22 May 2008

Rosen finds Potter boring

Another author jumps on the anti-Rowling bandwagon.

While I agreed with Orson Scott Card's argument, I am not so sure about this particular author's claims.

Daily Telegraph has Micheal Rosen's take on the Potter books, where he states that the stories were somewhat boring and not at all gripping.

"Figures appear and you don't know whether they are a goodie or a baddie. You would think, traditionally, 'That is for an older reader', because young children more often than not cannot cope with that. My seven-year-old daughter watches the films but they tend to spell it out a bit more. I have not read the books to her; you do not want to bore your kids."

Awwh, but that's sort of what I liked about the stories - the cliff hangers and the ambiguity of good vs. evil.

To give Rowling credit, she did create (should I put that in inverted commas) characters who didn't fall into either spectrum of absolute good or absolute evil.

I always felt that you needed to tell that to kids from a young age. That everything is not black and white and humans had shades of grey in them.

But what do I know, I don't have snotty little kids of my own.


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