I honestly didn't have an intention of reading the first Harry Potter book right now. My kiddo will be 8 soon, and I thought, oh sometime when she's 8 or something, we might meander our way into reading it. Or maybe I'd just say nothing and she'd read them on her own at some point.
A bunch of her super close friends in 2nd grade had already read the book in the past few months, and they were all talking about it, and Julia really wanted to get in on the HP action. So we decided that she and Andrew (who has never read the series. WHUT??????????) would read this as their chapter book together.
(We take turns reading to her at night, I have a chapter book that I read to her, and Andrew will choose a different chapter book to read to her.)
Well.......one day into the book, and it became clear that she was NOT going to be happy with reading anything else until Harry Potter was done. To say she loves it would be an understatement.
She loves it, she loves it, she loves it! She loves the funny bits, she loves the exciting bits, and she was properly OUTRAGED at the terribleness of the Dursley's treatment of Harry.
She keeps telling me,
"Mom, this is the best book I've ever heard."
"Mommy, is this your favorite book OF ALL TIME?" (actually, not quite, but it's way up there!)
"I don't think there are any better books better than Harry Potter."
Some kids she knows read it last year, in first grade, and I had to put her off, I was like NO NO NO, we have to wait until you're closer to eight! I really didn't see the point in reading something so great to her and and having to explain everything or have all the humor pass her by.
So far, the only thing she wasn't clear on was what a "friar" is. (remember the Fat Friar? That's his name.)
What I would like to start soon, which my friend Danzel has been doing with her kids, is embark onto the Oz series. What's nice about the Oz series is that there are 7 or so books, and they're all at the same level, unlike the Harry Potter books, which age in complexity as Harry ages. The Oz books remain at the 7-10 year old level and there's a ton of them to plow through. They were EASILY my favorite series of books as kid, closely followed by Narnia.
OMG!!!! We're reading Harry Potter!!!! (which means, after we're done with Book 1, we can see the movie, which will stun her little mind. Movie #1 is still my favorite.)
(Oh ~ apparently the big game at school is for kids to yell the Harry Potter killing curses at each other. Yep.)
Oh how fun. I love that you're doing it as a family and I love love that you're going to make her wait for the other books. Smart cool mama!
ReplyDeleteIt's super fun to do as a family event! Andrew falls asleep when I read though, stinker.
DeleteHow fun!!! I love that you're all reading it together. My girls are not remotely interested in HP yet, so no one is clamoring to start. Which is fine. I'm happy to wait until they are both older, so we won't have to wait as long between books. (Totally agree, they need to be older before we start book 4!) They refuse to watch Star Wars with us, either, which bums me out. So we'll just keep reading Oz...
ReplyDeleteOk, so I saw Star Wars when I was 7 and a half, and thought it was the greatest thing I had ever seen. We watched it recently with Julia and she was like, is it almost over? She was not THAT enthralled. Sigh. Kids these days.
DeleteI really loved sharing the books with Will. And we stopped after 3 ... now if we can just find a time to watch the movies without little brother around!
ReplyDeletesounds we're on the same HP course. here's a funny story -- there's a kid in Julia's class who dressed up as Harry for Halloween this year -- and he looked EXACTLY like Harry! Dark hair, similar face -- when he was in his Harry get-up, wow he looked more like Harry than Harry in the movie! :)
DeleteSo exciting!! We have about 4 more years to go before my daughter is 8, which is a good age for the first book. We're also waiting until the book can be read before the movies are watched!! I'll just live vicariously through you and Julia!
ReplyDeleteThere are PLENTY of amazing and fun books to read in the meantime!!!!
DeleteI sometimes miss the fact that Julia is slowly moving out picturebook phase. She still loves a great many of them though.
DeleteOh, Melissa, please, don't let her to watch the movies until she's not done with books! I did it and I was quite disappointed. When I was reading the book, my imagination worked like never before! But when I started to watch the movie? Ok, it's nice - but my imagination was gone!
ReplyDeleteNever fear!! Just the first movie! After the book!!! Always, after the book. In my view, you get to see the movie after you read the book. I loved movie #1. The first and the best, in my view. After I saw it, I was so blown away (I had read all the published books at that time, prior to the movie of course :) -- it was perfect confirmation of what I had envisioned in my mind, come to life on the screen! Not to fear, I have this all planned out like a military operation, ha ~ I don't want anything to sully or ruin her Harry Potter experience!
DeleteWe are on your heels! None of us have read it yet either, and we were just talking about the fact that this winter might be THE time to begin! This is confirmation :)
ReplyDeleteWintertime is the perfect time, don't you think! Cozy cozy!
DeleteI will share one thing -- twice now, after story time, she has been so riled up, she's run around the house laughing and being a silly monkey. I think it's a little exciting for bedtime!
It's wonderful that your little girl loves the HP book! I can so understand your excitement and happiness :D I am waiting for the right time for my boy. I am trying maybe next year. Hopefully he will be receptive too!
ReplyDeleteTWILIGHT ZONE! Just a week and 1/2 ago we started reading the first Harry Potter book together as a family! JUST LAST WEEK! AND we've too been saving the movie until we'd read the book together. AND Dax (who is also 8) is very very much drawn into it all! Oh! we're living parallel lives at the moment. I love it.
ReplyDeleteThat's EXACTLY when we began!!! SO AWESOME!!!!! Isn't this THE FUNNEST THING EVER?????
Delete(oh, J is reading the Spiderwick Chronicles series on her own, she's on Book 2, and she LOVES them! I know your kids did too, right?)
Yes! We love Spiderwick!
DeleteAnd YES! We have been having the very best time reading HP together! It really feels like this moment in time. I love it!
Exciting !!!
ReplyDeleteLove HP! We read the first one this year, and my son loved it, but I think we'll wait a couple of years and then read it again- maybe 8 would be better. We watched the movie afterward too, and it's so great, he loved it!
ReplyDelete