Why did we start reading the books? (and whether children should read them)

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 22399

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., marlen_granger at h... wrote:

I'm adding my 2 knuts worth rather late to the discussion, but 
anyway...

I was intrigued by all the hype which surrounded the release of PoA 
in the UK.  I bought the first three books for my step-grandson, who 
was 6 at the time, totally overestimating his reading ability.  His 
mother read them instead, and immediately got on the phone to me, 
raving about them - describing Quidditch in detail etc. etc.  On the 
strength of that, I went out and bought them myself, and then spent 
the next year kicking myself for reading them too quickly - the 
release date of GoF couldn't come soon enough for me.

When GoF was finally released, I had my copy ordered through Amazon.  
I was very distraught to find that I was flying to Paris that day, at 
6am, and wouldn't be at home for the postman.  So I called the 
bookshop at Gatwick airport, asked if they would be open early enough 
and would I need to reserve a copy.  When I got there, there was 
practically a scrum round the HP display table.  Not just children, 
obviously - and when I got on the plane there were several people 
carrying on just bought copies of GoF.  That night, I ended up with 
foodpoisoning and was confined to my bed for 2 days.  Not much fun 
for my husband, but at least I got to read GoF uninterrupted, and as 
soon as I finished it, I started all over again.

As to how suitable they are for children, I just know that I would 
have devoured them as easily as a child as I do now (I read LOTR when 
I was 11).  My main point of reference is the step grandkids.  They 
are both reading them now - Josh is 8 and Rebecca is 10, and they are 
at about the same reading level.  They enjoy the story, they love the 
magic, but I do think that some things go over their heads, and they 
do need things explaining to them.  For instance, Rebecca is reading 
PoA at the moment, and wanted to know how Pettigrew could rejoin 
Voldemort, as she thought Voldemort was dead - so she had obviously 
missed something somewhere along the line.  I am not concerned with 
the darkness which creeps into the books from PoA onwards.  Kids 
today have a lot to deal with - the two I've mentioned above come 
from a broken home - they have had to deal with this, and several 
recent deaths in the family - they have been exposed to an alcoholic 
neighbour who committed suicide recently.  Emma deals with things 
with her children head on when they crop up, and finds that the books 
are a very useful aid when she is trying to explain why people die 
and also what people's motivations are.  Therefore I am not worried 
about them reading GoF - I think they'll take it all in their stride.

Catherine