When to start HP books?

[lauralala]

DS started reading them between 2nd and 3rd grade, got halfway through the third book, and stopped. They just got too dark and beyond his interest level at that point. We watched all of the movies early in the pandemic - he was in 4th grade at that point. He liked the movies at that point, but did not want to read the books.

He is in 6th grade now and is reading them on his own and is on book 6. I don't know if I would change when he started reading them, but he just had to go at his own pace to get into them.

[momin2013]

2nd grade - we got DS the whole set, but he was pretty disinterested in the books, whether it was me reading with him or him reading alone. We watched all the movies and he liked those better, lol.

[cherry1111]

My 3rd grader started them over the summer and is finishing the last book now. They haven’t bothered him but I have also never read them so I’m not sure how dark/scary they are, though we’ve heard that statement from several people.

[Velar Fricative]

I read them, but I don’t care about whether my kids read them or not so I haven’t pushed it with my 3rd grader yet.

[mainelyfoolish]

I clicked 3rd grade but I didn’t read them with my kids; that was the age when they were/are able to read the books by themselves.

[kershnic]

We read 1 and 2 in 1st grade and it was a fun family experience... after we read the books to them, they listened to the audio books and we had family movie nights to watch the movies... But they get darker in #3 so we've delayed starting it. Kids are in 2nd now. Welp, literally just today they showed up all gloating that they got #3 and #4 from the school library. Rather than having them try to hide it from us, I think we're just going to read them now instead of waiting any longer. They've been reading Wings of Fire on their own and have not been scared so I think they'll be okay. I figure they can re-read when they're older if they are still interested to better understand the depth of the plot.

[heygrey]

H started reading them to DS when he was 4. They very slowly read until DS wanted to stop in the 4th book (I think he was 6 by then). He's 7.5 now and has read books 1 & 2 several times to himself and he's watched the first two movies more recently. I think it will be a couple years before he's ready to move on and finish the series.

He's typically a kid that hates anything scary, or even possibly might be scary at some point. But he's liked HP so far.

[notsopicky]

I voted never. I offered them to him a couple years ago (he's 10 now). He thought he might want to read them (he likes fantasy books, although more the Keeper of the Lost Cities- & Warriors-type fantasy), but ultimately decided to pass (maybe because of the length?). I didn't push it. I'm a librarian and have never read them (fantasy is my least favorite genre) and I never will. Never seen the movies either. Add in that JKR is problematic, and I'm just fine taking a forever pass on HP.

[longtimenopost]

Age 8 (2nd grade). We got her both the hardbacks and audio cds so she could listen and read. After she finished each, we'd watch the movie. She got through book 4 but hasn't made it through book 5. It's more advanced in language and darker in tone and she just keeps losing interest. I'm okay with waiting a year or two to move on/finish.

ETA we also let my 5/6 year old watch the movies with us, and 1-4 were not too dark for her. My girls are super into HP. When we were in London we went to the HP store, and they both have wands and clothes and stuff. For Halloween this year, the oldest is Luna Lovegood (because she's decided she's a Ravenclaw), the youngest is Hermione, H is HP and I'm Professor McGonagall. 

I also have have Hogwarts built out of Legos in my bedroom! We really leaned in when my oldest showed interest. She had been going through a rough time where she was getting in trouble in school, and started to see herself as bad. She would tell us she "loved evil." When she started reading HP, she stopped all that. She really identifies with both Hermione and Luna Lovegood since she LOVES to read. 

[boiler717]

We started in K and are on the 3rd book. I don’t think we will read the 4th book because it’s so dark. My son is obsessed and wants to read the books 24/7.

[DarcyLongfellow]

Because I knew about the dark stuff that happens in the later books, I wanted to read them with DD1. We read them in 3rd grade. She was perfectly capable of reading them on her own, but I didn't let her. I read all 7 of them out loud to her. I wanted to be able to help her process anything that upset her, but I don't think I really realized then that she is a fairly anxious kid in general but supremely unbothered by scary stuff in books and movies, so she would have been fine. We started maybe halfway through the school year, then we finished them right before her 9th birthday -- which we celebrated by taking her and her 2 best friends to Universal to visit Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was absolutely magical to experience that with her.

Unfortunately, DD2 has been exposed to everything Harry Potter since her sister got into it, which was 4 years ago. So DD2 is kind of over it, even though she's never read any of the books. She's seen the earlier movies, but not the later ones. She's much more sensitive than her sister and is likely to be pretty bothered by some of the deaths and darker themes. She's mentioned possibly wanting to read them, and if she does I will definitely read them with her.

[jorja]

My husband has read the first four to my almost 7 year old, starting about a year ago, I’d guess.

The last three are darker, in my opinion, so she knows we need to wait a few years for those.

[karinothing]

Ds1 read them in 2nd grade and ds2 listened to the audio books starting at age 4 lol (we listen to them in the car in long trips)

[pooh8402]

DH and I plan to start in 3rd grade. I would be comfortable with him reading 1 and 2 now (or me reading to him)... But I know E1 and if he ends up liking 1 and 2, he will want to go straight through and they're too dark for me to feel comfortable reading them with him at 6 years old. Once he is old enough to read them himself (as in, once he has the reading skills), then I will feel comfortable with the content.

I'm super into HP and would LOVE it if either/both of my kids get into it too.

[ellipses84]

I’d say 3rd grade, once they are into novels with no pictures. I read it out loud with my 4th grader last year during lockdown and that was a great age. We read a couple chapters a night and watched the movie after each one. I’d only ever seen one movie and never read any books prior. The books are very long but it wasn’t as challenging as the Narnia series which we also read, from a comprehension standpoint. DS2 was 4 and had zero attention span for it.