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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think Harry Potter is not suitable reading for under 10s?

119 replies

lljkk · 11/09/2008 14:06

I often read on MN that some child (age 5, 6, 7 etc.) has read HP.
Grand they have the technical skill - but how many have the maturity to grasp complicated plot?
And most of all, maturity to handle scarey bits and evil characters, esp. in the later books?
I know JKR intended the books for children the same age as HP in each book -- so first book for age 10, 2nd book for age 11, etc.

Am I only one thinks it's an inappropriate series for almost all little kids to read?

Discuss...

OP posts:
roisin · 12/09/2008 22:54

Yabu HP1 or 2 are relatively simple plots and ds1 read far more complex books and understood them when he was very young.

ds2 (9 now) is a competent but reluctant reader. I certainly wouldn't put him off by refusing to allow him to read something in particular.

But I don't really agree with book censorship in any form, and certainly not with age-guidance for books: that's just rubbish.
Philip Pullman writing very eloquently on the subject here

nooka · 14/09/2008 19:26

Wow, what a rant! I do think he should remember that without readers writers wouldn't get any money...

I would find it useful to have an idea of the technical difficulties of books when choosing for my children, as they get put off by books that are too hard for them to enjoy, and the lists from our school are very limited.

I'm quite happy to judge the content until such a time as my children have free reign.

cory · 14/09/2008 23:13

I don't see how an unknown censor would have any idea of what my children would find difficult, anyway. That is something that varies from person to person.

I know my children, I would be the best person to browse through a book and see what it would be like for them. Though I think it does them absolutely no harm to be put off by something difficult and then choose something else instead. Trial and error.

nooka · 15/09/2008 02:31

Well before I had children I would have agreed with you, as personally I was a bookworm from the get go as far as I know. However, watching my ds make his way slowly from hating reading to willingly picking up a book I don't want any more difficulties in his way. When he has books that are the appropriate reading age for him he romps through them and quickly moves onto the next one - he even asks me to buy them for him. Books that are too hard make him stop reading all together, requiring lots of coaxing to get him going again. He is dyslexic, but dd also has some of the same lack of confidence. This summer they were both doing a reading marathon, but dd found her first book too hard work, and retreated to picture books.

Once children have the confidence to pick up any book, try it and not feel a sense of failure in putting it down again, then sure they can be let loose on anything, but until then guidance is very worthwhile and welcome.

cory · 15/09/2008 09:26

I know what you mean, Nooka; ds has also not been a confident reader. But two things still spring to mind:

*his difficulties are personal to him- some unknown censor isn't going to know what he, as an individual, finds difficult.

When I was a child, received wisdom was that what made books easier were large print, first person narrative and the present tense. Now these happened to be precisely the things that made books more difficult to understand for me. So "easier" books were more difficult iyswim. I'd have done fine with Harry Potter, but would have found Michael Morpurgo more uphill going.

*not all children are easily discouraged by difficulties. If you set out saying that all children should have parents/teachers/censors make sure they are not doing anything too difficult, then you are not helping the type of child that thrives on a challenge.

Some children, oddly enough, get on better with more difficult work. My parents were right to let me have a go at reading the Oddyssey in the original with a wordlist at the age of 9, despite my having no knowledge of the language. Of course it wasn't actually possible (ancient Greek doesn't work like that!), but I was enjoying myself, I was excited by the difficulty of the task and some of that thrill stayed with me when, years later, I actually set about learning ancient Greek in a more conventional manner. Early failure did me no harm at all.

As for my English, I am largely self-taught. I started dragging a dictionary round at the age of 7 or thereabouts. Should my parents have stopped that, just because I might have got discouraged?

I am sure you are doing the right thing for your children. But this wouldn't necessarily be right for mine. Or at least not for both of them. Children are individuals.

nooka · 15/09/2008 15:14

I'm not looking for a censor! I don't think the way that bookshops categories books is always right, let alone publishers. And I absolutely hate reading schemes. But I would like more guidance to be available so that I can try new authors out with the kids with a little more confidence. When I was a kid I refused to read anything that was aimed for my age group, and always chose the fattest books from the library, I would struggle through books I really didn't understand, just to boast that I had read them so my own experience is unfortunately not very applicable for my children at the moment. ds is nine, at his age I was reading books that I know are way beyond his reach (I read these aloud to them instead).

