Books for All Ages

The second Harry Potter book had this blurb:
 “I’ve yet to find a child who can put it down. Magic stuff.”
Considering how popular the series became with adults and kids, and made JK Rowling the first billionaire author in history, it’s easy to laugh at that blurb. Only kids can’t put it down? Does magic appeal only to kids? Really?

Benefit of hindsight aside, it made me realize that Maurice Sendak was right on how books get (mis)categorized:
“I don’t write for children. I write — and somebody says, ‘That’s for children!’”

JRR Tolkien went a step further and questioned whether even fairy tales are only for children, not adults:
“In describing a fairy-story which they think adults might possibly read for their own entertainment, reviewers frequently indulge in such waggeries as: “this book is for children from the ages of six to sixty.” But I have never yet seen the puff of a new motor-model that began thus: “this toy will amuse infants from seventeen to seventy”; though that to my mind would be much more appropriate.”
Besides, as Tolkien points out:
“It is not the choice of the children which decides this…The nursery and schoolroom are merely given such tastes and glimpses of the adult thing as seem fit for them in adult opinion (often much mistaken).”
And creating “Secondary Worlds” is very tough, so why restrict the output of that effort only to kids:
“Anyone inheriting the fantastic device of human language can say the green sun. Many can then imagine or picture it. But that is not enough — though it may already be a more potent thing than many a “thumbnail sketch” or “transcript of life” that receives literary praise. To make a Secondary World inside which the green sun will be credible, commanding Secondary Belief, will probably require labour and thought, and will certainly demand a special skill, a kind of elvish craft.”
I guess part of the reason why adults disassociate themselves from such books is that Reason rules their world. But the two aren’t incompatible, says Tolkien:
“Fantasy is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult Reason; and it does not either blunt the appetite for, nor obscure the perception of, scientific verity. On the contrary. The keener and the clearer is the reason, the better fantasy will it make.”

All this reminded me of the time my 2 year old daughter saw me reading a book, noticed it had no pictures (only words) and asked: “Does it say ‘Once upon a time’?” I guess we should consider all books as being in the “Once upon a time” category; that way, we will all “live happily ever after”!

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