What age for Terry Pratchett?

[HamaTime]

Ds got Terry Pratchett's 'Eric' out of the library yesterday and was going to take it to school as his reading book but thinks he may get into trouble because a character says 'shit' on the first page. He's not perturbed by swearing but I wondered if he was a bit young for it. He is 11 and just started y7.

Also, is the order strict or do they read as stand alone books?

[HamaTime]

Come on, one of you vipers must know

[SevenSeconds]

My DS is 9 and recently enjoyed Truckers. I think that's one of TP's books aimed at children though?

I haven't read Eric but I imagine his teachers wouldn't be too impressed by the word 'shit' for an 11yo!

[RhuBarbarella]

I don't know how he could get in trouble over a Terry Pratchett book. If he does it would be utterly bizarre. They are sort of stand alone but are all set on this Discworld and some clearly need to be read after another but it's no big deal to read our of order. Eric is a fine read for an 11 year old I'd think. Hope he likes it, if he does there are quite a few more.

[RustyBear]

www.terrypratchettbooks.com/types/for-young-readers/

Personally I have no real problem with 'shit' for a year 7 child, but actually I never thought Eric was one of Pratchett's better books.

The Tiffany Aching books are described as for 'Young Adults' - they start off as children's books, but get darker as they go on - in I Shall Wear Midnight a 13-year old pregnant girl is beaten by her drunken father and loses her baby.

This is the best 'reading order' illustration I've seen:
www.epicreads.com/blog/the-official-discworld-infographic/

The books can be read in publication order, or you can read each sub-series about a particular character or group of characters - the Witches, the City Watch, DEATH etc.

[HowIHateVodafone]

My kids read them from the age of 8 - no problems here

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

DS is nine. We have read the Bromeliad trilogy, (Truckers etc) which DS adored; Carpet People, which also went down well; and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, which he liked but possibly missed the finer points of.

[Ilikedmyoldusernamebetter]

As an ex English teacher I would hope that his teachers will not be remotely phased by the word shit in a year 7 private reading book by a universally known author!

I tried Truckers with my nearly 8 year old, hoping it would be a series we could go on and on with (I read it to him as English is his second language) but it didn't grab him sadly - he's enjoying listening to me read War Horse by Micheal Morpurgo now so I guess it wasn't the reading age/ but just that it wans't his thing...

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

Ooh yeah, we tried the Johnny Maxwell ones by DS wasn't keen, and to be honest, they seemed a tad dated. DS1 loved them but that was 12 years ago.

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

Oh really, Tinkly? I was going to start DS1 on the Johnny books in a couple of years (he's not quite 8 yet).

Mind you, I can't get him interested in the Moomins either, he's all about fecking Pokemon at the moment :(

I never really got on with Truckers and Diggers et al - not sure whether or not DS1 would go for them either.

[HamaTime]

I'll tell him to crack on then. He has a horror of being 'told off' and its a new school but it's for quiet reading so I don't suppose anyone would even know. I just thought it might mean he was a bit young and it would be over his head iyswim.

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

I dunno Thumb, I just thought some of the racism stuff was a tad clunky. Loved Truckers though and adores the Moomins.