[HPforGrownups] Dying and age-appropriate fiction

[Heidi Tandy]

Tyler wrote:
be using. The ageing of charecters in 'real time'
seems pretty unique to the HPbooks. I can't think of
any other children's book series where the charecters
age from story to story. Most stay the same age for as
long as the author cares to write them. 
I'm wondering if JKR is purposefully moving the
reading level of her books up as well as the series
progresses.  Age appropriateness as far as language,
vocabulary, etc. seems about the same in the books so
far (I'm not an expert at this, however). What is
changing is the complexity of the larger story. Plots
are more complicated, more and more charecters are
introduced, ideas of 'good' and 'bad' actions and
charecters are often slipping into gray areas. My
feeling is that JKR may be purposefully writing her
books for older readers thematically, while
technically leaving them accessable to younger
readers. *****

There is one similarly-maturing series I can think of, which we've discussed here from time to time. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, which was semiautobiographical. 

Penny can speak more about the technical aspects of the books, but they definitely mature in terms of plot and style from the first to the last. I read them all when I was 9 or 10 but the romance attributes of the latter books were aspects I didn't get into until I reread them 2-3 years later. 

But Little House is more an American tradition for reading. The Enid Blyton books, like Mallory Towers, have the characters age, but the writing style never changes and it's not until the last of the 7 books that there's a noticable change in the plot maturity. 

Heidi Tandy
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