Children reading ~ BrontëBlog

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Children reading

Wednesday, May 31, 2006 3:51 pm by Cristina in Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights 4 comments

Some time ago we debated on the right age to read Jane Eyre. What about the right age to read Wuthering Heights? This article suggests quite an early read of the book:

When choosing books, it's a good idea to create a mix of "easy reads" that your child can enjoy without a great deal of effort in comprehension and some more challenging books.
These challenging books may be classics such as "The Call of the Wild" "Wuthering Heights," "Treasure Island" and "Little Women" -- all of which have dense and more complicated prose but are still entertaining.

No doubt it is a challenging book but perhaps a little too much. We suggest you start with Jane Eyre or Agnes Grey but leave Wuthering Heights for when your child is at least 15-16. Don't you think so too?

There's another article in the news today about a woman who tells about her love for children's stories and how it all started.

Eventually I moved on to "The Secret Garden," "Little Women," "Jane Eyre," and Nancy Drew in all of her escapades.

Now that's more like it! (Notice how both of them suggest Little Women :) ).

Categories: Jane_Eyre, Wuthering_Heights

4 comments:

Anonymous5/31/2006 05:20:00 pm
I didn't like WH when I read it in high school, but I did when I read it in college. I think I could appreciate it more on a psychological level, being a little older. JE I read and loved at about 12.
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Anonymous5/31/2006 07:01:00 pm
Interesting that you should change your mind. Often people either hate it or love it and that's that.

I think the feelings and atmospheres in WH are too primitive yet to complex for a child. JE has the beginning with Jane's childhood and then the love story which the children can understand much more easily.
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Anonymous5/31/2006 07:06:00 pm
What I found really disturbing when I read Wuthering Heights (abridged version) as a 11 year old was the consequent deaths that occured. Since this book was not assigned for class and I just happened to pick it up, I think a teacher/older person's guidance would have helped me immensely. I didn't get back to reading it in its entirity for about another 10 years. I did grow to appreciated and love it much more, however.
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Anonymous5/31/2006 07:42:00 pm
11!! I think you were too young, even for an abridged version.

Yes, of course some guidance helps, but still that can get you only so far.

I really don't think any child under, say, 15 will care much for the book, guided or not.
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