Films ruining the pleasure of reading for DD

[OlympicGoldPennies]

DD loves reading and devours books, but she also has a lazy streak! Recently my MIL bought the film of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I had recently bought the book for DD so I asked her not to show her the film until DD1 had read the book.

I asked DD this week if she had started the book and she said she had but then my MIL had shown her the film and now she won't read the rest of the book.

I'm really fed up about this and feel that DD has lost the chance to enjoy such a fabulous story using her own imagination. Also it means that the same thing is likely to happen with Harry Potter, isn't it. I'm taking matters into my own hands now on that front and I'm reading her HP and the Philosopher's Stone at the moment. She's capable of reading it but isn't old enough for it yet IYSWIM (she's recently turned 7).

AIBU to be annoyed? How can I stop this happening again?

She is 7, btw.
Enjoying a movie based on a book, has never been a reason for not liking to read in general, ime.
You can go on and read Anna Karenina without having ever read TLTWetc

And btw, my very active imagination would have never conjured up Alan Rickman's excellent Snape, for instance .

I see where OP is coming from. It's the same reason that I won't watch the film of His Dark Materials, because I already have images of Lyra et al in my head and I don't want them changed. I think you should have been listened to and she should not have seen the film first. Maybe you could read some of the other Chronicles books with her - it's not repeating TLTWATW but building on it.

I know exactly what you mean. i was attempting to control Narnia in the same way because reading the series in a single gulp aged 11 was such a great memory of mine.

DS is 8 and saw Prince Caspian at a friend's house. Darn! However, with him, the film introduces him to the characters and helps him get them straight in his mind (I was always reading books that were a bit too old for me and getting them in a terrible tangle). So it can help. My advice? Leap in and start reading Prince Caspian to her. It's a much better book than TLtWatW for young ones. I just read the chapter to him where Caspian is fleeing King Miraz at dead of night on his horse Destrier and encounters the Old Narnians, and it was wonderful . Bribe her if you have to - if she listens to 5 chapters over 5 days, you will [do what you do - sticker on reward chart or whatever]. I bet she bites.

Don't forget Miss Bianca - my dear favourites as a child, the films now so old she's not so likely to see them randomly.

Essie you are not missing anything with the Golden Compass. It is utter shite.

Not all kids read books - she will either want to or not and you can't change that

I think that if you just start reading TLTWANTW with her (and read it well) she will get into it.

I agree abput the golden compass It was an awful film dd said the book was ok but it was just awful ,

Films taken from books can and do incite my DD to read, as do plays, exhibitions... I don't subscribe to the purist viewpoint that works of art should be consumed in the original first, and derivatives only allowed once the original has been properly studied and digested.

Blimey- you must have plenty of time on your hands to worry about stuff like this! Particularly about Hsrry Potter, where the films are significanly better than the books on all fronts!

Aaprt from Half Blood Prince, where the book is great and the film is shite :o

Apart even, still so angry about the film...

YANBU for being annoyed. I would be.

I would be annoyed that my MIL had totally ignored me mostly, but yes, films ruin books.

Harry Potter books are so much better than the films. The films miss out most of the detail and ruin the books. I do enjoy the films but they don't compare! Not. One. Jot.

"you must have plenty of time on your hands to worry about stuff like this!"

Said by the poster who started the professionally unoffended thread!! Hilarious!

I agree with you! I was going to buy DS1 the Happy Potter box set for Christmas, but then decided I would buy it for myself, then I could let him watch each one after he'd read the books. He's actually quite enjoying my 'rule' I think and looks forward to seeing how the film turns out after reading each book.

We can't do this for every book / film though!

I agree with Bonsoir.
I also don't agree that films ruin books. There are some wonderful movies based on wonderful books. Sometimes movies are even more evocative than the books they are based on.
And more often than not crap movies are based on crap books.

If I was a MIL I would think it a bit sad that my dil wanted to control the films I watched with my grandchildren.(age appropriate, obviously, before anyone says their mil showed their 5 year old The Exorcist)

I thought the Order of the Phoenix was by far the worst of the 8 films.

YABU

You're letting yourself be sucked into the mindset that books have intrinsically more worth than films.

Harry Potter, by the way, has no intrinsic worth.

I would just relax about it. Go to the library regularly.
Films might make her want to read it later, they might not. She might want to see a film after the book,it might not.
She isn't you and so she might like the same books or she might not. I remember my mother wanting me to read a favourite of hers-'Anne of Green Gables'-I tried several times but never got very far, I just didn't like it.
Keep an open mind, introduce her to books, but don't expect them all to be successes and if someone gives her a DVD too early (to your mind) it doesn't really matter.
I still think that you could just read TLTWATW to her, if it extended her bedtime I bet she would go for it!

'You can go to bed now OR have a story for 20 mins' always worked with mine-even when they were quite old!

YANBU You're obviously disappointed that she may not now have the pleasure of reading The Lion... But there are other great books she will enjoy, and she may well come back to this one when she's a bit older.

The only prize I ever got at school was in my final year at primary, I got a prize for reading. It was the Tarka the Otter book. My mum was very proud and praised me a lot, and as a treat took me to the cinema to see the film which was out at the time. I was really upset by the sad ending so never wanted to read the book. Kind of defeated the point of the prize in the first place...

A lot of what we are saying is about what we like and what we want our children to like. You can't control that for long, and I think that if you persist in thinking you can you'll end up disappointed and possibly in conflict with your child. If we weren't talking about books, if we were talking about football, say, more people would be telling you to back off. IMO. But hen my DCs are older and not so persuadable.

"All she reads is bloody Jackie Willson and other depressing rubbish." - I don't think it matters what kids read if it makes them love reading. Reading should be an utter joy and forcing them to read tedious (in their opinion), but worthy (in your opinion) books will do nothing but put them off for life. My ds (8) came to reading via the Wimpy Kid books - hardly literary gold dust, but last time we went to stay at my mum's for the weekend and he told me that he wouldn't be taking his DS with him as he had his book it was music to my ears. Now I'm as likely to find him with his nose buried in a book as playing on the computer - something I wouldn't have believed was possible six months ago! As for seeing the film before reading the book, well that's just modern life. There are some great films for kids and also a lot of great books that have yet to be adapted - I don't see why you can't enjoy both.

I prefer to read the book before I see the film, because if you do it the other way around you can never make your own picture as you read, you always see the actor, or the setting as it was in the film. So if it's something I'm really interested in I make sure I read it first.

So I try to encourage DS to do it like that too, but it's hard if they are the right age to see the film by the time it has come out and they haven't read the book yet. I daresay now loads of kids will see the film without having read the book. And if you child is invited to a Birthday Party visit to a film of a book, who is going to say 'oh, sorry s/he can't come, hasn't read the book yet!'

Keep up the interest in reading, there are SO many great books out there, there's always something that hasn't been made into a film.

My DSD (13) hates reading. However she has just started to attempt Sherlock Holmes books because she loves watching it on TV :)

You have to bear in mind that everyone is different-I am the exact opposite of Blu and I hate to see a film change my book. I prefer to read it afterwards, it never spoils my imagination which may be different and is generally better. There is nothing to say that you DC is like you.

Half the fun of reading is to read things that adults hate! Understood by authors like Roald Dahl.