My dad read the Hobbit at around 9, it was a gift from his grandad and he loved it, he reread it about a thousand times. He then kept that copy and gave it to me when I was seven and I read the whole book in one day, multiple times. And then 7 year old me discussed the book with my 11 year old cousin who had also read it because we were kids who had both read an incredible kids book.
Having "dated" words does not make a book innacessible to kids. I was reading Enid Blyton books at 5 years old, only stopping to ask my mam every so often about unfamiliar words or cultural differences. My parents didn't write off old books as too difficult, they decided "she'll figure it out" and it is one of the best things to happen to me.
Because I could read old stories, I got to uncover dastardly plots with the famous five at five, I could explore new lands in the Faraway tree at six, I could adventure with Bilbo and company at seven, I could learn French with the girls from St Clares School at eight, I could pay a visit Hartfield and gasp at the antics of Ms Austin's finely crafted nobility at 10, I could run with Achilles and stand in horror at Medeas action at 15.
All of these incredible stories that written long before my time, using terminology and structure of bygone days were never deemed out of my reach, instead, my mam plucked an old €2 book, from a charity shop shelf and let her daughter become immersed in and rashived by the stories that would keep her reading under the covers at night, just as other children had with those very same tales, for generation after generation. Because they have and always will be for children.
