I asked the same question here when mine was 5 and the consensus was to wait. I'm glad I did. Started at almost 8 but there was almost immediately the request to watch the movie and continue the series. It was fine at that age. Would not have been as happy with it at 5.

Also-- the first 60 pages of the book were boring even at 8 because it takes a long time to get Harry to Hogwarts.

My DD is 6, and we've already read all the Roald Dahl books, which she loved. So I started reading her the first Harry Potter, and to be honest, she's not old enough for it. She understands the overall plot and likes the books, but I don't think she's absorbing even half of it. I've already told her we're going to take a break after we finish Book #1 and read other chapter books before we start #2.

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.

My 5.5 yr old is really loving the Grimm Sisters books and it has a lot of the same features -suspense, magic.

I recommend those books but there are some elements that I don't like - they portray all foster parents as abusive, and say some have some harmful stereotypes about the mentally ill, so I pause and provide some nuance so she doesn't pick up on those lessons.

But a good series overall.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s fine. By 6, DD was reading them herself.

Give me a break. Maybe, but certainly not comprehending.

DP, and mine absolutely was.

Anonymous wrote:Different experience - we started with age six and took it slow. Got to the second book at age 7 and my DD found it too scary. We had the illustrated book and many of the pictures sent her already overactive imagination into hyperdrive. Lots of restless nights and nightmares. Now at age 9 and she's thinking about starting with book 1 again because her friends are reading it. I feel like there's this push to read Harry Potter to younger kids because as parents we liked it so much. But there are some scary parts that may be too much for a 5 or 6 year old.

+1

My kid could probably have read them at five or six (but would have missed a lot of nuance, being five or six), but they are not books for six-year-olds. Waiting until she was seven, she enjoyed the first book a lot, read the second one a little later, and just read the third one a few days shy of her eighth birthday. She's holding off on the fourth one. She's very sensitive and has an amazing imagination, and so scary stuff is really hard for her to process. There are lots of kids books to read; no reason to rush to one particular series.

We started listen to HP book 1 as an audio book on a car trip when my DD was about to turn 7. When we got home she picked up the book from our book shelf and polished it off. She was hooked. We made her read the first book a second time before moving on to the next. She's read some chapters with the audio book playing in the background, as she likes hearing the narration and I think it helps with the British-y bits, but it's not necessary. Now, about 6 weeks later, she's just finished the second book. I'd like her to read it again before moving on to book 3. We plan to let her watch the first couple of movies once she finishes book 3 and then we'll take a break until she's a bit older for the rest of the series.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind that starting in book 4, characters start getting murdered.

+1000

We plan on starting around age 8 and taking it SLOW, so my boys will be old enough by the time we get to those. I also want them to fully comprehend them, not just brag about “reading” them.

I had this idea too but guess what - the 3rd grade classroom library had all the books and he just finished them all on his own.

My husband read them to my middle guy at the same age as yours OP. I decided to pick and choose my battles and what my husband decides to read to our kids is not a battle that I consider worth fighting.

That said I feel that age is too young to have enough life experience to really appreciate many things in the books.

My DH got my kids started on it young over my objections. The series wasn't complete then, so my kids were forced to wait for the later books. I don't know that it hurt my kids any, but I maintain that it's better to wait to introduce some books. While kids might enjoy them now, I think they will enjoy them MORE when they're older. There's also a lot of great books that they'll enjoy now, but might not be as interested in later. If you want to introduce chapter books, I'd suggest:
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
Roald Dahl
Beverly Clearly
Pippi Longstocking
My Father's Dragon
Secrets of Droon
Boxcar Children
Just-So Stories
Flat Stanley
Princess Tales by Gail Carson Levine (despite the name - not super girly)
Bunnicula

Picture Books are still great:
Quiltmaker books by Jeff Brumbeau
Seymour Sleuth books by Doug Cushman

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We started at 8 and I’m now reading him the Goblet of Fire. At this point, the books are different than the movies. Also, getting very dark so we will probably end here for now.

I’ve heard people say this before, but how do you stop in the middle of the series? I read the first book aloud to my 8 year old and she was too impatient to find out what happened next, so she checked the second book out of the school library and started reading it the day after we finished the first book. She plowed through the whole series rapidly and would have been devastated if I’d forbidden finishing it. I guess during a pandemic, a kid can’t necessarily visit the school library, but my dd would have begged and pleaded nonstop for the rest of the books.

My kid hates reading so he will never go to the library and check the next one out. He may search in demand for it though😀

Different experience - we started with age six and took it slow. Got to the second book at age 7 and my DD found it too scary. We had the illustrated book and many of the pictures sent her already overactive imagination into hyperdrive. Lots of restless nights and nightmares. Now at age 9 and she's thinking about starting with book 1 again because her friends are reading it. I feel like there's this push to read Harry Potter to younger kids because as parents we liked it so much. But there are some scary parts that may be too much for a 5 or 6 year old.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s fine. By 6, DD was reading them herself.

Give me a break. Maybe, but certainly not comprehending.

I could have, and I’ve taught two children who could have. Some of the idiosyncrasies of boarding school go over the heads of anyone who has never attended, so I don’t count that against young children. Young children are more likely to be surprised, due to less experience to use while foreshadowing, but the comprehension can be equivalent to late elementary, which is the target audience (7-10) for the first (illustrated) book. The standard books are a little more difficult, but not by much.

This sounds right. I started reading it out loud to my child at around 5 year old. Eventually I would have her read a paragraph every other page or so, then we traded off pages. At 6 she still liked reading with me but she could definitely read it by herself.

Would you like a cookie? Or a gold star sticker?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s fine. By 6, DD was reading them herself.

Give me a break. Maybe, but certainly not comprehending.

I could have, and I’ve taught two children who could have. Some of the idiosyncrasies of boarding school go over the heads of anyone who has never attended, so I don’t count that against young children. Young children are more likely to be surprised, due to less experience to use while foreshadowing, but the comprehension can be equivalent to late elementary, which is the target audience (7-10) for the first (illustrated) book. The standard books are a little more difficult, but not by much.

This sounds right. I started reading it out loud to my child at around 5 year old. Eventually I would have her read a paragraph every other page or so, then we traded off pages. At 6 she still liked reading with me but she could definitely read it by herself.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s fine. By 6, DD was reading them herself.

Give me a break. Maybe, but certainly not comprehending.

I could have, and I’ve taught two children who could have. Some of the idiosyncrasies of boarding school go over the heads of anyone who has never attended, so I don’t count that against young children. Young children are more likely to be surprised, due to less experience to use while foreshadowing, but the comprehension can be equivalent to late elementary, which is the target audience (7-10) for the first (illustrated) book. The standard books are a little more difficult, but not by much.