Harry Potter - what age?

After book three, I couldn't bear reading them aloud to anyone. So tediously over-written and poorly edited.

My ears screamed just having to listen to the interminable cd of book four on a long car journey.

I have just finished reading bk 6 to my DS and he is 7, he is so excited about the last one. They are an utter JOY to read aloud and I feel as if I am reading them anew this way having read them numerous times myself.

Just on the last few pages of reading Book 1 to DS1 who has just turned 5 - he has very much enjoyed it. DD (now nearly 11) was this age when we began reading them to her and - having had all seven books read to her over the years - she has spent this summer re-reading them all and loving them all over again.

Think it depends what else you read to them. DS has had all (pretty much) Roald Dahl books read to him plus others of a similar style/level and he loves stories. We have been reading 'proper' books (rather than just picture-type storybooks - we often read both at bedtime) since he was around 2.5 years.

The main difference with moving from these other books to HP was the writing was definitely more in-depth and complex. The first chapters of HP1 are like this and with both DCs, I found myself thinking that perhaps we'd taking on a bit much, a bit too early/young. But we carried on and they were both a good age to start this series. - Go for it!

I'm not sure I'd bother either, unless you yourself really enjoyed them. I started reading them to my two when they were 6 and 7ish and found that they were very clunky to read and the children weren't terribly interested. So I read other books instead. But then I don't think that they are very good books, the series has a really pappy ending, and gets totally bloated in the middle IMO.

My ds also does the obsessional reading thing, getting him to move from re-reading particular series to something new is always a struggle. But he is dyslexic, so perhaps reading anything for pleasure should be enough.

I may be wrong to blame HP as DS2 did not respond the same way.
DS1 is 14 now and he read all the time up to about age 11. He re-read HP several times and did read lots of other stuff but since then has gone off fiction completely. I feel he misses out on one of life's great pleasures and he still says if there were another HP he would read it.
DS2 is 12 and reads all the time.

oh no inthesticks!

DS, at 7, has read the whole series twice. He loves them - to the extent that I can see your point, inthesticks, but we have managed to get him interested in other books as well. He reads all the time.

I wouldn't bother.It seems an odd thing to say but I think HP had an adverse effect on my son's interest in books.
DS1 was an early reader and HP himself from age 6 and loved it so much that no other books have ever been good enough.

Book one isn't scary, it gets scary about book 4. JK would allow her then 9 year old to read that book onwards at the time.

we've been reading it to DD1 (6) and DD2 (nearly 5) and they are loving it. nowhere near as scary as the films (so far anyway, nearly at the end of book 1)