My dear allergic Zuzu just finished first grade. About to turn seven, she is actually the youngest kid in her grade. She was not even supposed to be in first grade this year. The cut-off date for entering school in Illinois is September 1. In other words, to enter kindergarten, a child must have turned 5 before September 1. Zuzu’s birthday is a few days after September 1. So, in order for her to enter kindergarten in September 2008, we had to appeal for a waiver of the cut-off date. She had to meet with the principal, the reading specialist and the school psychologist (who gave her an IQ test!) and get their approval before she could enroll for kindergarten.
If you knew Zuzu, you would understand how ridiculous it would have been for her not to go to kindergarten in the fall of 2008 — the year she was five. The girl is extremely tall (although not particularly athletic); preternaturally self-possessed, and — I have to say it — wicked smart. I am telling you this not to brag about my daughter, but because it is relevant to the question I am pondering. Zuzu has always been a terrific reader. By the spring of kindergarten, she was reading at a third grade level. In first grade, she was one of a handful of kids who were pulled out of their classes to be part of a special reading group. This group read some really challenging books, including one about Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary climbing Mount Everest and even an abridged version of “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream.”
But just because a 5 or 6 year old child can read at a third grade level, that does not mean that he or she is ready to read the same books as a third grader. You can’t hand a bright kindergartner a Judy Blume book and walk away. That child may be able to read the words, but she is not emotionally ready for what she will find there. We actually struggled for a while to find books that were challenging for Zuzu to read that had appropriate content. Non-fiction books, mostly about animals or places, came to our rescue.
Lately, Zuzu has been working her way through the American Girl Doll canon. I think the books are easy for her, but the stories are just right on an emotional level and I don’t mind that she is picking up some American history along the way. Once, when she and I saw a homeless man panhandling in the street, she started telling me about the Great Depression and how, back then, hobos were people who didn’t have homes. Thanks, Kit Kittredge!
But recently, Zuzu has become obsessed with a series of books that I am not sure she is really ready for, specifically Harry Potter. Zuzu has been aware of Harry Potter for years. I read the whole series myself and Zuzu remembers me reading the last installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She has heard the kids at school talk about Harry Potter and seen the older kids dressed up as Harry and Hermione on Halloween. But she never seemed interested in actually reading the books until her camp drama group decided to put on a play based on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Zuzu desperately wanted to be in the play — although I have always suspected that her real dream is to direct — but was concerned because she didn’t know anything about Harry Potter. Zuzu and her dad were just about to finish the bedtime book that they were reading together — they had been on a Roald Dahl kick as of late: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The BFG, and my favorite, Danny, Champion of the World. So I suggested to Zuzu that she and Daddy could start reading Harry Potter together.
Not content to wait for her father, Zuzu picked up the first Harry Potter book and promptly disappeared for a week. She carried the book with her everywhere. She spent every spare minute reading. Basically, she did what every kid who discovers Harry Potter does: she became obsessed. (Meanwhile, she was cast as Professor McGonagall as in the camp play.) She tore through the first book and then proceeded to watch the movie, which I bought her as a reward for finishing such a long book, as often as we would let her. She read the second book in record time and then demanded to see that movie as well. (Thank goodness for Amazon Prime!)
My copy of the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, happened to be at my parents’ house and so there was a short delay in getting it to our little Gryffindor wannabe. But over Fourth of July weekend, my parents delivered the book to us and I was faced with a real dilemma: should I let her read it?
For those of you not familiar with the Harry Potter series, what the hell have you been doing for the past ten years? Just kidding! What I meant was, for those of you not familiar with the Harry Potter series, the books begin when Harry is 11 and the first few books are thrilling and exciting, but not especially dark or scary. As the series progresses however, and the characters get older, the books get darker, scarier, and deal with much more adult themes, such as death, betrayal, corruption and even first love. The third book, the one Zuzu is dying to read, introduces a character named Sirius Black, an alleged mass murderer who has just escaped from the wizard prison of Azkaban, which is guarded by Grim Reaper like figures called Dementors, and is believed to be hunting down Harry Potter in order to kill him. And my not-quite-seven-year old wants to read this? By herself?
