[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: The curious incident of the dog in the night

[Shaun Hately]

On 26 Dec 2006 at 21:39, Elizabeth Snape wrote:

> No, it is NOT a children/young adults book. I purchased my copy in
> the regular fiction section at B&N.
> 
> Perhaps people are misled because Mark Haddon has previously written
> children's books? And another thing, just because the protag is a 
> teenager doesn't make it a children's book.

I've just recently completed my studies in the area of children's literature, and the Curious 
Incident is one of the books I focused on for a fairly large section of my course. What makes 
the Curious Incident a children's book is that it was deliberately marketed as such (which 
includes submission to children's magazines, and children's literature magazines for review), 
and Haddon at least initially seems to have viewed it as such. More recently he's started 
saying that it was an adult book from the start, but that doesn't match earlier statements he 
made.

Because the book attracted almost instant attention from adults (including a number of 
prizes), his publisher and bookshops began to target the adult audience as well, so I'm not 
surprised you found the book in the regular fiction section. That's a marketing decision, which 
really has very little to do with the classification of the book.

In contrast, 'A Spot of Bother' has been deliberately marketed right from the start as an adult 
book.

Whether to classify a book as children's literature or adult is complicated at times. But the 
fact that Curious Incident was deliberately sent to journals that review and examine children's 
literature is to me a clear indication of intent.
 
Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia