To let DD read Goblet of Fire

[Karlkennedyslovechild]

I don’t know so I’m throwing it out to the people in my phone to make my decision for me. DD turned 7 last month and has always been a reasonable reader but has really taken off since lockdown. She’s read all of Mallory Towers and can polish off a secret seven or Worst Witch in an evening. I’m running out of reading material and really miss the library.
We read the first 3 Harry Potters together probably around the end of last year and she loves it. A couple of months ago she asked if she could read them again to herself and I agreed. Now she’s pestering for book 4. Part of me thinks she’s too young but she has never been upset or scared by anything she’s read. Am I being too protective to say she has to wait? Realistically this will then lead on to books 5,6,etc.

So yes - I am a terrible negligent mother letting her read inappropriate material
No - go for it.

My 7yo has read all but the last one. Wasn't upset by the content, and was more than capable of following the story.

I'm holding off on the last one as it is very dark, and having read it myself really quite tedious.

The Narnia series is so much better on every level, but Potter is all over everything, and it is seen as 'cool' so of course your DD is going to want to read it.

She’s read about half of Dahl and not interested in the others (no idea why)

Possibly because she thinks they're crap? (Which would show she has taste.)

I'd second Diana Wynne Jones.

Classics? The Alice Books, The Hobbit. E Nesbit? (The Phoenix and the Carpet, Five Children and It) The Swallows and Amazons books?

Harder to get these days but The Uncle Books by JP Martin. All my kids LOVED these at that age.

Artemis Fowl is rubbish.

I generally think if they are reading books themselves they can read what they want. I think adults have a much better understanding of death than children and so are much more upset by Cedric's death whereas my children think the worst death is Dobby's.

But the best way to find age appropriate books that are appropriate for young readers is to go for the classics. The language in Narnia or The Secret Garden is much more challenging than in HP.

My son read them all at 6 and 7 and thoroughly enjoyed them. He wasn't one to read much for pleasure before the Harry Potter books. It really helped develop his vocabulary too.
I'm just glad it's a sensible question, not a Trans rights post!

I will just add that David Baddiels kids books are really good for that age group too.

My nearly 9 year old has read them all 🤷‍♀️ We read the first few together and the rest dc1 read alone. Understands the majority of the books and asked rather intelligent question.

We have also watched all the films not going to claim I’m the best parent in the world

Neither of my 2 found the films overly scary, dc2 has only sat and read the first book with me so far. We will work into them eventually.

I'd let her. My parents never restricted my reading material and I was a really avid reader. If books were too 'adult' either in content or writing style, I'd just put them down. It didn't ruin the experience when I came back to them years later. I'd have hated to be told I couldn't read the next book in a series I was enjoying, but deciding for myself after reading a chapter or two that it wasn't for me just yet would have been fine.

I don't think I ever had a sense of books having an 'age' - I remember a librarian being surprised that I'd chosen a picture book along with my usual stack of longer books. It didn't occur to me, until she said it, that it was supposed to be for younger children. The blurb looked interesting, so I wanted to read it. As adults, sometimes we like easy reads, or try to read challenging material - why shouldn't children be the same?

The Dark is Rising series?
The Snow Spider trilogy by Jenny Nimmo?

Can I recommend two of my favourites at that age? "The Borrowers" by Mary Norton - I had a copy from my Dad when it first came out, but it's falling to pieces because of how many times it's been re-read. The other is "The Little White Horse" by Elizabeth Goudge, which I still love, even now. Amazon describes it as "a wonderful, timeless children's classic set in Victorian times" and I think it should be better known. There's some lovely food in it!

If she’s capable of reading them then she is capable of reading them.

Quite how much she will get out of them at her age is a matter of opinion - and one your best placed to decide.

I don’t think any child of 6/7 is capable of fully appreciating HP from book 4 onwards - like a PP said those who aged with the book releases had it best.

But that’s not to say she wouldn’t enjoy it, just not on the same level as if she actually understood everything - she might get as much out of re-reading when she’s older as she will the first time but also she might not...

I read a LOT when I was younger - I’d done LOTR by the time I was 7...but I got a lot more out of it when I reread it at 11 and actually understood everything...but that was because my interest was peaked by the films...without that it would have remained the slightly crappy long winded and oddly worded book I’d read at 7...and I think that would have been a shame.

My DC s read that at about your DD's age. They must have re-read the entire series through the years, and gotten something different out of it every time!

I'd let her. My parents never restricted my reading material and I was a really avid reader

Very true - on reflection I retract my previous comment - I've always been a voracious reader from the age of 3 - 4, and as a result read loads of books.
I was on free reading by the age of 5 which basically meant I could go to the school library and choose my own book lol.
If she's a good reader she'll love them.

Do you still read to her? Could you read it together? Such a shame if you're not still reading to her at just 7.

It all gets a bit serious at Goblet, doesn't it. My DP is 7 and I've stopped him at Azkaban (film - he's only read Philosopher's yet).

I don't think I'd let him read it, in honesty.

Dd1 is 9 and we are reading them together not because she isn't capable but because she loves being read to and I enjoy it too. We had a false start with Prisoner of Azkhaban when she was just turned 8 coz it was scary but 6 months later she wanted to try again. We've just finished Goblet of Fire and she loved it and wasn't scared.
She said herself that if she hadn't read the book and known the story the end of the film would have been too scary.
Let her try - if it's too much let her stop.

I was way older when I read them - probably around 11 - but I remember my mum being way more shocked at the ending than I was. Depends on the kid, but I think things like that just somehow don't seem as real to kids. Also as an adult part of the upset is its all happening to children!

Also she'll get spoilers if she waits... Having said that, it is wonderful to discover them at age appropriate times. Lord of the rings was ruined for me by reading it too young.

When I was 7 I read “Alive” (the story of the Andes crash and they are human flesh to survive). At 8 I was reading about Jack the Ripper. Honestly, you know your child but they’re not like violent games etc.

Other recommendations... Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver (a bit of magic, native American characters)

Chronicles of earthsea by Ursula LeGuin

Let her. Ds1 had read them all in primary. He read all LOTR and every Stephen King plus tons of others before 14. He's well rounded and a very intelligent young man now.

The problem with Harry Potter is that it was written perfectly for those of us who grew up with them being released. I was primary-aged for the first, and a university student for the last. They work less well when read in one go.

But I let DS read them at 7. It helped, his Great Granddad had just died and let us talk about death a bit more. Not planned, I had been rereading the series and he decided he wanted to give them a go.

Oh and I had a penchant for biographies as a child. I was really young when I started on those. Mum used to be looking through Mills and Boon and I'd be sat in the library reading a biography on Marilyn Monroe

My just 7 year old has read all of the Potter books, several times!, over lockdown. He isn't in the slightest bit scared of them. He's pretty obsessed.

My 12 year old read them all at 7 and has gone on to read them at least once a year since! I say go for it.

My kids were both keen readers and I let them read the first three HP books when they wanted, but for book 4 onwards they had to wait until age 9.

To be honest I don't think they fully understand or appreciate the stories even at 9, and I would rather they'd waited a couple more years, but the HP craze was strong in Year 4!

I think with books they tend to stop reading if they're too scary or too complicated, or they skim over stuff.

@Karlkennedyslovechild
My library has an on-line borrowing facility.
I had to download the Borrowbox app onto my kindle and I can borrow up to ten books at a time.
Perhaps your library has the same system?
It saves me a small fortune.