The pricing has to do with the marketplace, not the popularity.

I read the first four out loud to my children. The youngest would have been 7 or 8 at the time. Reading at bedtime was a pleasant family tradition continued until within the last year or two. I was there to answer any questions or to add explanations if I felt they wouldn't take in the meaning in a Bristish novel as it was read to American children.

I enjoyed the books more with the kids there listening. I haven't finished reading the fifth book yet. I'm working on it in fits and starts. I do enjoy it, but I have other things to occupy me so have ot make the time to read it.

When I was a child Tolkien's Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were enjoying one of their many revivals, and my father started by reading The Hobbit out loud to us. He read part of the LOTR and let us go with it. So I was about 10 or 11 when I finished reading them. My brother is 15 months younger and he was reading them at the same time, though more voraciously, so he sped past me and finished first. No one doubted our ability to understand, knowing we would ask about puzzles in the book. My dad was letting us read at level, as Rapaire suggests. It is a fabulous way to encourage a lifetime habit of reading.

SRS