HP/children's literature -- Draco

[Bente13 at peoplepc.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25108

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Penny & Bryce <pennylin at s...> wrote:
> In any 
> case, I'm not sure Bente's categorization fully reflects what is 
> indisputably the case: in book 7, Harry & Co. will be full-fledged, 
no 
> kidding adults.  



I had promised myself that I wasn't gonna get sucked into this again, 
but I can't let this one go! With all due respect, and I'm sorry if I 
offend the 'mature teens' out there: 17 is not indisputably 'full 
fledged, no kidding adults'. Aside from the fact of legal age, which 
varies from country to country, and aside from the fact that 17 year 
olds aren't really (generally speaking) mature enough to take on 
adult responsibilities and make adult choices, (and entirely aside 
from my own personal opinion on the matter), I don't see any evidence 
in the books that JKR thinks they are, either. Percy is still living 
at home after leaving Hogwarts and getting a job, and Cedric Diggory 
is described (GoF pg.71, 1st US Edition) as "an extremely handsome 
BOY of about 17". Fleur Delacour is repeatedly referred to as a girl, 
not a woman, and she's finishing her last year of school as GoF ends. 
I agree entirely that the characters are growing up, and the later 
books will probably not be suitable for kids of 7-8, but just like 
you have a problem classifying the books as childrens literature 
partly because the characters are getting older, I have a problem 
classifying them as adult books when the characters never grow up 
entirely. But like I said once before, we should probably just agree 
to disagree about how they should be classified, since classification 
doesn't amount to a hill of beans anyway. 

Bente