New Topic: Reading HP books to chilldren

[Pamela Rosen]

No: HPFGUIDX 154076

Here's something that has been on my mind lately.  I wonder how many of you are (or have) read HP to children?  

I wonder about what sort of level younger children get from these books.  Obviously there are some very adult themes in the latter two books, and explaining what we grown-ups find difficult to articulate might be tricky.

I have just finished reading COS to my 7 year old boy, thinking all the while that he was pulling magic and adventure and that's about it from it.  But then two extraordinary (at least to me) things happened:

--As soon as he learned about the basilisk and how it attacked, he commented, "Remember back at the duel, Justin looked into a snake's eyes then?  That was a clue."  I was astonished that he could remember that far back, let alone pick out a piece of foreshadowing I had missed....twice. Are kids getting it at a higher level than we give them credit for?

--The day after finishing COS, he had another run-in with the stock-character class bully. Before reading COS, my son reacted to bullying by punching the kid.  The day after hearing Dumbledore talk about choices, the bully did the ultimate--he insulted my son's mother (me).   This time my son simply walked away, even though the urge to take action was great. He later told me, "I wanted to hit him. But I could choose to be a bad guy or be a good guy.  I want to be a good guy."  I don't think that would have happened without Dumbledore's words fresh in his mind.

So that leaves me in a  quandary--if he's getting a lot more than birthday-party themes from the books, how do we approach the rest?  What have been others' experiences?

Pam