[Serenity]

Good question!! My son is 7 and will be in 2nd grade this Fall. Like I said before, I've been reading the books to him at bedtime. However, he can read the books on his own. He even reads some pages to me when the feeling hits him. He has some problems with the big words and their meanings, but we work on that together. Another thing I do is ask him questions as I read to him. Not to quiz him, but to try and guess what may happen in the next chapter. And forget it, when he's right there's no end to his bragging. He gets that from his dad, I guess. LOL!! Anyway, the fact that he can predict what may happen in the story tells me that he has a good grasp of what is going on as I read.

I think parents just have to take their child's interests into consideration. If they (kids) could care less about HP and you're shoving it down their throat, it's going to have a negative impact. But, I don't think it'll turn them off of reading completely. The key is to know what they are interested in and find books that deal with that subject. I introduced HP to my son because I thought he might like the good vs evil theme. Not to mention the fact that the main character is a boy (he's anti-girls right now) who is a wizzard (he loves magic). And I was right. But had he not been interested, I would have just read them on my own.

Right now my son is not giving Harry Potter a second thought, even though we are in the middle of the last book, because he is having too much fun doing other things on his summer vacation. However, once school begins again and he has restricted TV/video game time and an earlier bedtime, he'll be anxious to pick up where we left off. And that's fine with me.