The guidance from school is to mainly choose books within their reach to stretch them gently, and that seems to work well. With a good stock ds read steadily throughout the holidays - it made me so happy to peep into his room and see him absorbed in reading. Trouble is he has finished about half of the recommended series - I need more!

stleger · 15/09/2008 15:26

I work in a bookshop - quite a lot of adults seem to want age guidance. I get a lot of questions on 'what age group I this for?' topics. My ds had zero interest in Harry Potter or anything 'made up'. My dd1 has read them all - the 4th one came out when she was 10, so younger for the first three. My dd2 who is 11 has no interest in 'the dark arts'....There is no real answer to the question of whether something is suitable for anyone!

lovecat · 15/09/2008 15:29

Difficult one to call... my elder brother just wasn't interested in reading, then he started The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in school and that was it, he was off and away - I read them as he finished with them at age 7 and loved them (tho' the Last Battle still terrifies the life out of me, that Pauline Baynes picture of Tash drifting through the trees - oooh, it gives me the shudders!)

The thing I read that freaked me out most as a child wasn't a book, per se, it was a quote at the start of a chapter in Watership Down (which a quick google just now has revealed to be the 6th and 7th verse of a W H Auden poem called The Two) - I first read this when I was six and that poem has utterly stayed with me, the images are horrifying - much more creepy than anything that happened to Hazel, Fiver and co.!

I then read the Plague Dogs, really enjoyed it but re-read it years later as a teenager and found all these other meanings that I hadn't even considered at the time!

Re. the OP, I think the first three HP books are fine, four is good but a bit shocking at the end (kill the spare - ooh, shudder time again!), five-six are dullsville and by the time a child has waded through them, he/she will probably be old enough to cope with number seven!

nooka · 15/09/2008 15:29

I guess that's why librarians and good children's bookshops are so useful, I can go in and say ds likes (Geronimo Stilton for example) what other books might be up his street. Trouble is bookshops around us are huge and pretty assistant free. Luckily we have a very good library.

nooka · 15/09/2008 15:31

Good analysis there lovesville. I found Plague Dogs very scary!

Quattrocento · 15/09/2008 15:31

What utter nonsense. My DD read them all by the time she was 9 - you can't stop a child from reading ... I'd read Lord of the Rings by 10 - why not? Why don't you go and worry about something important instead ....

nooka · 15/09/2008 15:35

oops - lovecat! Sorry

stleger · 15/09/2008 15:37

But (starting with a conjunction...) no matter how good the bookseller or librarian is, it is difficult to tell with certainty if a book is 'suitable'. I have a friend who was horrified at a Jacqueline Wilson book her dd brought home from school, it wasn't one of the 'for older readers' ones.

nooka · 15/09/2008 15:45

I'm not too worried about suitability. I don't really have a worry about sex (most kids skip over that sort of thing) or difficulties (happy to talk to ds about those) and horror is usually pretty easy to spot (ds doesn't really do scary). I usually flip through books when I am choosing them (if they look good I will read them - I love good children's books) so I'm fairly confident I would be able to spot "inappropriateness". It's just technical difficulty I have problems judging. It's just frustrating to bring home six or seven books and have none of them appeal to him, or have him start and then get stuck.

lovecat · 15/09/2008 16:02

nooka

That other link about the mum complaining has reminded me that my mum marched down to our school and tore a strip off them because I'd taken Jaws out of the school library (aged about 12), she'd picked it up to read it after me and had discovered liberal use of the c* word plus (horrors) extra-marital sex - I think they listened politely then sent her on her way... I wouldn't mind but they also had the Decameron in there, which we'd all had a look through but never been stupid enough to take home with us!

nooka · 15/09/2008 16:08

I think that my mum would have been horrified at some of the books that were passed around school (was it Flowers in the Attic that had the goldfish incident? we certainly enjoyed that one!). I don't think our secondary school library had anything much interesting in it - I can't remember reading books there at all.

stleger · 15/09/2008 16:47

Wasn't that Lace?

tonton · 15/09/2008 17:09

Goldfish - definitely Lace!

madmildred · 17/11/2008 17:22

I've personally read all the Harry Potter books twice, and on the second round read them to my son (age 3) he loves them, he may not understand all of the plot but it's a great way for him to develop his vocabulary if nothing else. By the time I was 10 I'd ploughed my way through all the Enid Blyton books I could find (Famous Five, Secret 7 etc) and was getting into H.E. Bates books (eg. darling buds of may etc). My theory is if you can read it and you enjoy it you're old enough!!!

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