Harry Potter and the Competitive Reading Level

 

Through conversations I’ve had as a teacher and as a parent I can say with (some) confidence that there is another Reading Tree/Book Band/Reading Level that many adults across the country subscribe to.

The Harry Potter Reading Level.

It would appear that the Harry Potter Reading Level begins at some point in Year 2 where The Philosopher’s Stone either becomes the bedtime read of choice or, even more impressively, the child starts to read it independently!

Now, I know what you’re thinking – Goblet of Fire is Greater Depth in KS1 as that wonderful exemplification from the DfE told us in 2018! But bear with me.

There seems to be a point in many a child's life when Harry Potter is introduced into their reading life and suddenly it's all about The Boy Who Lived. The further on you are with the books, the better your child is at reading.  I’ve seen parents discuss this as a teacher, I’ve seen parents discuss this as a parent and I’ve…..done it as a parent.

Child 1 is now in Y4. She loves reading and being read to and I’d wager if she was to list her favourite books that we’ve read to her over the last 18 months I reckon some definite mentions would be:

·       The Last Bear by Hannah Gold

·       The Beast and the Bethany by Jack Meggitt-Phillips

·       All 3 Starfell books By Dominque Valente

·       The Exploding Like of Scarlett Fife by Maz Evans

·       Otherland by Louie Stowell

·       A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig

·       Both Varjak Paw books by SF Said

·       The Griffin Gate by Vashti Hardy

Eventually, and perhaps with some prompting, I think she’d get to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. But it wouldn’t be at the forefront of her mind.

I read it to her in the Autumn of Year 2. I bought the Jim Kay illustrated version – stunning, by the way – and we were off! It was important to me that she loved the books before she started watching all the films. She’d watched the first two films at her cousins’ (it’s always cousins, right?) and I always said she couldn’t watch the third film as it wasn’t appropriate for her yet (don’t worry – the irony isn’t lost on me), and as Azkaban was my favourite of all the books, I was determined that she would read the book first.

Why was I so obsessed with her reading Harry Potter books?

1.     I was a Harry Potter snob who was determined that my children would love the books first and the films second. Too often as a teacher I would discuss Harry Potter and the children who were die-hard fans and had not read the books, they’d watched the films (hello DfE exemplification again!). Any Harry Potter entry into the wonderful reading scrapbooks done by the children last year was never based on a specific book, just Harry Potter in general. You can't move for Harry Potters on World Book Day.

2.     Because I’d loved the books when I'd read them all those years ago, and I still think they’re pretty good (again, Azkaban especially) and because my knowledge of books was growing but not great (see previous blog) I still kind of put the HP books on a pedestal for my children. 

And so we began. I put in a pretty good performance if I do say so myself and she enjoyed it. We finished it and I invested in some Harry Potter Lego (mainly for me to be fair).

So, the house was buzzing with Harry Potter – the first book had been read and very random Lego was being played with. Good times.

Child 1 and I started on Chamber of Secrets (again the beautifully illustrated Jim kay version) and …. we stopped reading it.

She wasn’t bothered.

And do you know why she wasn’t bothered?

Because she was (just) seven.

She was too young.

The buzz around HP was mainly being created by me. She liked playing with the Lego (probably because Lego is THE GREATEST THING EVER MADE!) but she didn’t pester me to read the books to her. That's how I know she loves a book by the way, which when you say it out loud seems really rather obvious.

I had been that parent who had fallen into the trap and getting Harry Potter books into my children’s lives far too early.

It’s easily done. Harry Potter is everywhere! And because far too many people do fall into the trap then I think there’s a danger of a pressure building up and the child or parent feeling that they have to read them.

I’m well aware there will be children out there who read them at that age who will have loved them and still do. That’s fine, but for what it is worth I’m saying this –  in my opinion Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is an Upper Key Stage 2 book (9 years up). There are some grown-up themes that run through it (his parents have been murdered!) and I (now!) feel there are lots of other, more appropriate and better, books for children aged 6 -9. 

So yeah - my daughter is now 8 and isn't fussed on Harry Potter. And that's ok.

The Harry Potter shaped hole in my daughter's life has been filled quite easily by the astonishingly good Starfell series by Dominque Valente. If you haven’t read them then I cannot recommend them enough.  Willow Moss is the best character I’ve met in the last 18 months and every book is wonderfully original and full of magic and adventure. Child 1 was Willow Moss for World Book Day, complete with a cuddly jaguar toy as Oswin (and not a lightning scar in sight).

Have I learnt my lesson? Nah. I read Amari and the Night Brothers in a day and was so blown away by it I said we would read it to Child 1 and we did (middle of Y3). She really liked it but should have loved it – again it’s a Y5 book for me. The sequel will be coming to her in Y5.

What does the Harry Potter future bring for Child 1? Who knows? I actually spoke to her about it last night, and whether she wanted to read them again and if she felt she’d missed out.

She said, ‘Not really. There’s loads of other books I want to read instead.’

She’s a confident independent reader and they may come her way when she gets to Y5 -  I’m now adamant that she doesn’t need to read them before then and her TBR pile at the moment includes Rainbow Grey, A Dragon in the Library, An Alien in the Jam Factory, Llama Out Loud, Run Like a Girl and a few graphic novels that I’ll be passing her way.

