Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials Trillogy, suitable for a class of 7/8 year olds???

[MrsSpoon]

DS1 has come back from his first day back at School bursting with excitement about these books, apparently the teacher has started reading the first to them today. He has asked me to buy them. I have done a little research and I am a little alarmed. We have bought a copy of the first book from e-Bay to try and speed read it ourselves, are the books really suitable for this age group? If nothing else the plot sounds very complicated (or as far as write ups on Wilkepedia etc go) and it seems to be dealing with some very big issues (or is this on a level with Aslan being Jesus etc, ie would go straight above most readers' heads?).

FWIW he's got the Narnia books sitting waiting to be read but feels they are too difficult.

What on earth is The Demon Headmaster? And i wonder if the school head will be the next to intervene! I guess the teacher read forward a bit - sounds as if she handled her mistake terribly well!

My early inappropriate reading consisted of my dodgy uncle's Mandingo books from the age of about 7.

not recommended. oh no, not at all.
Then Mum's John Updike from about 9. Much better.

blu have you never heard of the demon headmaster? its a great book, about a headmaster who hypnotises his pupils. Not as scary as it sounds!

And excellently dramatised for children's TV starring Terrence Hardiman as the eponymous Headmaster blu
We have had to fend ds off dh's collection of Updike novels as well. "So it's about a Rabbit..."?

LOL, Marina, better keep him off the Rabbit threads on mn .

Lol Blu I remember looking at my father's copies of Virgin Soldiers and Valley of the Dolls when I was about 8

I think they're exactly right for 12yo, introducing the idea of religion vs science as the governing ethos, and that extremes of anything are bad. This will go over the head of a younger child, as will a lot more of the book, but they can still enjoy the bits they do understand, and will re-read when they are older. I doubt it will do your ds any harm to read it. I hope my dd's teacher does this when she goes back. She's 8. (I lent Northern Lights to FIL and he hasn't given it back - I suspect it was too hard for him!)