Age suitability of canon

[melclaros <melclaros@yahoo.com>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "aurigae_prime 
<ZaraLyon at a...>" <ZaraLyon at a...> wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, Melpomene wrote:
> 
> If I recall correctly, there was a discussion (this summer, I 
think) 
> about gifted children, in which many of the group discussed having 
> been precocious and/or gifted children. Which may be why some of us 
> feel that the canon is suitable for younger children. 


I'm *not* talking about the occasional exceptional child (and just so 
we're on the same page here, both chidren referred to in my previous 
post are in fact "gifted" by whatever definition is being used by 
schools these days--IQ is one that I know of--being annoyingly 
precocious is certainly another) who FINDS a book on their own and 
devours it. Yes that most certainly happens. I am talking about the 
more common situation where a PARENT finds it absolutely necessary to 
jump on the bandwagon and because she (almost always a she) reads or 
hears  1. the the books are Enormously Popular! and/or 2. Janet 
Jones' seven year old read it and had no problem so what's wrong with 
yours?
This parent runs out and in quick succession force reads material to 
a young child that is, in the opinion of the *writer herself*, 
inappropriate for a child that age!
We also must make a diferentiation between what a child is able to 
READ and what that same child is able to UNDERSTAND. Yes, even a 
GIFTED child. Sure they understand more big words and possibly even 
some more adult concepts. But it is the RARE seven year old, gifted 
or otherwise who is ready to fully appreciate PoA at any more than 
face value. (I use PoA as my example instead of GoF because in my 
personal opinion it is a far more complex and compelling story) It is 
a RARE, seven year old, gifted or otherwise who will benefit at all 
from reading the graveyard scene in GoF. The point here is not "No 7 
year old should ever EVER read GoF" but "WHY does a 7 year old NEED 
to read GoF?" I do not censor my children's reading. I don't have to. 
(Neither one of them reads enough to bother, dammit, but currently 
Son is reading LOTR and Daugter is reading something by LeGuin--
Catwings?) Face it, the AVERAGE 7 year old is not going to gravitate 
to a 700 page book with no pictures. Period.