From: Zan Hazen <lane1762>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 10:32:30 -0700 (PDT)

I can't speak for kids' reception of Harry's aging and its accompanying age-related incidents/situations, but I overheard an interesting coversation at the library last week about another favorite series of mine, Tamora Pierce's "Protector of the Small" quartet. Two middle-school girls were looking for "good reads," as they put it. One suggested Pierce's "First Test" and
"Page" to the other girl, but she also admitted she didn't like the last two in the quartet ("Squire" and
"Lady Knight") because they were "waaaaay too gory. There were some really yucky parts." In this series, the protagonist, Kel, ages as the books progress, and they do indeed get pretty graphically violent in some parts. I wonder if other readers have been initially attracted by the first books and repelled by the later ones.

Also notable is that in the library I go to, the first three books are shelved with juveline fiction, the last one in Teen Fiction. Someone made the decision that they were indeed not meant for the same readers the first three in the series might attract, even though I find the last two equally graphic. Interesting. Has anyone noticed this phenomena where the HP series is concerned?

Zan Hazen Madison, WI

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Received on Thu 05 Jun 2003 12:32:30 PM CDT