Age suitability of canon

[Anne <urbana@charter.net>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, rvotaw at i... wrote:
> Carole writes:
I teach first grade, most of my students are 
> seven.  None of them could come close to reading HP.  So, read it 
aloud, you 
> say?  Tried that.  We didn't make it through a chapter.  They were 
clueless.  
> The reading level is vastly above them, therefore the comprehension 
level is as 
> well.  

I have read all 4 HP books to my daughter, who is in first grade, and 
she was a month shy of 6 when we started last summer. Considering 
that the chapter books I'd read to her previously were things like 
Mary-Kate & Ashley (silly) and Goosebumps (*horrible*), I am actually 
amazed at how much of the storyline she has retained and understood; 
months later she remembers details that I have forgotten.  I am now 
re-reading POA to her -- at her insistence. I have attempted to read 
other non-HP chapter books to her since then, but she doesn't seem 
interested. I am betting she will attempt to read at least PS/SS when 
she's in 3rd  grade --she probably won't finish it but I am sure, 
given her Hermione-like nature (smart, brave and bossy) that she will 
at least attempt it.

> My point is, HP is fine for an above average seven year old, one 
with a fourth 
> grade or higher reading level.  For an average seven year old, 
maybe, with it 
> being read aloud.   

I think it really does depend on the child. (Obviously I think my kid 
is "above average" :-)  

Anne U
(wondering how I'll manage to read OoP myself before I give in to her 
begging and pleading for me to read it aloud to her...)