I've bought a bargain boxset of Percy Jackson books. Are they appropriate for DS1 (7)

[Virgil]

I've been looking for ages and bought a boxset but have just caught ten minutes of the film on tv and just wondering whether they are appropriate for a seven year old. He's a great reader but we are quite careful about what he reads. So for example we've let him do the first Harry potter books but nothing after number four since they get a bit dark (I read the scary bit at the end of number four to him).

Any thoughts?

I'd say 9 and up- but if he's done Ancient Greece at school he might like you to read them to him?

Maybe I should read them to check. I was quite excited about getting them for him having heard people on here recommend them but maybe I need to keep them back for a year.

Percy Jackson books are fabulous - I would go for 8 and up if confident/fluent readers. I 'm surprised my 9yo ds2 hasn't been pilfering them from ds1 (newly 12 but read them at least 3 years ago).

They are great books, but I think they are probably too advanced for my 7 yo DS to read. However, if he's read the first three Harry Potters he will probably be fine.

I'd probably put the first Percy Jackson in broadly the same scariness league as HP4, although there is an apparent loss of a parent early on that might upset a sensitive child. Probably in general more aimed at 9yo up but I imagine there would be quite a few 7yo who would enjoy them.

I confess I'm never convinced about 7y reading HP. I guess they might get the plot in the earliest ones, but a terrible waste of some of the jokes and subtler bits.

Percy is huge fun, but dark and scary in place. Characters you care about die and they go to visit Hell.

Loads of names to keep track of. I think they are brilliant. Especially as I happen to have been to a lot of the places mentioned in them.

A seven year old would miss an awful lot of the intertwining of fact and fiction they just don't have the general knowledge to appreciate it.

I agree with Startail. He will appreciate them much more in a year or so.