Patrick calls him "Harry Pod" or "Pod" for short - he shortens everything. It's cute and annoying at the same time, ya know? Like he wants "chot" instead of chocolate milk or "sohd" instead of soda, and now when he wants to read he wants to "read some more pod." Whatever he calls it, I'm down for reading! They're some of my favorite books AND there are movies (bonus!) so we started up a month or two ago and he's been enjoying them ever since. We've already read books 1, 2, and 3 and he loved them - would ask me multiple times during the day if we could read, which I am a TOTAL sucker for. Make dinner or read Harry Potter? Read - we can have fishsticks. Clean house or read Harry Potter? Read - there's always more cleaning, there won't always be more reading moments. Read Harry Potter or go to bed? Oooooh, tough one... we'll read one chapter, then bedtime! So with all that reading we've gone through them surprisingly quickly, and now we're reading book 4, "The Goblet of Fire."
Now this brings to me to a point of concern and contention... when do we stop reading Harry Potter? As the books progress they get darker and more violent and aren't appropriate, really, for a 4 year old... but then again, neither is Jurassic Park (1, 2, or 3), and those are his top 3 favorite movies! (Thanks, grandpa). Besides, what 4-year-old reads Harry Potter to BEGIN with? Obviously an unusual kid. We have big chats about how Voldermort killed Harry's parents but Harry was saved by the magic of love, and people followed the bad guy because they were either afraid or wanted power (or both), and sometimes things aren't what they seem... so my justification to keep going is that it's bonding time we both enjoy, and which leads to interesting questions and discussions. And if he's unusual and likes them, even if he's only 4, should we keep going? The other side is, of course, is that I'm being totally irresponsible and there are PLENTY of good "safe" books out there, chapter books, even, that we could be reading instead. Which I agree with! Lots of good books out there, and we've already read quite a few chapter books - mostly Roal Dahl, another favorite author of mine, but most of his books have terrible villains and twisted plots, so is this too much crazier? I'm interested to know what you think.
That said, I'll do whatever I want in the end :)
2 comments:
I've never read them (i know, I know) so I couldn't tell ya. I do think that Patrick is very advanced and I see many chapter books of all types in your future. My favorite book growing up was Stuart Little and the Indian in the Cupboard series, both of which I have if you want to borrow them!
It sounds like you are already doing the most important thing which is having open conversations regarding the reasons some of the plot points are happening within the books as you go. Having said that keep reading them to him. Like you said there are plenty of children's books that are geared more to his age group out there that have villians or plots that might cause him nightmares and you won't know until it happens.
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