I don’t go to the movies.
Normally, that would be sufficient reason to ignore the topic. However.
I’m finding myself becoming quite irritated with the breathless media reports about the premature/accidental/clandestine release of every new book in the series.
I mean, are they really this goddamned stupid?
May 6, 2003;
A British father has reportedly found copies of an unreleased Harry Potter novel in a field in southern England.
It appears that the accidental sale of 14 copies of the latest Harry Potter book at a Coquitlam store last week may have been a marketing blessing in disguise.
As the release of the final Harry Potter novel approaches, the growing frenzy around the title is being fuelled in part by a host of internet spoilers that allegedly reveal the fate of the teen wizard.
Or are they just in on the marketing joke?
Update – Harry Potter and the The Christopher Little Literary Agency: the plot thickens…
Update 2 – “I was just interviewed by a camera crew, and will apparently be on the CBS Evening News tonight.
Given the history of this very blog, I hereby pause for a moment to soak in the irony.
Today’s events tell me two things: One, CBS doesn’t have Google. Two, this must be the slowest news day in the history of the planet, and possibly the universe.”
Harry Yawwwwwwwnnnn who? Is he the guy that keeps dropping books down my chimney every sixth day of every sixth month of every sixth year. If you run into him let him know that his books are inggreat kindling but the ash keeps block the flue.
I don’t go to the movies.
That’s because you live in the socialist republic of Sascratchinwin. Modern moving pictures aren’t allowed there. There’s no reason to go to the movies…
Oh wait… We were discussing the whole Harry Potter marketing gimmick… Well of course silly!
I don’t go to the movies.
That’s because you live in the socialist republic of Sascratchinwin. Modern moving pictures aren’t allowed there. There’s no reason to go to the movies…
Oh wait… We were discussing the whole Harry Potter marketing gimmick… Well of course silly!
…who’s Harry Potter?
😉
Oh, I know, Harry Potter is that Home Gardening Channel on CBC.
The purpose of Marketing is to get you to spend money that you otherwise wouldn’t if you thought about it more carefully. Nevertheless, now that I’ve stopped reading newspapers because I’m tired of being yelled at, I need something else to read while breakfasting. I’m “in the market”, as they say, for reading material.
When I consider the situation in terms of book-dollars spent per breakfast-hour (assuming a constant reading rate), highly fashionable books like new releases of trendy novels that cost on the order of tens of dollars each become expensive pretty fast (HP/7 is pre-selling for $22.50 at amazon.ca). I mean, the breakfast special at my favorite deli is only $4.50, so reading these trendy fashionable books would probably double my cost of having breakfast. Or to put it another way, that’s three beers per day.
Ergo, pace marketing, yesterday morning at the used book store around the corner from my tobacconists I purchased 35 used paperback Perry Mason novels that the proprieter had arranged to acquire for me, for a total of $25, and they even came in a beautiful used corrugated cardboard box. A “boxed set”, as they say. That works out to about 25 cents per breakfast, or about 1/6 beer per day, which I consider more reasonable.
This morning I started reading The Case of the Fan-Dancer’s Horse.
[I mean, are they really this goddamned stupid?]
Yup. For awhile they also kept reporting on every new “alien” crop-circle found in a field.
If it sells dead trees it doesn’t matter if the story is a fake, fraud, set-up or whatever. Milk it for what you can and then move on.
They cannot be em-bare-ass-ed into coming clean. Jurno school taught them that. No matter how outlandish, childish the topic — not even so much as a smirk in public.
Kate, please don’t waste valuable webspace on Harry Potter when there’s so much more important things to discuss, like the latest news on Paris Hilton.
Harry Potter is an enemy of God and should be put to death! You don’t make heros out of warlocks!
Becky Fischer agrees with me.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uOIYsGVyg8M
The whole thing is actually kinda humorous. My teenagers read them and curiosity caused me to read them. Nothing objectionable and the later books weren’t that bad.
I got curious and searched the torrent sites recently. The so called leaks were obviously fan fiction generated except the jpeg version which does look factual (though nearly impossible to read). Surprisingly a couple of the fan fiction fakes were fairly good reading. Whoever generated them should look at brushing up their style and doing serious novel writing. I actually ordered the book for reasons of propriety and to see which I liked best. I’m seriously thinking I may have enjoyed one of the fan fiction fakes more than I will the actual Rowlings product.
