Children's Lit

[Jenny from Ravenclaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 29540

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Joywitch M. Curmudgeon" <joym999 at a...> 
wrote:
 
> Seriously, though, I think that if the main character is a kid, the 
> book is usually assumed to be children's literature, and if not, 
it's adult literature.  This is probably a bad assumption to make, but 
I bet it's the most common way of distinguishing between adult and  
children's lit.>

and: 
> Ummm.....The Little Prince?  That's usually considered a kid's book 
> because the main character is a kid, but it really isn't.  OK, the 
> rest of you can come with examples now.>

:The English teacher steps up and gives it a shot:  "Bastard Out of 
Carolina", "Snow in August" and "Ellen Foster" are three novels with 
quite young protagonists but are clearly written for adults.  Many 
authors also have young protagonists in the beginning of their novels 
but they grow up throughout the course of the novel, just like :gasp: 
Harry Potter!  Some examples of those are Alice Hoffman, Pat Conroy 
and -damn, my books are packed up right now.  I think I've made my 
point, though.

What I find amusing about all of here debating over whether Harry is a 
children's book or not is the fact that most of are adults and we are 
obsessed enough with these books to be posting to this site regularly.  
For me, it is not Harry's age that makes HP so appealing, it is the 
world JKR has created.  Children and adults alike often wish for a 
little magic in their lives - just look at how many films and other 
novels have an element of the supernatural in them.

I also can't help but always go back to the fact that JKR herself has 
said that she did not write the books for children.  She just wrote 
them the way they came out.  The fact that Harry is a child is a lucky 
stroke for her, making the books even more widely appealing.  The HP 
books remind me of cartoons from the 1940s - they appear to be for 
children, but many of the jokes, names and details are catered to 
adults.  When I have spoken to children about HP, many of them don't 
know about the intricacies of the plot and themes; they just know 
Voldemort is bad and Hogwarts is really cool.  I think we adults take 
the stories much farther than that, and I'll bet JKR is just fine with 
that.

--jenny from ravenclaw ******************