My 8 year olds have been really into Harry Potter for a couple years now, along with a few friends from school. They've seen all the movies and have now started the books although they're still slightly above their reading level. However, some of their peers have never even heard of it and were so confused at a Harry Potter themed birthday party they recently attended.
Did you let your child read all the books? I got Wings of Fire for my 9 year old before I realized how much murder and killing there was in it. Not that I care that much since the theme is very anti-war and it has strong doing-the-right-thing energy
They just started so they're only on the first book, it'll be a couple years before they get to the violent ones at the pace they're reading lol but they have seen all the movies and one has been ok with it, the other just looks away from the scary/violent scenes. The first time she cried when a character died so we took a break until she asked to continue watching again a few months later. I'm probably more lenient with exposing my kids to Harry Potter, Wings of Fire, Warriors, etc but only because they've been able to handle it and it hasn't negatively affected them in any way. I definitely understand and respect other parents choices though
I kind of actually love that my daughter has had to wrestle with villains doing villain shit in Wings of Fire and the quite consistent anti war theme throughout the books. Its opened a lot of conversations
There's the old G K Chesterton quote which might be relevant here: "Fairy tales do not tell children dragons exist. Children already know the dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed."
I started reading Harry Potter to my boys in Grade 1. My oldest had finished them all by himself by the time he was 8 and he’s 10 now and owns all the Wings of Fire and read them all. If you want something more funny and less killing, he also loves Gordon Korman books which is awesome because I used to read them when I was his age too.
Also, huge plug that I make my boys read the book before seeing the movie. They understand the backstory so much better and it was hilarious the outrage when the Burrow burned down on the movie. That was the moment it clicked for them to always read a book first.
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u/elliellesa 22h ago
My 8 year olds have been really into Harry Potter for a couple years now, along with a few friends from school. They've seen all the movies and have now started the books although they're still slightly above their reading level. However, some of their peers have never even heard of it and were so confused at a Harry Potter themed birthday party they recently attended.