Advice Please on Harry Potter

[KiwiZ]

My 9 year old read the first Harry Potter, loved it and wants more, currently started #2. I've heard the series gets scarier, darker as it moves along and wanted advice from those who have read it as to what age you recommend. I'm reading too and enjoying it, its hard to keep ahead of my dd LOL

Is it like the Star Wars movies where most of the movies are fine for kids (all rated PG except for Episode 3 which is PG-13), but #3 (where Anakin becomes Darth Vader) is darker/more violent than the others?

Amazon.com says its for reading level ages 9-12 but I wanted to ask for "motherly advice" and thanks in advance!

[goodygumdrops]

It's funny you should post this because I was thinking about it the other night. My three year old is lately talking a bit about Harry Potter. I am huge fan and have all the books and movies. I was wondering if it would be too much to let him watch the first movie, extremely surpervised of course.

[stik]

My 9yo has powered through the first few books and kind of gotten hung up on book 5 because of its length.

The darkness involved in the books is primarily depictions of violence that reflect the evilness of the villains. There are also some depictions of bullying and verbal abuse among peers. Teenage sexual feelings crop up, and are dealt with in a non-explicit way. Book 7 is more depressing and scary than the others, but Harry never turns to the dark side. Though he does use a spell that badly hurts Draco Malfoy in Book 6.

Obviously, I'm comfortable with my 9yo reading. She is really good at knowing her own boundaries and walking away from media that disturb her. If she was more prone to nightmares, I might feel differently.

[zinemama]

I figure if a kid is old enough to read it, he's old enough to stop reading if it's too scary. My 9yo powered right through them, totally entranced for the first five and then reading more to find out what would happen for the last ones. I'm no HP fan (not because of scariness, though); but as a reader myself, I was happy to see him so absorbed in books. However, I'm glad he's moved on to a higher-quality series now, (The Dark is Rising)

[Dmitrizmom]

We are reading the series as a family - currently on Book 5. I read out loud to ds (9) and dd1 (6). They both love the story.

Yes the books get darker as they progress.

[terrordactyl]

i actually started reading them when i was about 10 though they didn't get dark till i was in my teens... i feel like if he gets to a dark part an doesn't like it he'll stop

[lorelei]

I agree with op, I would let your kid decide if it's too scary for them. Most will not keep reading /watching something that disturbs them. Good luck!
Btw, my kids have been seeing the movies since they came out and my oldest just turned 8. We have the books on tape, too.

[Linda on the move]

I found the books *less* dark than the movies because there was more explanation of why things were happening. I read the books before the movies, and the movies (esp. the later ones) seem a bit like jumbled images.

I love this series and read it out loud to my kids. There is a ton of good moral stuff in the books, and lots of situations have come up IRL and we relate it back to something in the book.

[kittywitty]

I think they're fine. My kids listened to them on disc and then read them at age 5-8. My daughter recently re-read them. There's darkness, but I wouldn't call them scary. There are some sad parts (deaths) that were harder for us all to handle-I even cried, but they weren't traumatized by any means.

[texmati]

don't have older kids, but I can give you a rundown of the books:

books 1,2 and 3 are very light. I would read them in a heartbeat.

book four has 2 scary chapters with deaths of non-main characters. that's the first chapter (you could skip and still understand the book), and the second to last chapter, (climax of the book).

book five is mostly fine, there is one death in the book of a main character, and talk about grief and processing of grief, but nothing that would give you the creeps.

book 6. very sad ending. some scary imagery toward the end

book 7. I was listening to the audio book at while driving at night for upteenth time, and I got a little freaked out. There are parts of this book that give me the creeps... and I'm 28!

[KiwiZ]

Thank you guys, you're the best! Especially your book breakdown, texmati!

[journeymom]

Originally Posted by zinemama

I figure if a kid is old enough to read it, he's old enough to stop reading if it's too scary. My 9yo powered right through them, totally entranced for the first five and then reading more to find out what would happen for the last ones. I'm no HP fan (not because of scariness, though); but as a reader myself, I was happy to see him so absorbed in books. However, I'm glad he's moved on to a higher-quality series now, (The Dark is Rising)

Agreed. Except for the bolded part.

Originally Posted by Linda on the move

I found the books *less* dark than the movies because there was more explanation of why things were happening. I read the books before the movies, and the movies (esp. the later ones) seem a bit like jumbled images.

I love this series and read it out loud to my kids. There is a ton of good moral stuff in the books, and lots of situations have come up IRL and we relate it back to something in the book.

Agreed, especially with the comparison between the books and movies.

End of book 6 has a seriously creepy portion, and a wonderfully sad portion.

[Sol_y_Paz]

I was reading Stephen King stuff when I was very young, 7 if I remember right. I didn't have nightmares. I loved horror stuff.

[texmati]

I should have added in my run down-- I am a bit of a pansy when it comes to horror stuff. Especially after becoming pregnant, I sometimes can't get through a movie!

[BugMacGee]

I'm so glad to see this thread! I've been reading the series aloud to my older DD (almost 7) and she literally BEGS me to read more! We reached full Harry Potter saturation in our house when my DD decided to play water Quidditch with noodles in the pool! But I digress...
We're 1/4 way through Goblet of Fire. So far, she's loving every minute of it.
I get weird reactions from people when I tell them we're reading it though.

I think I'll have her take a break after this one. I'll keep reading though

[journeymom]

Originally Posted by BugMacGee

We reached full Harry Potter saturation in our house when my DD decided to play water Quidditch with noodles in the pool! But I digress...

Excellent idea!

[Smokering]

It's definitely true that the books get darker as they go, but I actually found the second book scarier than most of the others. The things the Basilisk hissed through the school corridors were just... creepy! I'm a wimp, though.

The later books are indeed very teenagey. They never get explicit about sexual stuff, beyond the odd crass joke (the old school standby "Uranus" joke, and a lot of the word "snogging" in the last two books); but I'm not sure a 9-year-old would "get" or be interested in it. It's been a while since I was 9... The later books definitely have a much stronger overall sense of impending menace, with a bit of fatalism stuff in book 7 (and 6?); while the earlier books have a much greater emphasis on fun and learning with the odd bit of peril thrown in. So in that sense the later books are darker, even when there's nothing explicitly scary going on - there's a sense of Harry feeling very isolated, having nightmares, Bad Things lurking just around the corner, the world getting worse, evil gradually amassing forces - that kind of thing.

Ultimately it depends on the kid. I would have been terrified by them at 9, but like I say, I was a wimp. Is she the kind of girl to stop reading if she can't handle it?

[journeymom]

The things the Basilisk hissed through the school corridors were just... creepy! I'm a wimp, though.

Well I'm a wimp too, then. I thought it was kinda disturbing. And it felt weird to read that out loud to the kids.

[Daffodil]

I read all the books to my DD starting when she was almost 6, and we were finished by the time she was 6 1/2. They were fine for her at that age; she loved them.

Originally Posted by Smokering

So in that sense the later books are darker, even when there's nothing explicitly scary going on - there's a sense of Harry feeling very isolated, having nightmares, Bad Things lurking just around the corner, the world getting worse, evil gradually amassing forces - that kind of thing.

I think a lot of that stuff is less scary for young kids than the more concrete scary stuff in the earlier books. My DD actually found the first book the scariest. But maybe a 9-year-old would be old enough to be disturbed by the same kinds of things that disturb adults. (Though I don't think I would have been at 9.)