I agree that some of those potter books were a tad too long. Not that I wanted them to end, but that they were a little padded. I loved the first three. The last four were good but none of them compelled me like the first three did.

about those one dimensional characters–I must admit I love Nancy Drew when I was a kid. And the Black Stallion books. I’ve read them as an adult and I can stand the stallion books but I can’t even get through a chapter of Nancy Drew.

But, hey, I’ve read Narnia several times as an adult and loved them all each time. Same goes for Wolves of Willoughby Chase. So there are some great kids books out that are deep and popular. Although I guess Wolves wasn’t anywhere near as popular as Nancy Drew.

Side plots, like Fudge’s refusal to admit the presence of the enemy, and the good guys fighting against the good guys instead of their common enemy. Or the house elves and freedom or slavery issues. There were also interesting facets of Rowling’s books. (I’ve only gotten through the first five. I’d be done, but they’re so long. They’d each be a 100 pages shorter if Harry, Hermione and Ron would stop saying ‘erm’ all the time!)

In a reality, I don’t think that kids will ever much be big readers. Somehow I think that the need to feel powerful is fed by these books. Also, the popular books are often quite simple and single-dimensioned, the characters are like Disney channel TV characters, barely developed and always predictable. Otherwise, why the big interest in graphic novels,i.e comic books?

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