opinions on reading 'animal farm' to a 7 year old

[thechairmanmeow]

i'm sure he wont get the full ethos of the book allthough i will try to explain it to him as we go, and it possibly has more to do with me being fed up with christopher robin discovering the north pole again. were on page 2, 3rd night reading now, about 15 minutes every night, seem to be ok so far, but i'm curious what the rest of you think?

Is Enid Blyton still on the banned list... her Famous Five and Secret Seven books are perfect for a 7yo boy.

Stig of The Dump is also a good childrens book especially for boys.

Gosh there are hundreds.

Maybe not that particular book. Although my parents read My family and other animals to me at that age just took out the swearing and sex references..not a lot left but hey i loved that book for some reason.

Ah, kids love dark tales and they don't all need to have happy endings. My parents read both Animal Farm and the BFG to me at7, wildly different books but both really captured my imagination, especially with parents doing the voices etc. If they hate it you can stop, and they may, like me, end up reading it completely differently as a teen and then an adult. Go for it!

I loved The Magic Faraway Tree series. Still do! You can have a different story for every night with them.

And there a lots of other books that show the horrors of the class system in a much age appropriate way. Enid Blyton, for example.......

So - errr - why is squeaky's post sad? Sad? Really? I think reading to a child who is well over the age of being able to read and enjoy for themselves is pretty sad - is it a case of not wanting to let go? When will you stop? When they graduate and leave home?

I read it myself when I was about 9, so I see no reason why not. I also studied it for GCSE, which showed me how much of the main point I had missed on first read, but I still really enjoyed it.
It's still one of my favourite books, I say go for it

I don't even think it should be classed as a childrens book, it's just awful.

Please don't consider reading that book to your DC, there will be nightmares for weeks!

BFG was another book I loved..So many memories flooding back from this thread!

I remember a thread some time ago where the mother posted asking if they were BU to no longer read to their 14 year old (I think it was) since they both worked full-time and had two smaller dc they read to. She got one heck of a bashing for that and not wanting to read a chapter of Harry Potter to him every night.

I think if you want to and they want to, it is fine to continue reading to your dc to any age. I also think it is no big deal if you stop. It is not going to make or break them but 7 is still young and I think 7 year olds enjoy being read to in addition to the reading they do themselves.

Lentilly I woudl prefer my child to read to themselves at age 7, I was reading two books a week at this age.

But I guess if the child has no interest in reading to themselves at least reading to them they are still getting the benefit of the book.

I read that about 8 years old. I will never get over it, the mental scars. BOXER!!!

My concern wouldn't be that it's an inappropriate book but more that it could spoil a book that he will enjoy as a teenager. I never get the point of reading books to children (or giving them to them to read themselves) when their appreciation of the book will be greater at an older age.

I read Hunger Games to my 8 and 11 year olds because we were stuck in a caravan for a week with it pissing down all day every day, that was the book I was reading and they read the back and thought it sounded exciting. They hung on every word and it was a fab bonding experience.

I still read regularly to them as a form of entertainment for all of us - our current theme with ds1 and I are finding books with strong female protagonists after we had a discussion about whether girls could be heroes (I think I've proved my point now and we've read some BRILLIANT books as a result). Ds2 is still Harry Potter mad. They both read voraciously by themselves as well.

I'll stop reading to them when they want me to stop. I also regularly read out articles I find interesting to my dh and dh reads stuff out to me that he thinks I'd like. All of us will listen to audiobooks when we're in the right mood. So I don't think there's a particular age limit where you should stop reading to people, quite honestly!!

Re: spoiling it for when they're older. You can read books MORE THAN ONCE you know. And get different things out of it each time.

Dany Targaryen it isn't classed as a childrens book per se, it's a book that can be read by either. And if the grown ups pinch Harry Potter then why can't the kids pinch a classic parable?

manic i dont think thats true for everyone. My parent read me adult books at 8 and by 9/10 i was reading them by myself. But when i was a bit older say 15ish i could read them and appreciate them in a totally different way but it didnt change how much i loved them as a child.

Puts Animal Farm on the reading list after this thread

Crunchy Frog don't remind me, I remember the sob fest even now!

rubberduck ive never read it either but didnt want anyone thinking me uncultured

I agree, oi, I first encountered Douglas Adams before I was 10, still re-read it, still get different stuff from it. LOTR is another one, lots of stuff I read as a pre-teen I still love.

When I was about 8 I somehow got my hands on a bunch of V.C. Andrews books...

Reading them again at 11 made muuuuch more sense!

Did anyone else cry at Charlottes web?

I cried a lot more at Charlottes web than Animal Farm...