[HPforGrownups] They are children's books (Was: the heart of it all)

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 81670

> Golly: They are children's books.  And children's books have beloved
> characters that die all the time.

They were and are not written for children. They were written to express
someone's vision, to tell a story.

It was the marketing department of the publisher that chose to market to
children, and who made the (to me, ridiculous) decision to have "adult" and
"child" versions of the *exact same story* with different covers.

In fact, I will be interested to see how the releases of Books 6 and 7 are
handled; to me, at least, the frantic child-focused activity seemed on the
edge of inappropriate for Book 5. I think subsequent books will take the
story out of the realm where stuffed owls, paper wizard hats, getting
"sorted," and making wands are appropriate marketing tools. I think that the
ads with the biker and the businesswoman are far more appropos, at this
point.

It is a fact that the earlier books appealed to children. But to classify
the entire sequence--with two unread, even--as "children's books" is to
place artificial measures on a continuum.

I have chosen to be guided by the author, who has said no; she didn't write
them for children (although she is delighted at their response). She wrote
them to tell a story.

~Amanda