WAr Horse - age?

[Llareggub]

I am bored of reading the Magic Treehouse etc, as is DS, who is 6. He won't read but loves being read to. He is deeply thoughtful, likes H E Marshall's Kings and Things, and the cartoon version of Shakespeare's plays. I picked up War Horse today and wondered if it would excite him or would the language be too advanced? His vocab isn't bad, but he is a pretty normal year 1 boy, I think.

What sort of age group is it aimed at generally? I can always keep it tucked away for a while longer.

I read this with DD a couple of months back and she was 8, she struggled with some of the language and I had to do a fair bit of explaining, I would think 6 may be a bit young.

Dd (8) and dh read this last year, she loved it but found it very emotional. I think 6 is quite young. Have you read it yourself yet? Suggest you do then you can tell if its appropriate or not

Good point, maybe I will skim read it as we quite like to read things for the first time together.

DD is 9 and couldn't read the final chapters as she was so emotional. Haven't ever seen her cry this much over a book )-:

I read it with ds last year (he's 5yo) at his request. He is very into the World Wars (particularly WWII) so knew a lot of the background which helped. He enjoyed it very much, although had a few tears. He's gone back and reread bits on his own, and done some research on the internet about WWI horses from that.

Dd2 (age 8) wouldn't touch it because it looked "frightening" and dd1 (age 11) read it and didn't enjoy it as she found it too emotional.

So it depends on the child.

Morpurgos' Marble Crusher is possibly more age appropriate? DS liked The Butterfly Lion at 7.

I would have thought it too sad for a 6 year old, especially a deeply thoughtful one. My DD is just 6 and I wouldn't read it to her. She currently enjoys listening to Dick King-Smith books. Have you tried those? He has some early reader ones like Poppet and The Hedge Hog, which DD is also able to read herself.

Is he not interested in reading himself or does he find it difficult?

For reading herself, at the moment DD is really enjoying the Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel (I Can Read series). I really like them too - they're gentle and funny and quietly meaningful. She can happily sit there and read a whole book, which is 4 or 5 short chapters of large print text. This makes her feel really good too!

I will try to think of more if that is helpful. It is my mission to fill DD's (and younger DS's) lives with good books

How about Friend or Foe by the same author? I think it tackles some concepts that can be interesting for children from that age but without being too old. Who are enemies and being away from home. The language is interesting enough but without being overly complex for that age. We read it to one of my children when he was a young 7 as he's fascinated by the war. They do evacuation and WW2 in year 2 anyway and I think the information is of a similar level.

I was going to say War Horse is a bit too old but I must admit to taking the same son to War Horse (film) when he must have been 6 and he loved it. I think he may have lost interest in it as a bedtime story. Private Peaceful is also an excellent war time book, if anyone is interested, but I'd say more for older children. I'd agree with the suggested reading ages on
www.childrenslaureate.org.uk/previous-laureates/books/3/