What age is the first Harry Potter and the Scorceror's Ston

naomi2

Wed, Apr 21 2021, 9:35 pm

I think closer to 9 yes old is appropriate. There are very dark themes and it's a complex story. For sure the movies are not appropriate before then.

amother

Lilac

Wed, Apr 21 2021, 9:56 pm

Im not letting my 10 year old daughter start them yet. (And im a HUGE harry potter fan).
Its cruel to let her read the first few, and then wait til shes older. She wont be able to hold back, the suspense is killer...and im definitely not comfortable with her reading the last books yet, they get way too heavy and dark, very mature themes.
So im waiting a bit more, and then she'll read them all at once

amother

Yellow

Wed, Apr 21 2021, 10:02 pm

amother [ Lilac ] wrote:

My big reader was begging for Harry Potter since she was 8. Her friends were already reading it and I was also nervous about exposing her to the darkness of the later books. No way she would stop mid-series! I finally decided she was old enough and bought her the whole set for her 10th birthday. She's read them so many times since then I think she knows them by heart!

amother

Apricot

Wed, Apr 21 2021, 10:04 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

He doesn't know there are 7 books (yet).
If I read a small bit each night it will take a while to finish

I thought the same with my seven year old daughter. She ended reading them all faster than I could read to her. Took her about 5 months to get through all 7 and she watched each movie after each book. I'm still on book 2.

amother

Azure

Wed, Apr 21 2021, 10:14 pm

We let our 7 year old read the first three, then stopped there. I honestly don't remember if the fourth is inappropriate, but the fifth I definitely recall being too mature for her, so we just stopped after three.

We didn't make a big deal about how she's not allowed to read more. Instead, we just made sure to put new and interesting book series in front of her and that worked to draw her attention.

If you need ideas, two series that she loves and is moving through now are the Oz series and Boxcar Children mysteries. The earliest ones by original authors were written a long time ago and from what I've seen appear to be very age appropriate.

I admit that I am not prereading them cover to cover myself, but I do try to spot check. I haven't seen any major issues so far. Santa makes a brief appearance in one of the Oz books for example, but it is very minor and not central or recurring. Everyone's standards are different, so you can decide for yourself.