BTW, there’s lots of movies and books geared to young elementary children that deal quite frankly with death (Charlotte’s Web, my fav. book in second grade for one) or Bambi or Old Yeller.
I completely agree. But they ARE reading it, or having it read to them. And they're seeing the movies.
Seven, probably not, but that's how old my oldest son was when he began reading the series. From the first book there have been scenes of fairly graphic violence. That's why I read all of the books before my son did--I wanted to know what he was going to be exposed to so we could discuss it together after.
My son is now nine and he finished Deathly Hallows last night (I finished it Saturday). He finds the dementors most frightening and was saddened by all the deaths, but he loved the book.
Agreed.
That's the one drawback to the series ... new readers to the series can pick them up back to back. A seven-year-old reading Sorceror's Stone is wonderful. I'd encourage them to read a few other things in between each book, however, so that would put off some of the worse stuff for a year or two. Even then, well, it still might be read along time.