I really do not want to discourage Zuzu from her passion for these, or any, books. And I never thought of myself as someone who would censor what my kids read. My parents certainly never censored me. But are there times when some restrictions on reading material are called for? I worry that my very young second grader-to-be should not be reading about some of the serious subjects that the Harry Potter books raise without an adult to guide her. Part of me thinks she won’t even understand some of the material, which I suppose could be a blessing here. But then, wouldn’t some adult guidance be helpful?
So, should I insist that Zuzu only read the subsequent Harry Potter books with an adult? (She will not be pleased with that dictum. She is far too impatient to wait until bedtime for her Hogwarts fix.) Or should I follow her lead? If she does not claim to be scared or confused, should I believe her and leave it at that?
I remember that my parents wouldn’t let me read a paperback of “Psycho” (basis for the movie) when I was in fifth grade. So I just stole it and read it in secret. And as for censoring “dark” stories, my only insight comes from a story I heard in one of my children’s literature classes in my teacher training. Seems that one professor’s daughter was having nightmares about the big bad wolf (of Three Little Pigs fame) coming to get her. She asked a colleague in the psychology department. The psychologist asked for more details and quickly identified the problem: the girl had been read a “sanitized” version of the story, in which the wolf is not killed but simply “blown far away” or something like that. The answer: read a traditional story in which the wolf is burned and cut into pieces or whatever, because children can’t handle gray. They need to see evil destroyed, need to believe that’s how the world works. Not sure if it applies here, but I guess the lesson would be to avoid stories with moral ambiguity, but not stories with, simply, evil in them. Also, if she gets scared or confused, won’t she just stop wanting to read the books?
Well, the Harry POtter series has a fair amount of moral ambiguity, so that is not exactly comforting. Traditional fairy tales are certainly blood-thirsty and it seems to play an important role in giving kids an outlet for some of their darker feelings, as Bruno Bettelheim explained.
Will she stop if she is scared? I don’t know. Kids don’t always have good judgment. When I was in third grade, I used to love to read ghost stories by day…and then lay awake at night utterly terrified.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Particularly because nothing is going to tempt her more than a banned book.
I read a whole pile of books I was technically “too young for” (like Judy Blume’s Forever when I was 8 or 9), and I turned out fine. My love of reading led me to a career as a writer.
Hi Emily!
I’ve been thinking about this myself, because our T is an early reader, too (he’ll be 5 in Oct & reads at about a 2nd grade level already). We were thinking that when he expressed the interest, we’d allow him to read ONE Harry Potter book each year (just as they were published). Then, ideally, he’d sort of grow with the stories as they become more complex and ambiguous. That also allows him to look forward to his next installment – sort of savoring it rather than dashing through the whole series.
I don’t know if I’d “ban” the books, but it’s clear that he’ll get more out of them as he gets old enough to grapple with the various themes.
Good luck!
Eileen, that’s a good approach, but it might be hard to put into practice! I have all the books just sitting on the shelf and as soon as Z finished the first, she went right for the second! I am letting read “Azkaban” now, but I think the length of “Goblet of Fire” will intimidate her. Who knows?
Maybe a happy medium would be to let her read them if she can’t be put off but since you’ve read them, you can discuss them with her afterward?
I have been struggling to find level- and age-appropriate books as well. S has read most of the first Harry Potter, but she takes breaks from it to read shorter books. I like her to read the longer ones so they last more than 15 minutes!
Unless she has nightmares or tends to develop fears and such, I’d let her read them. My older all but devoured books at that age (still does at 12) and by about first grade I stopped keeping up with him. In about 4th grade there was a book I wouldn’t let him take out from the library (a shape-shifting teen who transformed into an owl and sat outside her male teacher’s bedroom, WTF?) and that caused quite the stir, but for the most part he reads what he wants.
She might like The Magic Tree House and Box Car Children (which has a zillion titles) series. Beverly Cleary is good and so are the younger Judy Blume (IMO) like Fudge and Super Fudge.
That really is a dilemma. I think give her the books, but keep the lines of communications open.
I’d also recommend the Mysterious Benedict Society, any books about the Melendy Family and Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising Series if she likes HP. Also, Diana Wynne Jones. A little less dark (mostly, some of DWJ are terribly dark indeed) but also thrilling.