Harry Potter - what age?

@DandyDan,

I love Fire & Hemlock, it's one of my favourite books, but agree definitely wait until they're older. I've got some of the raelly old DWJ books (70s editions and all) sitting in the bookcase waiting their turn - Power of Three, Wilkins' Tooth, Eight Days of Luke, Dogsbody, Ogre Downstairs - the toffeebars still make me laugh out loud). My mum still has both the Howl books so will have to threaten her a bit to get them back...

pointythings - your dd1 has no taste :) I'm currently reading The Lives of Christopher Chant to dd, and she's just finished Witch Week herself (as I've posted before, she doesn't like anything too tense for her bedtime story, which is a bit limiting on what I can read out loud given that I like either plenty of plot and action or something funny!).

I think next I might try some more Just William for a change, dd wasn't so keen last time I tried them, but I'm hoping that they'll appeal more now she's a bit older.

I would say 8 yrs is about right to start with the HP books, or 7 yrs if they're really keen. The last three books I wouldn't think were appropriate for the under-11's, not just because of the scariness factor but because the ideas in them are quite complex. They do dominate the bookshelves with their sheer bulk and can dominate time-wise because they are so lengthy, when other books are missed out on. I found them tedious to read aloud, and gave up by Book Six.

D Wynne Jones is great for reading aloud. Not just the Chrestomanci books but The Homeward Bounders, Howl..., Black Maria, Eight Days of Luke, Fire & Hemlock (just reading that to a 12 yr old because it's too complex otherwise), and The Ogre Downstairs is a hoot (the toffee bars esp.)

Very interesting thread. I have one DS who is 9 and is just progressing from the dreadful Horrid Henry/DirtyBertie stage. I have been looking forward to him getting into HP but he keeps telling me he is not ready yet! Haven't seen any of the films yet either.

He is currently working his way through a lot of the Michael Morpurgo books at school and seems to be enjoying them. I just wish he would read more. I was constantly stuck into a book at that age. But I didn't have the distractions he does.

Agree that Nesbit is wordy, but the style is still good, not many words out of place. Which is very different to Rowling, with her repetitive stereotyped language: you really hear the stylistic defects when you read aloud.

Takver,

I love Diana Wynne Jones. DD1 thinks she's boring, DD2 loves her too - so DD2 (7) is currently reading 'Witch Week' and loving it. DD1 is a big HP fan, has 'Goblet of Fire' as her school reading book and is whizzing through it (alongside a lot of other books too).
Going to try DD2 on 'The magicians of Caprona' and 'The Pinhoe Egg' next (she didn't get on with 'Conrad's Fate' and I can see why). Diana Wynne Jones is lovely for eading out loud, but I have to read to both of them.

Truth be told I'm currently reading Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series to them out loud - now he really is a joy to do. (though I'm a bit worried about the most recent one, it's very dark in places, starting off with MAJOR domestic violence, going onto attempted suicide - beautifully done, but hmmmm).

Now, I found E Nesbit very hard going to read aloud - much too wordy - better IMO for reading alone.

Currently reading Diana Wynne Jones, I find her prose style good for reading out loud, & her stories move fast, so even in 20 mins a night you get plenty of plot :)

Depends on the child, I'd say. Dd was a fast and avid reader, so no risk of her reading being swamped by Harry Potter (she read the Lord of the Rings too).

But I would say they are not the best books for reading aloud- as others have said, the prose style is not the greatest.

I did read the first volume to dd, but after that I let it be known that I would buy the books but not read them aloud.

Far better authors for reading aloud imo are Mary Norton (Bedknobs and Broomsticks is very well written), Noel Streatfield (Ballet Shoes reads well), E. Nesbit (if your dc does not find her too wordy).

I'm with pointydog on this one. The trouble with these giant tomes is that children miss out on so much else that is out there and that is frankly miles better. We seem to have ended up with copies of most of the HPs, but I don't even keep them on the shelf because they take up too much space, are disconcertingly fat and awkward, and I'm not keen on the girls spending their relatively limited reading time on something so long.

On the subject of better books, we recently discovered Ruth Thomas - her "the Runaways" which won the Guardian award in the mid 90s about a couple of misfit 11 year olds who find a stash of money in an old house and then go on the run with a pair of tents, is well worth reading. The characters were brilliantly drawn. Or for fantasy, Marianne Stott - e.g. her "The Mirror Image Ghost" was good I thought.

Perfectly fine for a six or seven year old in my opinion. The last three books are definitely darker, so I'd advise caution with those, but the first few are great for children.

I was in Year 3(I'm in 6th form now...) when I started reading them, and was instantly captivated. I read the majority of them between the ages of six and eleven. If they can read, and they want to read HP, then let them.

cripes, 6 yr olds reading Potter.