I’m giddy waiting for Saturday morning. I’m coming home from a midnight shift, putting on several pots of home-brewed Starbucks elixir, and waiting for the delivery guy.
You’re not suggesting all those news reports CNN used to do on upcoming Lord Of The Rings flics were actually promos resulting from the hyper-concentration of media, are you?
“Next, a very special episode of Paula Zahn as she discusses the summer’s most anticipated blockbuster, Lord Of The Rings – Revenge of the Umpteenth Ringy-Dingy featuring Lily Tomlin. And later, Wolf Blitzer uncovers a plot to assassinate the president.”
Damn folks, ease off. Anything that gets kids to read instead of being glued to the idiot box is a bonus. Were it up to me, Rowling would have a Nobel for literature.
Now to get kids outside actually playing.
the Michael Moore School of Market Manipulation, in action.
I totally agree with Jim. Millions of kids actually read this series, which I think is a real good read myself. Remember when all us old guys were kids we read the Tarzan series, Hardy Boys or even Nancy Drew among so many others and traded comic books. It all helped us to read as well as use our imaginations. Years ago late at night during a rain and wind storm at the cottage I was reading The Exorcist, couldn’t finish it, far more scary than the movie. If marketing helps to make kids excited and want to read Harry Potter, great.
Always helps to confirm my opinion of religion when I see various pundits try to ban books like Potter or Lord of the Rings, linking the characters to religious dogmas. Dont they see that it reaffirms that religions are just a collection of myths and stories based on peoples imaginations!
Oh come on – I’m a great fan of the Harry Potter books. I mean that. I’m not going to be snobbish and deride them by saying ‘at least they get the kids to read’. They are great reads in themselves. For adults. And I’m eagerly waiting for the new book on Saturday.
As for the leaks, I doubt if they are promotional. The books sell themselves; they don’t need any publicity gimmicks.
I agree with Jim.
It’s fun for kids – they get to imagine and read about magical and adventerous things – which is uncommon now adays – unfortunately.
… and … good on Rowling for being successful.
Harry Potter is awesome. Period.
I am with you ET. Did not mean to come across as snobbish. I read the first one a few months ago. Bought the rest and will pick up the last one next week sometime. Will then sit down and do a marathon from the second one to the end.
After I read the Bartholomew Bandy books 😉
“Damn folks, ease off. Anything that gets kids to read instead of being glued to the idiot box is a bonus. Were it up to me, Rowling would have a Nobel for literature.”
Harry Potter doesn’t make kids more literate. That was debunked years ago: http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,710189,00.html
What Harry Potter has done is to get thousands of ADULTS reading BELOW their comprehension level. How this is a triumph of literacy is a mystery for me.
“I’m finding myself becoming quite irritated with the breathless media reports about the premature/accidental/clandestine release of every new book in the series”
Well, get a kid and have yourself tormented to be dragged to one of these movies. (HP is really stupid plot-wise…the Hardy boys had more plot construction)
Thank Gawd the kid grew out of these when he turned 8 and went to Tolkien (books) and now finds the whole HP series as stupid as I do.
If it seems hard to understand why such thin plot, 2 dimesional children’s stories can be hyped as the end all and be all of child oriented literary genius and cinema art….just remember we’re still in the waning era of corporate sleaze and mass media hyperbole.
The HP texts are bought before they are written, the movies are financed ( investors) before the screen rights are acquired….the hype is investor angst wanting returns on the tall dollar the HP industry took from them for speculating on the demand for another installment of the HP cult’s favorite sub-par gruel….they are pushing the envelope of trend mongering and they know it…how long can this HP trend last?…is the market saturated with HP novelties?…is the public getting bored with the mediocrity of the HP dogma?
All questions that over extended HP investors have to ask themselves…thus the hype…and did you notice that with each HP installment being less creative or more mediocre than the previous the hype is turned up proportionately?
Ahhh ya gotta love mass media….it’s still a refuge for human scum.
good heaven’s, ellie in TO – do you seriously take anything the leftist Guardian spouts as the Truth?
First, an opinion remains an opinion and is not factual. The facts are – that millions of children are reading Harry Potter. That’s one definition of ‘being literate’, ie, a willingness and ability to read.
