HP for children?

[Dave Hardenbrook]

No: HPFGUIDX 22379

On the question of whether HP is for children, I have
to hold up Harry for comparison to the other fantasy
universe I'm most interested in, the Oz books, which are
most definitely (at least the "Oz Canon") classed as
"children's" books.

Although extremely charming, imaginative, and
well loved by people like me, the fact remains that
Oz (save for the wrtitings of "heretics", like me) is a
world in which all the conceivable "adult" issues have
been totally expunged -- There is no death, no "finding
one's hormones", no Voldemort-like villians (only the
ranting, moustache-twirling variety), and certainly no
complex people like Snape or Crouch, Sr. (i.e. everyone
is either all-good or all-evil).  Does this make HP an "Adult"
series, or does it only mean that L. Frank Baum (and other
Oz authors whose books have been cleared by the "Ozzy
Legion of Decency") severely underestimated children?
I dunno.  Maybe, since the Oz books also have an adult
following (many of the them like Harry too), it would make
more sense to class these series not as "Children's" vs.
"Adults'" but as "Escapist" vs. "Realist" fantasy, both of
which can be "handled" by (older, at least) children and
adults alike.



                         -- Dave