DD (6) has just read HP & the philosophers stone through and really enjoyed it. She has been reading about 30 pages a night in bed and in the morning enjoys giving a detailed synopsis!

DD got the 1st on audiobook for her birthday (age 8) & it lasted us all the way to Cornwall and back! We were all totally seduced by Stephen Fry and had the best car journey ever.

Another seducer is the guy who reads the Artemis Fowl books- such a low powerful voice. We are also still working on the Narnia's and plan to start the Hobbit soon. Audiobooks are definately the way to go IMO [lazy mummy alert!)

I've read book 1 and 2 to my girls this year (they're 7 and 9) and that was fine, told them that I'd do book 3 with them but then stop for a bit. My older DD is reading book 4 but I've told her it gets a bit dark after that so she's happy to wait for a bit - she is quite sensitive but knows this about herself so that was no hardship).
I did find HP hard work to read aloud, it works much better just to read. By contrast I'm now reading Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series (The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith) out loud to them - have just started on book 2 and these really are lovely to read out loud, TP has really thought about his use of language as well as about the big ideas that he sneaks into the books while you're busy laughing at the Nac Mac Feegles.
We're also big fans of the How to Train Your Dragon series - have read all the books to them AND bought the audiobooks - I cannot recommend the readings (by David TennantI highly enough.

Never found them over-written, rhiannon?

I'll start quoting bits at you soon

Mmmm. Ds (6, confident reader) & I haven't enjoyed them read aloud - I find them clunky, definitely, although I quite enjoyed them when I read them for myself.

I think they're better read independently tbh. & ds hasn't been grabbed so far - he's toyed with the first one, but hasn't got stuck into it the way he has with Roald Dahl, say.

I'd say certainly no harm in proffering HP&TPS/COS from age 5/6, though - the later books are a little darker, but again I'd be OK with dc progressing on to them.

Slightly inclined to agree with pointydog about watching the films & reading proper books , though. Ds would certainly endorse that!

Am going to wait until ds can read them himself (maybe 7 or 8 at a guess) otherwise I shall be tempted to sit up late at night with a thick black marker and severely prune books 5-7.

DD finished reading the last one on her 8th birthday or thenabouts. I tried to suggest that she stop after the 4th book, on grounds of subject matter in the last 3 books, but she insisted that she really wanted to finish, and wasn't scared so I let her.

I can't imagine having the stamina to read them out loud past the first two - I'd have thought that any child old enough to understand the content of the later books would want to finish them at reading speed.

Started reading them to DS when he'd just turned 6 - one chapter a night, which was all my voice could take - but by a chapter or so into book two, he grabbed the books and started reading them by himself - powered through the first five (all that were out at that date) by the time he was six and a half, then went back to the beginning and read them all again.

But luckily unlike inthesticks' DS, it didn't put him off reading other things, as he then plunged into Anthony Horowitz and so on. He's now 12 and doesn't read as much as he used to, but can get seriously absorbed in the right sort of book.

I know what you mean Checkmate - I resisted letting my DS move on to the later books as some of the themes are pretty scary. But he insisted he wasn't scared by them, and was always begging for the next book so I let him move on. He'd finished them all at about 7 and a half.

I've not read beyond the first three myself, but I read parts of book 7 to him aloud, and I found it overly wordy as well, pointydog

Percy Jackson is a nice series to move onto.

I'm surprised so many are reading them so young.
DD is 8 and about to start y4. I allowed her to read the first 2 this summer holidays, as she seemed at the right level, in terms of the text and the content. She'd just read the Narnia books, the Borrower series, and the Hobbit and was asking for something similar.

I'm going to let her read HP4 when she's 9 and see how we go... I think she'll be ready for all of them from then onwards.

I read the Narnia's to DS who is 5 and he loves them - try those first. I much prefer them to read aloud to HP.

I couldn't imagine having the stamina to read all the HP's aloud to my DCs. DS1 read the first one on holiday when he was 8.9mo. I wouldn't let him watch the films until he'd read all the books.

Personally I find the series dull beyond belief. However DS was a confident reader and had a good reading habit by the time he was able to read HP on his own and it has had no adverse effects. He's no big HP fan now though, aged 10.10mo

Lol, my kids both went through a Dobby phase. I have never found HP over-written! Ok, I shall stop now as this is getting into sensative teritory.

Get them the films and read them proper books

DD was 5 and DS was 3 but he liked them too. A bit freaked out by the end of Goblet of Fire so I had to 'explain that bit,don't read the words' so we are having a break and reading Tom's Midnight Garden. Not so much action but much better writing. Do love HP though and both older ones now obsessed. Even DD2 who is 2 lisps on about Hermione although is always cast as Dobby in games.