Children's Lit

[tenpinkpiggies at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 29578

Hi!
> 
Wow.  I have to say that when I made the orignal comment 
about "first and foremost for children" I wasn't even thinking that 
I was saying something controversial. I only wanted to talk about 
class issues. I just thought saying that the books were surprisingly 
layered and dealt with certain issues that are not common to 
children's lit was more meaningful than saying, well... for an adult 
novel it certainly is juvenille! ;)

> 
> Cindy wrote:
> Is there "good" adult fiction in which children are the 
protagonist?

I think an interesting comparision might be "Midnight's Children" by 
Salman Rushdie. Has anyone read it? It is filled with "magic" as 
plot elements, and as metaphor; it has a young, very special boy as 
a hero, it has all the dickensian narrative structure and plot 
devices, it is wildly funny, in fact it has many similarities to the 
HP books, yet is is very clearly an adult novel. The politics, the 
sex, the graphic violence, the "adult" content, don't have to be 
skated around because what self-respecting 11-year-old reads 
Rushdie? Realistically JK is writing to satisfy two worlds, adult 
and child, and this drastically affects content. So if I offended 
any of my fellow Potter fans by implying, however indirectly, that 
we are "juvenile", please let me beg forgiveness. Or better yet, 
take it as a compliment. I do. Everyday... ;)

Cheers!

- Cornflower O'Shea

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"Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" -Albus Dumbledore

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ps. Where would something like "The Diary of Anne Frank" fit into 
our discussion? Is it possible to say that some books simply defy 
categorization? Perhaps that defiance is what makes them great?