To be worried about the number of 6 year olds reading Harry Potter?

[mydogeatsnutstoo]

My dd is 6, nearly 7. I think she is quite a bright child, she is creative and outgoing and quite athletic. Her school reports always suggest she is doing well.

However, I have been worried that she has not taken to reading as I thought she would - I was one of these precocious and avid readers as a child and she is just not! ( and not for want of opportunity, loads of books in house, taken to library a lit etc). She is on level 2b reading book which I think is about right for year 2 but definitely not Harry Potter level! Getting her to read in itself can be a trial, although she has spurts of interest and improvement though would not sit down and read a book herself very often.

I am trying not to push her but will be v disappointed if she doesn't like reading! Please tell me that there are other bright 6 year olds at this stage not reading The Hobbit (as my friend's daughter apparently has!) and that they can suddenly just 'get it' a bit later!

People aren't saying that

I think a few posters are implying that actually, But I know from my own posts about reading levels and the books my DD has been reading, some posters have insisted she couldnt possibly understand the books she has been reading. I have also seen it true to other posters. That is what I was referring to, a wider angst over the reading/comprehension thing.

also if my dd asked what book was best she would mean - as in good to read, fun and enjoyable.

is HP really worthy reading?

amber I hate HH, I cant understand it.

"A 6 year old simply can't understand some things on an emotional/developmental level,even if they can read and understand things on an intellectual leve"

Some 6 year olds. Other 6 year olds can.

YY Bumble.

Mine picked up HP at 7y3mo and didn't come up for air until he got to the end of the third book. That was the point where I put my foot down and wouldn't let him read any more because they were going to be far too scary. He is resigned to not being able to read the fourth book for another couple of years. Plenty to read in the meantime! It certainly hasn't put him off. But then I am a bookworm too.

Some 6 year olds could maybe comprehend the first 3 Harry Potter books but there is no way they could the latter ones. The last book especially is very dark and complex.

My 10 year old Dd is a fantastic reader but I only gave her HP to read this year as I wanted her to be able to really be able to understand the characters and their relationships. I don't think she could have done that before this year. I expect she will read them again when she's a teenager and get more from them but I genuinely don't think she would have got anything from them before now.

They are not books for 6 year olds.

Again, the Harry Potter books really aren't phenomenally complex or inaccessible. Nor essential reading. It's a series for children - and whilst 6 or 7 is a tad younger than the author might have expected her audience to be, 7 through 9/10 is a perfectly normal age range for enjoying these books. The worshipping of them is a bit odd, Imo...

Oh, and Horrid Henry is awful. Lazy writing; cheap stereotypes. Give me something off the Beast Quest mass production line over HH for a 6-year-old any day.

Here here to burning Horrid Henry books/TV.

Rainbow Fairies is from the same production line as Beast Quest. They have a good stable of writers, even if the plot (and sentence) structures are always the same. Francesca Simon is a one-woman-show... and I just don't happen to like her style. Subjective, innit?

I can - I just did. You don't have to agree; HH is clearly very popular.

My father couldn't read really until he was about nine. He had to go to special classes for slow kids. Then it clicked and he became a voracious reader. He's extremely well read, well educated, and erudite. He even taught himself to read ancient Greek.

There's no point in peaking early.

My dd had finished all the Harry Potter books by the end of year 2 after starting in yr 1 and my ds1 had read them all by the end of yr 3. Ds2 is in yr2 and barely reads anything, maybe a football themed book, and is still on basic books at school. All children develop at their own speeds and ultimately will all have different hobbies and things they are good at.

No, it's not the first time you've heard that. Because I didn't say that.

My mum read Jane Eyre at 8. That is not really appropriate reading material for a child. She was evidently a very precocious reader. She commented the other day that she didn't understand all of it at the time, there were bits that went totally over her head. But she DID enjoy it. She just enjoyed it at her level of understanding. And she read it again.

I honestly don't think it matters that everyone doesn't get the same level of understanding from a book. I would say that the majority of English Literature Degree students are going to get a deeper understanding of a particular book than your average reader (average - not all). I am possibly projecting, but I know that the depth of thinking and understanding I had for texts I studied was (unsurprisingly) much deeper than books I just 'read'. But, despite the fact that my level of understanding of a book I read on the beach or on the train is generally lower, I don't think that means I shouldn't be allowed to read it. I still get pleasure from the experience.

Point being, who cares if a younger child doesn't get the same level of understanding as a 10 year old, a 15 year old, or an adult would. If they are enjoying it and they want to read it again, where is the problem (of course, providing they aren't overly frightened or worried by it).

My 6 year old could read the words but I doubt she would comprehend it.

My almost 9 year old was an early reader. She is a great reader and has often read books which are 'above' her age range.

I have two great readers, and three that only want to read if it's a FB message or a text.

OP your child might learn to love reading or she might not. I wanted mine to love it because I'm a big reader myself who can't imagine the world without the love of reading.

Excellent point, WhattodoSue. As long as a book is not actively inappropriate for a child, and the child wants to read it, surely it's fine.

No. It's what you inferred.

It's what you think I implied - when in fact, I was simply pointing out that, if I must have a formulaic book, I'd rather one written by one of a stable of writers I tend to rate, than one written by a single author whose style I know I dislike.

I don't choose or censor what my kids read, though. They love some godawful shite, and some brilliant books, too. Harry Potter, imo, falls somewhere in the middle. As others have said, it's not what they read that matters, really.

Bloody hell. I really can't get worked up about the quality of writing in children's books. I don't get any of that angst. Just read for the enjoyment of reading. My kids just like stories.

My six year old isn't at all keen on reading himself but loves being read to. So I do. I'm currently reading reading The Wishing Chair, which he loves but is no way ready for Harry Potter.

I'm reading HP to my eight year old though and he's really enjoying it.