Posted by Beck on August 02, 1999 at 05:50:35 from 203.61.4.237:
In Reply to: Re:Harry Potter (was: What a scene!!) posted by Dave Thewlis on July 29, 1999 at 13:50:26:
Bah, humbug all right. The idea that a book has to be adapted to what the child is familiar with is just conservative cultural blinkering. Isn't 'travelling' through space and time one of the joys of reading? And isn't growing up partly about learning that the world is bigger than one's own small experience of it?
Incidentally, when I was growing up in New Zealand in the 70s I didn't read one book set in my country or culture. Every single book came from elsewhere - England, Australia, the USA, Europe, Scandinavia. Looking up all the unfamiliar references was half the fun.