it is nearly impossible to escape the harry potter juggernaut and all the moreso when the second of two movies based on the 8th and final installment of the series is now playing in theaters. odin has definitely heard of harry potter and even seen bits and pieces of the earlier movies when we’ve been on vacation and it has happened to be on the television and cousins wanted to watch it. but the movies have always been a bit much for him to take in and i doubt he’s gleaned much beyond the names of the characters and very basic plot elements.

since he just turned seven we thought we’d try and read the first book, “harry potter and the philosopher’s stone”, with odin and see what he thought. i don’t know what the conventional wisdom is on the age-appropriateness of the books, but our understanding is that the first few books are the tamest of the series and we thought, really, how much worse can it be than “grimm’s fairy tales which he enjoys.

turns out, for the most part, he loved it! and asked us to read it during the day for long stretches and we really got the sense that it was his first experience with a “page turner”. he even told me one morning, “poppi. i have something to tell you. i woke up and turned on my flashlight and grabbed the book and just flipped through the pages. i hope i didn’t wake you up.” i told him i might have done the same thing with my favorite books when i was his age 🙂

for days he recounted stories of the characters struggles and quidditch and muggles and hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. the ending, though, ended up being a little intense for him and in the final analysis he said simply, “it was a good book, but i had mama read some of the scary parts in her head and i think i might like to read the next book in two years when i’m a little older.”

a fair enough review for sure, but i can’t help but wonder if we’ll be starting “harry potter and the chamber of secrets sooner rather than later.