Setting

[mrslibrarian at yahoo.com]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C420
From: mrslibrarian
Subject: Setting
Date: 1/27/00 4:27 pm  (ET)

When I first read Harry Potter, it was as part of an adult discussion
group. The book had just come out, and we were reading it to see if
we could recommend it to children. A number of the adults felt that by
setting it in a boarding school, JKR would alienate children unfamiliar
with that environment. Having dealt with children and adults who have
been both boarders and non-boarders, this not only doesn't alienate
them, it doesn't even seem to impinge on their understanding of the
story. When I was a kid, we read loads of stories set in boarding schools
e.g. Jennings, and the whole setting then seemed rather romantic. Does
it make a difference in Harry Potter? Other than the obvious mechanism
for escaping from the Dursleys, of course.