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.

I think she'll be fine. I read lots of older books at that age. Devoured them.

She's not interested in Dahl likely because he's a boring twunt. I always hated his twee little books. What's the point to them? Substandard plot to make way for childish descriptions.

@ThePlantsitter

Ooh Pinky U I completely disagree with you! I think children learn how to decode their own complex relationships and begin to acquire the theory of mind you're talking about by reading them. There's nothing stopping people rereading again and again and in fact I remember some of my favourite childhood books as a developing picture of meaning as I grew up.

This.

As a kid I adored Robert Heinlein's juveniles: 'The Space family Stone', 'Have Space Suit will Travel', 'Tunnel in the Sky', Podkayne of Mars' etc. - rip roaring adventures all. Loved the can do, will do characters. Good guys vs Bad guys.

Looking at them now as an adult I think they are near-unreadable, neo-fascist, Libertarian tripe.

Would I stop my kids reading them if I saw them pick one up? No, of course I wouldn't.

Thank you all. Really interesting viewpoints and some great recommendations. I think I’m going to heavily suggest some other choices and see how we go. We’ve got a few Jacqueline Wilson that she hasn’t tried yet and I’ll get some of the other suggestions.

Famous five had come up - I read all those to her last summer. Personally I struggled with those, not sure they’ve aged well. Lots of talk about evil gypsies and the black child nicknamed Sooty!! She wasn’t phased by any of the mortal peril they were constantly in though. She’s just started Secret Seven too.

A couple of people mentioned BorrowBox. We have this and it’s on her kindle fire but since she does most of her reading in bed hiding under the covers when I think she’s asleep I don’t want her having her tablet in bed at night. I don’t think you can get it on the simple e-readers. I can’t on my kindle.

So I’ll try to stall but not lose too much sleep at letting her if she really wants to. I think I agree with the viewpoint that you only improve by challenging yourself and she can give up if she wants to.

The chronicles of narnia is a lovely alternative but as long as you can spend some time reading together, books imo are not the same as films with their need for ratings due to graphic imagery. Dd2(8) is reading GoF at the moment and she has a lot of questions, mainly because she is inquisitive. It's a lovely activity to be able to sit and talk with her about it.

As a child myself I was reading my parents books and at a similar age developed a fondness for the Gerald Durrell books. Given lots of children's books, especially the likes of Jacqueline Wilson, deal with real life experiences, the amount of fantasy in GoF outweighs the reality hit at the end.

I’m a big believer in not policing what children read, within reasonable restriction of course (nothing intended for adults) Harry Potter is intended for children (although it’s good for adults too) so why not let her read them? Children are capable of understanding situations and complex themes more than some adults on this thread give them credit for, as for people saying ‘she won’t get the most out of it’ I hardly think that this will be the last time she’ll read it! She’s already reread the first few books. Let her read, don’t restrict a child’s imagination.

By the way if she can read Jacqueline Wilson she can definitely read Harry Potter! I read Jacqueline Wilson as a child but some of them are really grisly you know, themes of abuse, death, some are quite dark