How young is ok to start reading Harry Potter outloud?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is 5 and we just began reading the series, a chapter a night. She enjoys it, finds the plot hard to follow but she likes to hear it. I am curious if we should delay Books 4 and on for a year or so. We just finished Chamber of Secrets last night, she liked Dobby.

Books 4, 5, and 6 each experience a murder of a major secondary character. Book 7 has too many murders to list. Some children are quite bothered by it - you will have to decide for your child.

[Anonymous]

We read books 1-3 at 5 and are on our second read through now. We decided they get more serious and there is more of a cliffhanger at book 4 so that was the place to stop. My kid did start getting more scared of images and ideas at 5 so he trusted us to stop there until he was older. He turns 6 in a month and is definitely not reading them independently!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:keep in mind that when the series was written, the books aged with the audience. A kid who started on book 1 when it was released would have been age appropriate for all subsequent books. Now that they're all out, but the time you near the end of the series, the books may be a little much for a 7 year old who loved the first book or two

Agree. The first three books might be fine for younger readers. Hold off on the rest and let the child reread them and finish the series when they are older. A 6 years old's understanding vs an 11 year old's are worlds apart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is 5 and we just began reading the series, a chapter a night. She enjoys it, finds the plot hard to follow but she likes to hear it. I am curious if we should delay Books 4 and on for a year or so. We just finished Chamber of Secrets last night, she liked Dobby.

Books 4, 5, and 6 each experience a murder of a major secondary character. Book 7 has too many murders to list. Some children are quite bothered by it - you will have to decide for your child.

I'll never get over Snape's murder! Or Dumbledore's!