‘Arry Potter is on his last legs then.? Does he get killed off in the grand finale of HP and the Deathly Hallows or does he end up shacked up with Hermione, keeping Ron Weasley chained up in a basement torture chamber and surrounded by beer can, pizza cartons and the tops off of bean tins.? I don’t actually care anymore thanks to the total over exposure the world has had to the series (even my Model Rail magazine created a model of Hogwarts for use with the Hornby train set). I watched the first two and enjoyed them but then gave up.
But listening to the radio on the way to work this morning, noting down the fact that one school was having a Harry Potter week, made me look back on my own school history and wonder how children’s literature has changed.
My old school library was chock full of the pretty dreadful books aimed primarily at adults. That was about all that was available in the 1980’s aside from Terry Pratchett and looooong winded stuff involving spies and espionage in the cold war era. I used to exclusively read factual books even from an early age. Maybe it was my usual thirst for knowledge or the lack of decent kids stuff but that’s where I ended up. It wasn’t until I worked as a Lab Manager and one of my workmates introduced me to Tom Clancy’s “Red Storm Rising” that I really started reading fiction for fun. Followed quickly by Bernard Cornwell’s “Sharpe” and Dale Brown’s series about the “Old Dog” (not a biographical series all about Bev Callard I should point out) my personal library has expanded and now I need more shelf space.
The only really good children’s books I have ever found are Enid Blyton’s “Famous Five” style ones. Not the younger age group ones though, the more early teen “running away from home and living on a secret island with your mates” kind of thing. I loved those books because they made me imagine I was there, they fired up my mind and made me think. But making the jump onto more adult books never really worked. If I wasn’t reading a copy of something about aeroplanes then I was headfirst stuck in a copy of Fred Bassett or Garfield giggling like a mad man who has just found the key to his shackles.
The question is, though, how on earth have all these kids been reading Harry Potter when child illiteracy is so bad.!?!
Well my home town is hosting an edition of “The Royal Family” tomorrow then. That is to say the Queen is gracing us with her presents (wonder what the wrapping paper will look like) and hopefully will be accompanied by Prince Phillip. I will be personally pushing ethnic minorities towards the Winter Gardens to see what he says to them. Better not take my semi-automatic rifle with me to work I guess.
In New York a steam pipe exploded yesterday, killing one person and throwing up a big ball of fluffy kittens and strawberries (ok, steam and concrete). George W Bush has issued a declaration of war on all steam pipes and is sending a task force to Steampipistan to sort them all out. Meh.
Alistair Darling, the new Chancellor, has admitted to smoking pot in his past. I can only assume it was when he was Transport Secretary. Rumours he also whizzed his tits off during Parliamentary debates are unfounded and probably not totally true. Tony Blair suggested yesterday that Mr Darling was “Right out dere mon.” Allegedly.
Time for supper… any ideas.!?!?!