We're currently reading book 3. I thought my son would have trouble with the spiders in book 2 because he has a fear of spiders (like Ron), but we had just watched Hobbit (movie 2, which has large spiders), so he did okay.
We used to have spider issues too.
Some co-starring characters were killed off in the Percy Jackson series, which worried me, but my kids seemed to do okay. Maybe it's because they've dealt with the death of both of my husband's parents (and a cat). Then, again, they freaked out about the lion's death in the Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe. I guess it depends on how it is handled. I thought the description in the LWW was too graphically detailed (as was the murder scene in Tom Sawyer) which could be why they had more trouble with it.
That's a key point- how a subject is handled in books or in movies. Think of the Diary of Anne Frank versus Schlinder's List. Both are about the holocaust but one is far too disturbing for young children. Even Scooby Doo has some scary stuff but the tone is light and it's a cartoon so it doesn't have as much of an impact on kids.
(I feel silly I have more TV/movie examples than books but images have a big impact on kids. When mine were little, they'd watch something and only realize it bothered them when they couldn't sleep (and I couldn't sleep) at night. That wasn't fun.)
Joan
