Can a bright 8 yo really appreciate Dickens?

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My (fairly normal) friend has started coaching her 8yo for the 11+. As part of this they are reading Great Expectations together. Now, I consider myself reasonably bright, (although admit my A-levels etc were maths/science based, arts never really my thing) and I have never got to the end of this book. I find Dickens incredibly hard going.

The girl is undeniably bright, but not miles ahead of her class or anything. It's none of my business and they can obviously do as they please, but I'm interested to know if this is really realistic or if I (and my children) are exceptionally thick.

I read Oliver Twist by myself in Y3 and definitely took that in - but my Dad used to read me extracts from The Three Musketeers when I was about five or six so I was used to it!

I know there is an assumption that only pushy parents let or encourage young to children to read classic books but honestly I think there are plenty of children who can and should cope with them.

Ha! Just found this thread worrying what I should do with the great expectations tome DD (age 8) picked from waterstones.

She was motivated by keeping up with Matilda (roald Dahl)

I'll see how we get on!

I don't really agree that Dickens and Shakespeare are 'high quality texts' for reading to young children. The language is old-fashioned and the story settings are completely out of context for a child to understand.

What is the point of reading books like this to children? We're talking about children who still believe in Santa Claus! What's wrong with good books written for young children?

From the 2nd paragraph of Great Expectations:
From the character and turn of the inscription, "Also Georgiana Wife of the Above," I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine,?who gave up trying to get a living, exceedingly early in that universal struggle,?I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existence.

Well, that story would really flow, wouldn't it?

But if you take out all the words you have bolded, you can still follow the meaning. The sadness is conveyed by the rhythm and flow of the words as much as by the verbal acrobatics.

Anyway - it wasn't my idea - I blame Matilda.

So you don't think The Tempest with shipwrecks, fairies, monsters, a wizard who controls the storm, a beautiful girl and a handsome prince will appeal?

or A midsummer's night dream with more fairies including the king and queen, enchantment and magic ?

Entirely possible - my 7 yr old dd would love dickens, as it's like living with Johnny 5 - 'input, input, input' .....my 11yrs ds would like to read horrid henry though if still given a chance and my 9yrs dd loves mush younger books when given a chance - horses for courses....just as long as the mum doesnt think it's something to do with her marvellous parenting!

DH is a grammar school boy and English teachers son, who likes Shakespeare, but he can be arsed with Dickends, as he calls him. Don't recon an 8 yo will be impressed.

Can't

I am sure the story of the Tempest is very appealing. Whether Shakespeare's tempest read word for word, is quite so appealing to even a bright 8 year old, is another matter.

My son first read it in manga form then wanted to read the original.

The Tempest:
If read as original text, no.
If adapted as a story for children, yes.

That's a little different to a story like Great Expectations which bears very little resemblance to the modern world. It is a dark, dark story, about benefaction, convicts, debt, lunacy, class ..... and a lot of death.
I wouldn't wish it on any 8 year-old.

I don't know, flexybex. I saw my first TV adaptation of Great Expectations when I was about 8 and was totally hooked. It is a dark story from a different world that I already found interesting. However, I certainly couldn't have coped with the book at that age.

I meant the book, Cecily, not TV or film. (Images would explain some of the things that would be difficult to understand in the book - blacksmiths would be shoeing horses; a tombstone would show an inscription; Magwitch would be portrayed as a stereotypical convict; Miss Haversham would look and sound insane; etc, etc. - and lots of details would be left out!)

I am rather envious of your friend. I'd have loved it if someone read Dickins with me at 8 - I was just too young I think to have been able to read him on my own. But about half of his work is just fabulous, fantastic stories that are utterly engrossing. By the time I was 10 I was totally addicted to A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist. Great Expectations, David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cities quickly followed.

But then I read these for fun. Having them foisted on you as being a 'worthy' literary read? I dunno :/ seems like it takes the fun out of them.

I read Great Expectations at 8 or 9ish (not sure if 8 or 9 but definitely that year of school when I turned 9). I had already read Oliver Twist and also a lot of children's versions of Shakespeare stories (Charles Lamb?) plus some Jane Austen and I loved Jane Eyre. My mum also read me the first chapter of Catch 22 which I thought so funny that I begged to be allowed to read the rest but by then she had read on and deemed it unsuitable. When I finally got to read it I felt so amazingly privileged! No, I did not understand everything I read but I got an awful lot out of it and still read avidly as an adult. It's probably only worth doing with a child who is at least interested and preferably enthusiastic, though. Having said that, the exposure to different rhythms of language and different ways of saying things is probably valuable for anyone who can get something out of it, whatever that happens to be. Just think how small children adore Beatrix Potter and it's so hard to read out loud and quite confusing for three or four year olds but they clearly get something from it.

Also, I am not a genius though am reasonably bright and v fond of reading.

We have an audio book version of 'A Christmas Carol', which seems word-for-word to me, or very lightly edited, and DD,8, was totally hooked, in that good-scared kind of way, and she enjoyed Great Expectations too. But I think that the spoken word is much better for following the flow of the narrative.

She didn't enjoy an Arthurian one of the same level at all, which puzzled me until I realised she had spent 6 hours of listening thinking Guinevere and Gawain were the same person...

Flex are you saying that children should only read "relevant" texts set in the modern world?

You're underestimating the intelligence and imagination of children, methinks.

i read oliver twist when i was 8.

i loved it.

if they're reading it together, there's no reason why they wouldn't (but i would probably start with something easier than GE)

I read Lord of the Rings alone when I was 7 and enjoyed it. Never been into Dickens though. I might not have got e.g. cultural/historical references, but you can certainly appreciate it on some level.

My dad read me Great Expectations twice, once at 8 and once at 10. I absolutely LOVED it.

DD read Oliver Twist at about that age. I'm sure she skipped lots (like I did at her age!) but enjoyed the bits she did read. I think there's nothing wrong with a child having a go, skipping the 'boring' bits etc, but I think your friend is barmy.

No, Bower, I'm not. I just think there are better choices of books to read to children than Dickens.

There's a vast range of well-written, child-appropriate literature out there - let children enjoy books for children - they'll never have the chance again.

I have read A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist to my DC. The first because I love it and the second because DS asked. I edited slightly...

I would read it to them rather than encourage them to read it themselves I think.

When I was little in the early 50s my idea of a treat was to go into my grandparents back bedroom and read their books. There was one shelf the complete works of Dickens -the old blue hard backs with tissue over the illustrations,The Universal Home Doctor and The Universal Home Lawyer. There was also a beautiful white leather bound edition of The Ancient Mariner. Between the ages of 6 and 12 I read and re-read my way through those books. I was never bored and couldn't wait to get up to that cold gloomy room,wrap myself in an eiderdown and read for hours. I studied English at uni and became an English teacher. Dickens is where it all started for me I had certainly read GE alone by the age of 7.