[HPforGrownups] Re: How do the books affect children? (was: Why down on all the characters?)

[Lynda Cordova]

No: HPFGUIDX 179541

Lenore:
Yes, they accept the hidden messages much less critically
than adults. They accept the inconsistency in values which
has been pointed out by many of our posters here. Just
like the ugliness in TV and movies, their minds take it all in,
indiscriminately, hook, line and sinker, and many aspects
of their lives are ultimately shaped by what they think and
perceive and ACCEPT, as children.

Lynda:

Do they? I work with kids, and while some do accept things less critically,
many do not. I cannot tell you how many times I've had kids point out
something to me that many of us as adults miss.  Now all of this is not
saying that as we let the kids in our lives read Harry Potter or read and
watch other media we do not need to find out what their reactions and
thoughts are and why they are thinking them, but simply saying that they
accept things indiscriminately is a little bit much, I think.

Lynda--remembering a book she thought she would read when she was a
kid---eight years old--and how she closed it and put it down after reading
two pages, telling her mother "I'm too young for that book. I think I'll
always be too young for *that* book."


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