Children's Lit

[heiloo at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 29560

And let's not forget the Chronicles of Narnia.  CS Lewis was not 
considered a "children's" author by any stretch of the imagination, 
but all his protagonists are children, thus they're usually shelved in 
the children's room of the library (or the religion and theology 
section...)  Hell, Oliver Twist isn't considered a "kid's" book, 
although the protagonist is a child.  It seems a relatively recent 
development (in terms of the history of written stories) that we've 
come up with this idea that children should only read stories about 
children and adults should only read stories about adults.  How sad 
and uninspired that thinking is.  The HP books do what a good story 
should do -- they transport us to another world.  What I like about 
them is that they speak to us on a number of different levels, but 
Rowling hasn't deliberately put in any "nudge-nudge, wink-wink" asides 
for they adult readers.  If something is over a younger reader's head, 
it's because the theme -- like loss or loneliness -- hasn't touched 
their life in as strong a way as it has an adult reader's life. I like 
the sincerity of her writing -- it's simply strong story-telling.





--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Jenny from Ravenclaw" <meboriqua at a...> 
wrote:
> --- 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 ******************