If you are using the term to mean ‘quality of literature’ – that’s subjective. I’ll take Potter over many of the mystery novels in the bookstore anyday.
As for thousands of adults reading below their comprehension level – what a demeaning thing to say. Are you seriously suggesting that the only reading I’m allowed as a ‘thinking adult’, is weighty tomes on Aristotle, Pearce, Popper; papers in biology and physics and my regular journals such as Science, BioSystems, Theoretical Biology etc? Heck – as much a fan of the above as I am, life is more than prayer and obeisance. Music and laughter and fun are allowed.
Again – have you ever read any of the series in adult mysteries – which include Le Carre (I can’t stand his cynicism, his sneers, his gloom); or Hiaison (same format in all books); even nice little reads such as those of Donna Leon and so on. These are ‘light reads’ – and what’s wrong with them? I’ll take Harry Potter as a ‘light read’ any day, any time.
I’m running out and buying two copies this weekend, one for me and one for my wife. As far as light reading goes, they’re great, and they’ll help put me to sleep on our upcoming 8 hour flight. Yeah, they’re hyped, and marketed, and it’s all over the top.
If the MSM isn’t shilling for the Harry Potter vehicle, they’re flooding us with the every move of Paris Hilton. Or Lindsey Lohan. Or some other idiot.
I love it when the people who do the 6 o’clock news put out commercials about how they’re award winning, hard-hitting journalists. Ha ha! It’s all pap, it’s all Entertainment Tonight-like crappola for the whole “news” hour.
BTW, I loved the Hardy Boys books when I was a kid.
Well, this is a capitalist society, folks, and I thought you favoured that!
If I analysed the Harry Potter series politically, I’d have some serious criticisms but there are many good things in these books and I enjoy them. I will buy the book Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. and spend the day reading it. I’m looking forward to it!
“good heaven’s, ellie in TO – do you seriously take anything the leftist Guardian spouts as the Truth?”
The point isn’t what the Guardian said, it’s what the survey said: the first-ever scientific survey of the “Potter phenomenon.” Its findings were that the mega-hyped claims of HP fostering literacy are bunk. Reading R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps series didn’t make kids magically literate either, though many at the time hoped it would.
“The facts are – that millions of children are reading Harry Potter. That’s one definition of ‘being literate’, ie, a willingness and ability to read.”
Again, millions of kids once read Goosebumps. And millions of adults are reading Danielle Steel. I don’t look at an adult reading a Steel book and say, “Wow, thank goodness she’s reading instead of watching Desperate Housewives!” What difference IS there between Danielle Steel and Desperate Housewives? Or between Harry Potter and Pokemon? This isn’t literature, it’s pop culture. PLEASE don’t confuse the two.
WL Mackenzie: if you don’t stop talking sense the Pottercops will come for you!! 🙂
“BTW, I loved the Hardy Boys books when I was a kid.”
Exactly, Matt. When you were A KID.
“Well, this is a capitalist society, folks, and I thought you favoured that!”
The epitome of capitalism is Paris Hilton, but she still makes me want to be sick.
Great books. Brilliant marketing. I wish I had written them.
Why encourage kids to read fiction ?? What good does it do ?? Is it not similiar to listening to someone tell of their dreams ?
Fictional narratives can maybe help children build life skills. Maybe. But the wako authors can also lead kids to life in a fantasy world. The kids, sooner or later, will then have to learn the hard way about life in the real world.
Used books stores tell a real story. Seems that 90% of the books on the shelves are fiction. So, most of what we read is fiction, dreams, fibs or even outright lies.
IMO, our beloved media does enough of that already.
And then we wonder why the Japanese build better automobiles than we do.
ellie in TO. I think you are being a bit of a snob.
Because there’s a claim that it is a ‘scientific survey’ doesn’t mean that it is actually scientific. Haven’t your learned skills taught you the difference between reality and a statement about reality? Hmm?
We can’t all be learned and cultured. Some of us are just ordinary peasants – and we like to read, and read, and read – pop culture. I know that we should feel guilty; I know that we should admit that such diversions haven’t increased our knowledge base, haven’t honed our critical skills, but, they have relaxed and made our time enjoyable. And I’ll take that any time.
No, the epitome of capitalism is not Paris Hilton. For you to say such a thing, makes me suspect you are a socialist, all keen and eager for the ‘betterment’ of the uncultured peasants around you.
