[HPforGrownups] Night fears from Harry Potter

[lrcjestes]

No: HPFGUIDX 4361

> But I was wondering . . . how about you other parents out there who have
> read Harry Potter to your kids.  Have you encountered any night fears
> due to the books?  How have you handled them?
>
> Peg

I, too, have a 7 yo, which is how I got into these books...he's gotten over
them (although there was no question who he was going to be for Halloween)
and I haven't ...but anyway. I was worried about book 4 as well.  I read it
all the way through and I told him I would summarize the things I thought
were a bit scary.  As we read the only chapter I really summarized was
Chapter 32, Flesh, Blood and Bone...about V's reincorporation.  What I did
was instead of reading the description of V (pre body) directly, I described
it in terms of a rather funny cartoon character (from the nick show sponge
bob....described him as squidward if anyone is familiar with that) squidward
is a rather amorphous type squidy thing....anyway he laughed....and although
he may not have gotten the full impact of how evil evil was and therefore
how brave Harry was, I had decided he could still get the  point of the book
without introducing the visual to him....then when V was put into the
cauldron, my husband Randy (some of you rmember him...rather a cut up...)
had already been refering to it as Vodemort soup...so that took the edge off
that scary visual.

So I guess we took the weeny way out and masked some of the more creepy
visuals...I figure when he's old enough to read it himself he will be old
enough for those visuals...of couse by that time the picture of squidward in
a soup bowl will have probably stuck.  JKR would probably be horrified by
our approach, but that's what I thought best for my son.  He took the rest
of the story without blinking, and was never scared by anything in the other
3 books, was never even creeped out by the dementor's and every time I ask
if this or that is creepy he says in his most teenage sounding voice (for a
7 yo) "Mo-om (its 2 sylables) its not real...its just a story!

This really doesn't help you...after the fact, but that was our approach and
will probably be our approach to the next book, but I guess he will be able
to read the next one himself by the time it arrives, so I probably won't
have that option...but then he'll be older too so.....So far our 4 yo has
not shown any interest in books that long, and has listened to some of them,
but never hung around long enough to get any of the scary stuff.

Now the people across the street from us, both of their kids have gotten
creeped out by PS/SS they didn't even finish the first book....so it depends
on the child and how sensitive he/she is to visualizing and internalizing
scary stuff...my son tends to be able to keep it at bay.

carole