OOP: Is Anyone Else's Head About to *Explode?*

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 64547

Uh, actually Jenny's having some e-mail problems, so she asked me to 
repost this for her.

Pip!Squeak

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jenny_ravenclaw" 
<meboriqua at a...> wrote:

 --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Cindy C." <cindysphynx at c...> 
wrote:
 
Ya know, OoP was a children's book.  Definitely.  Don't you think?  
Nope, there's no room for disagreement at all.  I mean, we got the 
same old Draco Malfoy taunts, for one thing.  I was expecting 
something a bit darker, a bit more serious.

True - Draco's taunts are annoying as all hell, but that alone 
doesn't make the series one for children.  There are definitely 
elements of HP that are quite common in children's literature, like 
the gross exaggeration of the Dursleys, children as heros, and 
skirting around the first kiss (boy, would I have loved to read 
that - Harry got back to Gryffindor Tower a half hour later!), but 
in general, the themes are more adult in each book.  We can also 
take a look at some of those same elements as adults, and find 
realism in the Dursleys, criticize them for spoiling Dudley until he 
is literally rotten or justifying why Harry and his friends are the 
heros of the story.  

Dicentra already nailed some of the elements of HP that are way over 
the heads of kids, but to take it farther, I don't often hear 10-11 
year olds discussing capital punishment (PoA), or having to deal 
with witnessing a murder (GoF) and so on.  The complexity of Snape 
is something I don't think many kids could grasp, either.  Even 
Harry's temper was much more adult - *kids* don't often sass their 
teachers the way he does in OoP.  At the very least, JKR is getting 
teen life down pat, teacher-sassing including.    
 
OK, I finally admit it.  I'm reading and enjoying a series for 
children.  Ahem.>

Don't you mean "Hem, hem"?
 
Cindy -- starting trouble for the sake of it and bummed because her 
favorite characters (Lupin, Moody, Avery) got seriously overlooked
 
Avery?  You'll have to enlighten me there.  What is so intriguing to 
you about Avery?  I know you can make it good, Cindy!
--jenny from ravenclaw, hoping Cindy will also come out to support 
the "Hagrid is a Moron" thing I've got going all by myself here 
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