Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

AIBU to not let DD6 finish Harry Potter series?

110 replies

WhattodoSue · 01/12/2015 00:01

My DD has been immersed in the Harry Potter books for 3 weeks. She is a very good reader, and when she finds a series she loves, she will read for hours. I initially planned to limit her to books 1-3. But she begged to read 4, and then following more strong assertions that they weren't scary I have let her read 5. I am a bit regretting it bcause Umbridge is so evil. She evidently doesn't get the same level of understanding a 12 year old does, but at the same time she is utterly enthralled and is getting a lot of pleasure from reading them.

I am not sure if I should stop her reading 6 & 7 if she is desperate to, or let her go with what she feels interested in. She re-reads her favourite books, so I'm sure these will get re-read over the years. BUT, i don't want her traumatised. Anyone else have young Harry potter readers? Thoughts? Thanks!!

OP posts:

TudorTrace · 01/12/2015 11:19

To be honest, OP, let her read what she likes if you think she understands it well and can interpret it.

I read World without end in Year 6 (so about 10), and I absolutely loved it. It's one of those books that gave me a real love for reading, purely because it wasn't wishy washy nonsense. I understood it perfectly well and spoke to my Mum if I had any questions.

aprilanne · 01/12/2015 11:23

the problem is to let her read 5 then say no to 6/7 is just cruel .imagine not getting to read the end .you should have thought of that to start with before allowing her to start .

Original poster

WhattodoSue · 01/12/2015 11:23

Thanks all so much for your thoughts and opinions. I think I am going to tell her she can read them all, but that they may not be as good now and they have some grown up things. What I have learnt in this process is that my DD loves a challenge. She was desperate to get her hands on 4 and 5 exactly because they were so big and I told her they were scary and for older children. In so doing, I have made her even more desperate to read them, but I have also made it harder for her to tell me she is worried by them. If I tell her she can't read them, she will be desperate to. I do think the scary stuff goes a bit over her head, but hopefully this way she won't feel she has to say she isn't scared just to prove it was right for her to read them. But she loves an engrossing read and is clearly getting a lot out of them.

OP posts:

myotherusernameisbetter · 01/12/2015 11:24

Ds read the first 3 up to age 7 and then waited a couple of years to read the rest. There are plenty of other books out there that are more suitable.

multivac · 01/12/2015 11:24

I think the main thing, OP, is that you carry on talking to each other about what she's reading. If she knows she can share any concerns with you, then that will help her navigate safely along her literary journey.

multivac · 01/12/2015 11:25

(And also, if she knows you are genuinely interested in what she's reading, too!)

atticusclaw2 · 01/12/2015 11:25

DS1 had no problem with waiting for book 6. Its only the same as the rest of us had to do when we waited for JK Rowling to write it!

There are plenty of other amazing books for them to read in the meantime.

multivac · 01/12/2015 11:33

Um - I was a grown up when JK Rowling was writing the first Harry Potter book. I've only ever been interested in the series as a parent.

CFSsucks · 01/12/2015 11:37

My DS is 7 and loves HP. I am reading them to him even though he wants to read them himself as well, it's my thing I enjoy with him at the moment but we are plowing our way through OoTP and it's bloody long! I'm a very fast reader in my head but out loud it's driving me mad.

Anyway I wouldn't have dreamt of telling DS we were stopping at a certain book. What's the point in letting them start. He has also watched the first 6 films (HBP only recently as he begged). I went through certain things first that he may find scary and said we would turn it off if he didn't like it but he hasn't been bothered by any of the stuff I thought he might be.

Children see things differently to adults and a lot will go over their heads. I remember watching Dirty Dancing and Drop Dead Fred when I was young and loving them but I'm actually very as an adult that I was allowed to watch them at the age I did. A lot of it went over my head. My DCs certainly won't be watching either of them for a long time.

Some children are more sensitive to certain things. DS isn't bothered by HP or the first Jurassic Park (only one we've let him watch) but a couple episodes of bloody Scooby Doo have given him nightmares! I have a friend who's child is so terrified of Wallace and Gromit he can't even have the dvd in his room at night as it scares him.

atticusclaw2 · 01/12/2015 11:42

Well aren't you all grown up and sensible multivac

ProvisionallyAnxious · 01/12/2015 11:46

In fact we agreed with her teacher to ban her from them for a few months in Y3 because she wasn't reading anything else.

My parents did that, and bought me a pile of Dickens to read instead. It has put me off Dickens to this very day. I'm currently studying for a PhD, so like to think that obsessive reading as a child is an excellent sign of valuable bloody-mindedness in future life.

squoosh · 01/12/2015 11:49

Oh my parents were obsessed with getting me on to Dickens when I was all consumed by the goings on in Sweet Valley High.

And I've never once seen either of my parents read anything by Mr Charles Dickens themselves!

(everyone knows Wilkie Collins is far superior anyway)

multivac · 01/12/2015 11:53

"Well aren't you all grown up and sensible multivac"

Oh, I didn't say that, ac...

Just never a Potterphile.

SooticaTheWitchesCat · 01/12/2015 12:04

I would let my DD read them, she is reading them all now, she is 9 but she listened to them all before when I read them to my older DD, she was probably about 6 then.

I don't stop my girls reading anything they want but I do tell them to stop if they don't like something, not that they ever do.

whois · 01/12/2015 12:10

I was another one with a reading age in advance of my actual age, and mum let me ready what I wanted from the library. I did read some unsuitable stuff - notably remember one about drug addiction - but I didn't get all the themes and issues and if things upset me or anything I didn't finish to book or skipped over that section.

arethereanyleftatall · 01/12/2015 12:13

Loving all the completely unnecessary boasting on this thread.

multivac · 01/12/2015 12:22

ponders the concept of 'necessary' boasting...

ProcrastinatorGeneral · 01/12/2015 12:25

arethere my son is autistic and has precious little positive in his life right now that I can boast about. The fact that he absolutely loves books and will read is something I'm never going to apologise for. Wind your bloody neck in, because it makes you sound jealous of a sodding child.

arethereanyleftatall · 01/12/2015 12:27

Not the children, the adults....

newlabelwriter · 01/12/2015 12:30

My DD is 7 and she is on the last book as well. We were a bit concerned but she is fine with them. She read Roald Dahl when much younger and some of those touch on some real adult themes as well. She is very happy and hasn't been concerned by the themes or content.

GruntledOne · 01/12/2015 12:31

If she is desperate to read them, I doubt you will stop her - she will buy them with Christmas money or borrow them or get them out of the library. So you may as well go with it.

Crabbitface · 01/12/2015 12:34

What I loved about the HP series was waiting for a year until the next one came out. The plots and themes and even JK Rowling's writing style reflected that her (target) readers were growing up alongside HP and his pals. Based on that I decided that my DS will read one a year. We read the first book together a chapter a night and will read the second one next year when he is six and so on. Not because i'm into censoring what he reads but because i think it's good to have a sense of anticipation.

MyLifeisaboxofwormgears · 01/12/2015 12:35

I reread Harry Potter a while back and realised how badly written they are in places.
If your child likes reading I'd recommend Diana Wynne Jones and Susan Cooper over Harry Potter - they'll learn better sentence structure for a start.

multivac · 01/12/2015 12:36

arethere Why do you feel that saying "I was like your child, and this is how my parents' decisions at the time affected me" is unnecessary?

squoosh · 01/12/2015 12:36

What if he decides next year that he wants to read more than one a year? Seems a bit controlling to say he has to wait just because you had to wait.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5