HP/children's literature

[Bente13 at peoplepc.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25064

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., bbennett at j... wrote:
> - In HPforGrownups at y..., Bente13 at p... wrote:
> 
> > >If it has to have a simple storyline, card-board one dimensional 
> characters, easy language, etc., then, no, the Potter books are not 
> children's books. They're certainly better crafted, in language, 
> plotting and characterization, than most children's books are, but 
> that doesn't mean they're not children's books; it's just means 
> they're *better* children's books.>
> 
> You're not reading the right children's books! 


That may well be. I think I may not have made myself clear, though. I 
actually got the above from a post some months ago, which I went back 
and looked at, in which someone suggested that the Potter books are 
not childrens books because they're longer, the plots are more 
involved, the characters are better developed and the language is 
more difficult than in 'most' childrens books. My point was that if 
this were so, 90% of all romance novels would be childrens books. 
They're short, shallow, have one dimensional, stereotypical 
characters and a largely unimaginative plot, and many of them are 
atrociously badly written. But of course they're not childrens books, 
because they deal with adult subject matter. And subject matter, IMO, 
is what makes a book fall into a certain category. Not length, 
difficulty of language, number of subplots, well-roundedness of 
characters, etc. I certainly agree that the Potter books are not your 
usual childrens/young adult books, but at the same time I don't feel 
comfortable classifying them as adult books, either. They're about 
children/young adults, written from the POV of children/young adults, 
and deal with issues faced by children/young adults (as well as, of 
course, some issues faced by the rest of us). Maybe we need a new 
category...?

Thanks for the reading list, by the way. I'll check it out!

Bente (who will go to her grave swearing that Lord of the Flies is a 
childrens book.)