However, there are a few characters I will be sending her way in Y5. Some I’ve deliberately not read as I want us to read them together.

Morrigan Crow and the Widdershin sisters. And I can’t wait for that...

 P.S

I didn’t buy official Harry Potter Lego, I ordered it off Wish. It was an absolute steal and when it arrived I understood why. Although it WAS Lego, there were some slight differences:

1.     It was called Justice Magician

2.     The Hogwarts Express was called ‘Wizardry Castle’

3.     It left from Platform 7 5/9

 

How my children got me reading again and why I regret it

 

This is my first ever blog. I never thought of doing one before as I wasn’t sure I had anything to say and this may still be the case when we get to the end of this… but nevermind.

I love reading.

I read everyday.

I read about books everyday.

I talk about books everyday.

I pretty much buy books everyday.

But it certainly wasn’t always like this.

I read a bit when I was younger but never avidly. My sister did – our house was full of books. For me, Fighting Fantasy was great, The Machine Gunners was cool and that was pretty much it apart from some cracking Asterix audiobooks read by Willie Rushton. I was far more interested in Championship Manager (nothing has changed there) and my high elf Warhammer army (nothing has changed there either). I discovered Harry Potter at university (Azkaban had just come out) and then dipped in and out of books every now and then, mainly when I was on a holiday (the Stieg Larsson trilogy) but they were never an important part of my life.

Even as a teacher.

I always read to my classes, don’t get me wrong, but class reads weren’t an essential part of my teaching week, more something to do just before the end of the day.

Eight years ago my first daughter was born. For her first birthday I had the idea that instead of presents we asked that people bought her a book that was special to them growing up and write a message for her in it. We did the same for my second daughter and they now both have these beautiful collections of books with personalised messages from the special people in their lives. If I do say so myself, it was a great idea - my eldest is just about ready for The Demon Headmaster her uncle got her which was his favourite story growing up. I cannot wait for the conversation that they’ll have about it.

And yet still at this point I was reading David Walliams to my class.

I’m not going to spend the rest of this blog talking about his books, the simple facts are many of his representations are lazy and offensive and there are better books out there -  so read and buy them instead.

Why was I reading one of his books and not something ten times better? I didn’t know any better. I didn’t seek out new and exciting titles that would grip and enchant my class, or have them howling with laughter or questioning things they had always held to be true. The class read was fine – a nice way to end the day, but not much more than that.

We weren’t a class that read. We didn’t discuss books in any great detail yet each week I would expect them to turn up with a reading record filled in. Madness.

I now think very differently.

Readers are made from readers, but of course you knew that already.

Back at home I was always looking forward to the bedtime story part of my life as a dad. My dad had absolutely owned this part of the evening and I have many gorgeous memories of him reading me The House at Pooh Corner and absolutely nailing all the voices. I love reading to my children, pretty much more than anything. I started to find the most interesting books as I could to read to them. And I loved it.

I started reading more myself and buying more books for my class. I read to them more – we started talking about books more and more. I hadn’t read every book that I recommended to them but I knew what they were about and whether they were deemed to be good or not. Class readers became integral to our time together – sneaking chapters in whenever we could. I wrapped up secret books to give as prizes, the class swapped and recommended books to each other regularly.

We were a class that read.

I’m out of class now. I see the books that are in school and feel so jealous of the opportunities staff have to read them to the children. I have my own collection of books outside my office and hope children will come and borrow them as much as they want. Being out of class has been hard, I miss it terribly but I’ve found that books have been one way to help me stay connected to the children - I talk to them about books all the time.

At home my children adore books and I still adore reading to them (I can’t ever imagine not reading to them but know that at some stage, sadly, that day will come). We’ve done the reading scrapbooks together, Book World Cups, their monthly choice sheets and their knowledge of books is vast and wonderful and something I’m very proud of. My eldest has just experienced true pain as she’s finished Amulet no.8 and the last one isn’t out yet. She spoke to her favourite author at one of A New Chapter’s glorious Book Bingo nights and later said it was the best night of her life. My youngest has set up her own book shop in her room. Stuff like that makes my heart sing.

Anyway, back to ME. When I was in class, my final Year 6 class reads were:

Tin by Padraig Kenny

Once by Morris Gleitzman

The Clockwork Crow by Catherine Fisher

Dark Takes from the Woods by Daniel Morden

The Murderer’s Ape by Jakob Wegelius

The Middler by Kirsty Applebaum

I’m proud of that list, but there is not a yearly line up of my class reads that comes close to it. And here is where the regret comes in. I wasted too many years not reading great books to my class, not passionately discussing books with them or finding them books where they could truly see themselves and take hope, pride, strength and comfort from them.

When I was a class teacher I owned no graphic novels…

I can't tell you what to do but please don’t make the mistake I did. Be that teacher who reads. Immerse yourself in the incredible variety of children’s literature we now have access to and share them far and wide. Take book advice from the incredibly generous folk online and stare in amazement at your bank balance when you realise just how many books you bought last month.

You won’t regret it.