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?

But I love these stealth boast threads of my kid is so clever I have to read the classics to them st 3!!!

Thanks mumsnet so many laffs...

It depends entirely on the child...

I say this as someone who, at seven, was reading Dickens. On my own.

They are far darker than Animal Farm and I LOVED them. As a child I used to wake up when it got light - which in summer was 4am. Children's books were over too fast. At that age I could read a 100 page kids book (Blyton etc) in 20 minutes.

My mum gave me Nicholas Nickleby out of sheer desperation. As is happens it backfired - I woke her up at 5am one day to ask what ostentatious meant lol!

I didn't end up damaged - I ended up incredibly well read, literate and with a love of books that I still have today. I graduated with honours in English Literature at 20 and plan to do my MA soon.

My Kindle is my favourite item, and I'm passing on my love of literature to my dd.

If the child is able to understand and enjoy without being scared, and the book is not pornographic or gratuitously violent, and has literary merit, then why not.

OP - you know your child. If my Mum had been given some of the advice on here my life would have been less than it is.