Progression of the books

[David Burgess]

No: HPFGUIDX 99388

From: "Jospehine" <J.Z.Dench at uel.ac.uk>
>
[...]
>Nevertheless I personally, as a big kid, would very much like to see
>book 6 continue to progress, it would be disastrous to dumb them down
>now. But I would feel sad to see fewer children engrossed in Harry
>Potter.

When GoF was released, Steven King was in the throes of a tour promoting
his most recent book.  That Friday morning, he was on the Today Show.  I
don't have the quote, but basically the conversation went something like
this:

    Katey Couric:  "As you know, the most recent installment of the Harry
Potter book series is being released this week-end.  What do think
about that?"

    Steven King:  "I really like the books.  If I had the chance, though,
as a fellow writer, I'd ask her one question - 'When did you decide
not to write children's books?'"

This question crystalized the entire series for me and validated something
that had been rolling around in my head since PoA.  In my view, these
books are a story about a child, but are clearly NOT a children's story.

>From a pure mass perspective, GoF would have been impossible for most
children to read.  I mean, I started it when it came in at 2PM on
Saturday, and finished it at 5PM on Sunday, and I read for a living -
there's no way a 10 or 11 year old kid is going to sit down and read an
1100 page book in one sitting.  I'm even daunted from starting it again,
just because I don't have 27 hours to grind through it again.  Now, I know
a lot did and I understand how they did it, but if you are writing a
children's book, you aren't going to do it 1100 pages at a time.

My wife (the librarian) keeps telling me that "If you like Harry Potter,
you'll love Limony Snickett" and I'm skeptical.  The Snicket books are
children's books about a child wizard.  I can't agree that the same can be
said about HP, especially the more recent books.

Dave