DADA Teachers/Children's Lit

[blpurdom at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25215

Here are the other two topics:

1. DADA Teachers

I know it may seem trite for the DADA teacher to have a shelf life of 
a year, but I enjoy a good reliable plot device (think the doomed 
drummers in "Spinal Tap.")  Plus, Lupin didn't turn out to be evil, 
per se.  He is a "dark creature," but Snape can help him control his 
problem with Wolfsbane Potion.  Also, I don't get the impression that 
the next DADA teacher will be evil (is this the one that's supposed 
to be a woman?).  Perhaps this will be JKR's way of slipping in the 
doomed Harry-fan: the teacher will be a fan of Harry's, and the 
reason she doesn't return for another year is that she is killed near 
the end of the fifth book.  For this reason, I don't want it to be 
Mrs. Figg.  But obviously, I'll live with whatever JKR gives us. :)

2. Children's Lit

A "children's" book I came to as an adult is Peter Pan.  This book is 
FULL of sexual innuendo, and has probably been analyzed to death by 
scholars around the world.  It still qualifies as children's 
literature, though, in that the innuendo is mostly subtext and it 
probably doesn't appeal to most adults unless they're writing a 
dissertation on it.  Many books for adults are fictionalized 
auto/biographies of characters.  The novels of John Irving come to 
mind, which usually begin with the childhood of the protagonist(s) 
and follow the character(s) into adulthood.  Are these books half 
children's books and half adult books because they deal with a little 
of each part of the characters' lives?  

IMHO, it is not subject matter or book length or vocabulary or any of 
a number of other things which distinguishes children's literature 
from adult literature.  If there is any distinction to be made at 
all, I would say that children's literature is that which appeals 
almost exclusively to children.  This is of course extremely 
subjective.  Adult literature would appeal primarily to adults and 
pretty much repel children (again, subjective).  Anything that 
has "crossover" appeal and is fair game to be read by anyone is what 
I would call a valuable contribution to literature everywhere, and to 
pigeonhole it is to do it a deep injustice.

--Barb

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