make far less sense) but insisted on watching them 'to be like her brother'.

And book 5 drags ON and ON about Quidditch, and is much longer, so it put him off and he's not returned to the series yet.

Now he reads comics and we read Judy Moody with her.

[klemomma]

I didn't have time to read all the replies so far, but just wanted to chime in and say that I have read all 7 books aloud to DS, and for us there were no problems. I think the movies are much more intense / overdramatic than the books.

I did see others talking about how the books age with Harry, but your kids can read them much faster than the 7 years. This is definitely true, and each book definitely gets a little bit more serious / scary.

The final book is definitely the BEST, but it is also definitely the most scary.

The first two books I don't think are all that scary, and are very funny & entertaining.

You might start, and as you progress through the books, you can take a break and come back to the more "older" books later.

If it were me, I'd go ahead and let her start on book 1 and see how she does.

I do love, love, love Harry.

And, for what it's worth, we have found another series called "Septimus Heap" by Angie Sage - the books are Magyk, Flyte, Physik, Queste, and Syren. My kids also love these (as do I!), but I find them to be less scary than the Harry Potter books. You might take a look at these as an alternate to Harry.

[mapleleaf]

Originally Posted by Storm Bride

Personally, I found the movies harder to handle than the books, for the most part. Many of the scary scenes (the spiders, the basilisk, the encounter with "Fluffy" and the one with Voldemort, etc.) are a little less intense in the books, imo.

I agree with this. I've only seen the first two movies though, I didn't like them so didn't bother watching the rest. I loved the books, they are so much better!

[rockportmama]

Loving the book rec's! Any more awesome books I need to know about?

[Tassy]

I am really excited at how we have managed the Harry Potter books with DS....for anyone that is interested. To begin with DH and I love, love them. I didnt want to waste the specialness of them by reading them to DS too young when he wouldn't get as much out of them. (I know that when 'too young' is can be unique to the child) For us, I gave DS #1 for his 7th birthday in June and then #2 for Christmas that same year. It is now a birthday/christmas tradition and we are in the middle of book #5. The books do become more dark and complex as the series moves forward and this process helps because 1- he is more mature and more able to handle content of each book. 2- he gets to anticipate and get excited about what happens next. He is 9 now and I am not sure how well he would have handled some of the pretty messed up things that happen in book 5 before now.

HTH

[Dakota's Mom]

My eight year old is not a reader. This year I have decided that he needs to read ten minutes a day out loud to me. I told him that if he reads to me for 10 minutes, I will read to him for 20 minutes. Any book of his choice. Usually my husband reads the bedtime stories but I don''t usually read so this was a real treat for him. His book of choice, The Half Blood Prince. He has seen some of the movies. We don't have them all. He loved the movies and was not afraid at all. I do agree with others that the scary stuff is mostly hollywood drama that is not found in the books.

Kathi

[LemonPie]

We did them as read-alouds for our 7 yo and let him go through book 4. Around the end of book 4 and beyond the series gets really dark and has some really heavy thematic elements.

Read them yourself and then decide. They are like crack as a PP said I've read the series several times over. It's one of my all-time favorites.

[luv2homeschool]

My older dd started them when she was 6. The books never scared her. However, when the first movie came out the ending really scared her. (She was older by the time the first movie came out.)

My younger dd who is 6 now has no interest in reading the books, but she does like some of the movies. Perhaps one day!

Of course, I have read them all at least 2 times.