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at what age would you hand a child the first book?


mortato

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i dunno, i mean i started early (at twelve) but then again i had just finished Tolstoy's War & Peace, so i wasn't exactly your typical child.

to be honest it's all about maturity, if you think your kid is mature enough then yes, it's never too early to learn that the world isn't pink and that there are dark things at work

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to be honest it's all about maturity, if you think your kid is mature enough then yes, it's never too early to learn that the world isn't pink and that there are dark things at work

I agree, it depends on how much experience with reading the child arealdy has. If he/she hasn't much reading experience, it is bad to hand him/her literature that can have such an... emotional impact. For example, I got my hands on Lotr at the age of 8, and it made waaay more impact on me than it should, meaning that I was waaaay to focussed on it (rereading it countless times) instead of other important books, that were worth reading as well.

In addition to this, I think that Asoiaf is something that is best read with as many as possible other pieces of good/classical literature in the back of one's mind, that you can compare/relate it to.

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The problem is not that the story is going to make him any bad but, with 11 years he will probably not understand some of the things, the same happened to me when I was 10-12, I read books which were like ASOIAF (some worse, some lighter) and I had no problems reading them, but I lost some things, some dettails, reading them when I was 16-17 gave me a different point of view about them, in ASOIAF he will end losing a lot of important things

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I disagree with censoring the book. Even when I was a kid, I knew I wasn't "really" reading the book when I encountered that stuff. Either let him read the whole thing now or wait a few years and let him read it when he's ready to handle it. (13/14)

Also, I'd recommend he already have read Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, at the very least, before he picks up ASOINF.

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Depends on your child. How good is he at dealing with:

- depictions of gory scenes?

- emotionally disturbing material? (rape, mass murder etc.)

- really long texts?

- multiple plot/character threads?

If you can answer all of the above with "he can deal with it", then sure, why not. I think you're right in so far as innuendo and other subtleties that may not be suited for children, can go right over their heads. I remember watching Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame at age 8 and being really surprised when all the adults freaked out over Esmeralda's scene with the spear. I was like "What's wrong? She's just dancing?" - because what does an 8-year-old know about pole-dancing really?

But innuendo and subtleties are not the main issue here. Again, check for the points above. If the books are too much for your child, he can just put them away and read them later.

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Thanks everyone. I think I'll leave it for a couple of years or until Winds comes out. He read The Lord of the Rings at 9 and enjoyed it. He hasn't tried War and Peace yet.

Harry Potter maybe? Plenty of insightful and optimistic quotes there to impact your child. What we don't understand can't hurt us, like you said, but definitely triggers our imagination and shapes images difficult to forget.

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