Harry Potter - Half Blood Prince

[lavendersun]

Would you let your 8.5 year old read this book? GPs bought DD a box set a couple of years ago but I stopped her from reading the last two.

She is very very keen to read another one, it is a year since I allowed the last one which I think was Order of the Pheonix.

We have watched all of the films up to Order of the Phoenix after each book has been finished she has been fine with them.

I found it to be similar to Order of the Phoenix. Very important characters die in both, Umbridge was pretty dark in the former, so if your DD was OK with that I'd imagine HBP would be OK. Still quite hard going though, especially at the end.

One of the best film scenes DanRad's done is in HBP after HP has taken Felix Felicis and goes in quest of Slughorn's memory... the pincers

Yes, I think Order is a tougher book

I made mine wait til year 5, so they were 9/10. I felt that they are pretty old/scary themes in them.
But I must say I prefer them to read the books rather than watch the films. And I haven't let dd watch the rest of the films as they are all a 12 and she is not yet 10. But I am quite strict over films. I think that visual images are hard to forget, but in a book the image is self generated so less scary. And i am mean so I said they had to read them before they watched them!

But I also think that they are huge books, so most 8 year olds won't get to the end. If she is able to read them, then she is obviously reading quite 'grown-up' books already.

Thanks all, she is a fantastic reader for her age, reads and completely gets The Hobbit - I was just worried about the darkness. Reading is her thing.

I wouldn't allow the film if she hadn't read the book steppeing, I confiscated the last two but might allow HBP now. She has read all of the others several times and is 'bored by them now Mum".

We are off to HP World soon and the nagging is endless!

In some ways, I think HBP is the most sinister of all the HP books. DH is more overtly dark, with scenes of torture etc, but it is always shown that this behaviour is wrong. The scene where Harry prepares to sacrifice his life in DH could be pretty disturbing for an 8yo, but equally it might be one of those things where it goes over a child's head.

HBP on the other hand has some less obvious problems. The depiction of Harry's relationship with Ginny is a bit... weird. I don't like the way the books handle Ginny in general, but in this book in particular, Harry's desire for her is presented in a very 16yo boy way, and it's not very well dealt with in my opinion. The language used imo is less than ideal, and I'm not sure if it's ideal for an 8yo to be reading. There's no overt sexual content though. I think part of the issue is that JKR can't write romance very well.

The violence in this book is also a bit more realistic, not just fantasy violence. For example, Harry casts a curse on Draco which has a similar affect to knife violence could in real life. Early on in the book, there is also a section where Draco discovers Harry spying on him, and stamps on his face and leaves him hidden on the train.

Some of the "memories" of Voldemort as a child are also a bit disturbing, but again, I don't know if these would go over a children's head or not.

I think OotP is dark in some ways, but it's still very much presented in a fantasy way- it still reads like a children's book to me, whereas HBP didn't feel like a children's book to me and it deals with fairly adult themes.

In all honesty, if you haven't read the last two books yourself, I would read them before deciding- only you will know what your DD can cope with.

I think HP is a really difficult series, because it almost grew up with it's first readers- I would say the first 3 books feel like definite children's books, books 4/5 feel more like YA books, and then books 6/7 read more like they were written for older teenagers/adults.

I would also say, just as a general point, just because a child can read things doesn't mean that they should. I was also an advanced reader as a child, and by the time I was in secondary school, my parents had totally given up on censoring my reading, and I was reading books aimed at adults, sometimes with a lot of sexual content in them, which was probably less than ideal.

I'm the other way steppeing - the books leave a much more lasting impression on me than any of the films did, precisely because you're forced to imagine it. It's interesting how people differ, isn't it?

I would definitely suggest reading them yourself first, only you can know how any of the violence might/might not affect your DD, I myself skip past the chapter mentioned by a pp where Harry curses Draco, not sure why though, I don't think it's the violence I think the hero doing something so horrible and realistic just makes my skin crawl!

I'm so jealous of your dd.

I'll never be able to read the end of Harry Potter for the first time again!

I agree very much with Sansa's summary of the books. Without knowing your dd personally, it's hard to say how they'd affect her. I think OSMalley's advice to read them yourself first is probably wise.

A bit thread-hijack-y but out of interest Sansa what is it about Ginny and the relationship that made you uncomfortable? I've never heard that opinion, only that people love book Ginny and film Ginny is a bit dull in comparison. Wondering if I could be looking at it in a different way.

OP it's always difficult to say without knowing the child individually but as a generalisation I would say it would be okay. I'd say HBP is one of the lighter/funnier books but that might be because when it's heavy, it's really heavy, and sort of plunges into darkness a bit going forward. I'd definitely say if you do decide to go ahead and say yes reconsider again before the next book. But for me personally I would say if she could handle Order of the Phoenix then HBP is sort of on the same level.

I am generally of the opinion that if they can read and enjoy a book then they are not too young for it and that they will stop if they don't want to read on. I was worried about HP too, but my DDs both read all of the books at 7 (I had told DD1 she couldn't start them until 7, so on her 7th birthday she literally set off through them). I had planned not to let her go beyond Prisoner of Azkaban, but the trouble was she knew we had all the books and so nagged until I rather pathetically gave in. She read pretty much solidly for three months and loved every minute. She read them again a year or so later though and I think she had more understanding and enjoyment when that bit older. DD2 also started reading them around the time she turned 7, but she got scared and upset (I think only in 2nd book - so not even one of the 'darker' ones) and we had a chat and she stopped reading them and moved back onto the 'Lost kitten' and 'fairy / unicorn' type things, then diverted through Michael Morpurgo (many of which I thought seemed bit much for her age group - Private Peaceful shot at dawn upset me more than anything in Harry Potter, Joan of Arc in Sparrow - clearly not going to end well...., but she loved them all). She picked HP up again about 6 months later and read all the books through.

DD1 is a voracious reader and has read so much aimed at her age group (her school has a very well stocked library), and so she has now kind of moved on. I do think that children get out of books what they can understand and process, and then later come back and read again and understand more, so reading material is not necessarily something to censor too heavily.

Like a PP I had very free access to all sorts of books as a child which no one bothered to check or consider. I read many things which were no doubt deeply inappropriate for my age, however, I'm in two minds as to whether that was a bad thing.

I am a bit more careful than my parents were I suppose. I had misgivings about DD1 (now 10) buying the hunger games with her birthday book tokens, but she totally loved every second of them (as did I, bizarrely), and she has pretty free access to all our bookshelves, but she is quite self regulating - she'll pick up books that I'm reading, read few pages and drop them again as 'boring'.

If I'm honest my pet hate is her reading the newspaper - there is not much in fiction worse than what is all over the news at the moment, but she reads it all anyway as I'm hardly about to start locking the papers away.

So I suppose I'm trying to say that generally my belief is, if they enjoy it, let them read it and don't over think it.

Thanks everyone. We told DD she could read the book yesterday and we didn't hear a peep from her for the three hours she sat in the chair reading last night - we couldn't get a reply for most of the night.

I am chief censor, no chance of her reading anything too inappropriate.

Nelly she really doesn't like Morpurgo, thinks they are all a bit same ish, most have a very similar underlying theme and less than cheery! There you have it, 8 year old critic's view.

DS is seven and a half and has read them all. He's going through them again now and is half way through GOF. :) I was nervous about the darkness too but he honestly doesn't seem to really "get" it, it's all so fantastical to him at this point. I think more will sink in when he's older.

I'm usually quite strict about what he reads and sees too.