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DerynifanK

March 17, 2024, 03:48:44 PM
Happy St Patrick's Day. Enjoy the one day of the year when the whole world is Irish.

Age to start the Deryni indoctrination?

Started by AnnieUK, September 15, 2007, 04:19:50 AM

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AnnieUK

I have a DD of 10 who is a good reader and loves her sf/fantasy.  Do you reckon this is too early to start her with the Chronicles?  I am rereading them at the moment and there isn't any of the more adult content of some of the other books.  Anyone started kids off with the series, or started on them young themselves, and if so at what age? 

kgilson

I read my first Deryni book at 10.  I had just found out there was a sci/fi fantasy genre and was reading everything I could find.  The school librarian gave me Deryni Rising and I fell in love.  I am 35 now and still love her books.

Karen

EvilEd

My eldist (19 now) tried the Deryni about 10-12... Enjoyed the Chronicles... And Died in the first of the Camber books and REFUSED to go back for about 5 years.

She says she still has to be in the right mood to read them, but can (one at a time) cause KK keeps killing off all her favorite characters.  Her problem with Camber was how "Dark" it was.  She wasn't emotionally ready for that (she says now).

My concern starting a youngster on the Deryni is that much of the series is on the Dark side - and this has been known to turn off readers.  Only you can know your kid though.

AnnieUK

Yeah, I'd keep her to the first trilogy for a good while I think.  Even parts of High Deryni are quite dark, really - the torturing of Derry and the impaled headless corpses!  But this is a kid who read Goosebumps from about 4 and has read all the Darren Shan demon books already, so she quite likes ghoulish.  (Takes after her father, LOL - I can't even watch a horror film with the lights out.)

adagiomin

I encouraged my 3 kids to give Chronicles a try when each of them were 13 or 14ish.  But I would have never handed them the later books at that age.  And only my girls took to them; my son never did.

Steve

I have also been mulling this over - Rhys is now 11, reads a lot when he's in the mood and we've nearly finished Harry Potter! I'll let you know how he gets on with Deryni Rising!

QuasiSparklz

I started out with Deryni Rising and Deryni Checkmate in 7th or 8th grade when I got them after they were withdrawn from my middle school's library, so I was anywhere from 12-14 years old.  I don't remember exactly.  After that it took awhile to track down a copy of High Deryni, but I was hooked after the first one.  Turned my brother (a year younger) onto them not long after I started reading them.  I'd finished everything that had previously been published probably by the time I was a sophomore in High School.  I never got turned off by any of the darker material. But then, I've always been an avid reader.  As has  been stated, then, I think it depends on the child.  I tried to get my youngest brother to read them and he never got interested enough to even finish Deryni Rising even though he likes other books in the same genre.

r2005

I know that I started with them while I was in Middle school because I would always have an extra book along with me to read in my spare time. ;D So, I started them at age 11-12, if I'm remembering correctly. I think at that point I had already finished the Pern books that had been published at that point, so I moved onto another world of characters that I have since come to love.

No matter how you're heart is grieving if you keep on believing the dream that you wish will come true

JulianneTK

I've given them to several fifth graders at school/work and the ones I gave them to have been fascinated and want High Deryni ASAP-- which is tough. I'm going to have to buy it and donate it to my school library, I fear.

morgan

Unfortunately, I discovered Deryni book late, only about 12 years ago when I was 22. I don't think the books are so "dark" that a child couldn't read them.
I used to watch horror film as a child and never had...problems!

TheDeryni

Well, I sent my stepson in Brasil Camber of Culdi earlier this year. After he finished it, he gave it to his 9 year old cousin. That 9 year old sends me an email almost EVERY day begging me to send more of the Deryni novels. (Which I have just recently) If her reaction is any indication, I'd say that most kids can handle them and love them, but only you know your child. And by the way, this kid knew no English when CoC was given to her. The Deryni novels are not published in Portuguese. (Which I find disheartening, since Brasil is the 5th most populated country in the world. . . . but that's for another forum topic) Anywho, if that 9 year old can struggle through teaching herself English with CoC, I'd say go for it if you think your child can handle it.
TD
Once you think you understand women.....you will find you understand nothing about women.

DesertRose

A 9-year-old child read Camber of Culdi without understanding English?  That's one talented kid.  Send that kid some books!  :D
"If having a soul means being able to feel love, loyalty, and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans."

James Herriot (James Alfred "Alfie" Wight), when a human client asked him if animals have souls.  (I don't remember in which book the story originally appeared.)

Mally

Similar experience to many others on the site from what I've read so far (it's my first post) - I'd already discovered fantasy novels aged 10 or so then stumbled across the Camber series on the school library aged 13 - that was 22 years ago and I still love the Deryni books. Even read them in German when I lived out there!!!

Fantastic series!

As for a recommended age - i would say 13 or so purely as if they read one an enjoy it - they'll want to read the rest and some of them are maybe a tad gory / graphic for a 10 year old?!?! Suppose really it depends on the child. I know as a 19 year old I cried buckets when Evaine died...

Gyrfalcon64207

Mom gave me Deryni Rising to read the summer after fifth grade, so I was ten or eleven.  I just remember I finished it the first night at summer camp, and fretted myself to pieces for the rest of the week until I could get my hands on Deryni Checkmate.  She had the two original series, and I tracked down all the rest on my own soon after that.  I don't think I ever had any trouble with the darker stuff either.  It's no darker than medieval life is historically supposed to have been.