The epitome of capitalism is companies that start from scratch, by individuals no matter their background – such as Dell, Blackberry, such as Ed Mirvish, such as yes, Microsoft, and Trump and the others who have been able to take an innovative idea, and move into the market because they have something of value to the population.
Again, I don’t think that the Potter books require any underhand marketing; they stand on their own. They are fun, they are relaxing, they are filled with characters and behaviour that are recognizable, not only to kids in school, but to adults in the workplace. And there’s no need to be a ‘culture snob’ and insist they are beneath our human intellect.
Life is sometimes meant to be experienced around a campfire with marshmallows and songs – and not in our study reading Popper’s devastating criticism of Marx (and I’m a fan of Popper and agree with him). I also like toasted marshmallows dripping off the stick.
ron in kelowna – apart from the need for relaxation, I think you are ignoring the vital need in our species for ‘imagination’.
Without this capacity, we are reduced to machines. That’s the thing about machines; they cannot ‘imagine’; they cannot imagize ‘what is not real’. That’s what people in computer science and robotics are working on – how to enable a machine to ‘imagine What If’. Very difficult.
Fiction – which has been a unique capacity of our species since we emerged – is the articulation of that capacity-to-imagine. What else is the articulation of that capacity? Innovation, inventions, scientific hypotheses.
The Japanese have lots of fiction, poetry, folk tales – so, your analogy doesn’t seem valid. Surely you aren’t suggesting they lack this capacity?
The ratio of people who are going to transform their imaginative dreams into practical technology is always less than the ratio who are simply going to ‘fictionalize’. But, don’t denigrate this important capacity of our species.
The ultimate in fiction is ‘Tinsel Town’. A fantasy world. Is Hollywood good for our mental health ??
Think Michael Moore.
Some imagination, some fiction — sure. But 90% ?
Ellie in T.O and Ron in Kelowna, I’m with ET. No, I wouldn’t classify Harry Potter as “classic literature” but it IS “literature”. Reading ANYTHING improves one’s “literacy”, though perhaps not their level of sophistication or knowledge.
I agree with Einstein, too, who said “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
I think I’ll go back to criticizing Islamofascists. They’re less fanatical than Potterites, and way more reasonable. 😀
I think there is a HUGE difference between ‘imagination’ as in ‘inquisitive’ or ‘inventive’
AND
the ‘utopian dream world’ that may only lead our children to hoping for the impossible. Then, at middle age, they have to face reality. A huge let down.
Horses talk to us.
Pigs fly.
A Giant, or heaven, at the top of the beanstock.
In control earth’s thermostat.
I also have a boxed set of Perry Mason, Nero Wolfe and the Hardy Boys. Most of them bought at garage sales and used book sales. Working on completing Nancy Drew. The grandkids love them. Of course they laugh at prices mentioned for various items and can’t believe people actually had tires checked, windows washed, and a man pumping gas and checking oil at gas stations. HP, never read any of the books or saw any movies, but the kids have read and seen them all.
I’m with ET – at first I instinctively resisted all the hype and thought I’d hate the Harry Potter books as some kind of low-brow trash. But then I read the first one and thoroughly enjoyed and I’m delighted my kids read them cover-to-cover multiple times as soon as each issue comes out.
Criticism of the media hype is fine – it’s not needed to sell the books. Those of us who enjoy them will buy them for our kids and read them ourselves.
ellie in TO – what, for example, is fanatical and unreasonable about my critique of your comments? Absolutely nothing. Don’t move into a straw man type of argumentation.
No, ron in kelowna, the ‘hoping for the impossible’ is a necessary action. What is deemed impossible now might be possible in the future. Who, for instance, would have dreamed that humans could fly? Could travel at speeds of 1,000 km, could ‘swim’ deep underneath the sea, etc, etc. Could eradicate certain diseases and so on?
To equate utopianism with this imagination is, I suggest, incorrect. The difference between the inventive exploration of reality and utopianism is that the latter already has the exact Image of this Final State. Frozen and quite immune to further imagination.
He then proceeds to force people into living within this Final State. Very much like Plato, whose utopian totalitarianism also forbade imagination. No mythic tales, no great Hector going off to war, no Odysseus, the ‘man of many wiles’ – who was, himself, highly imaginative and thus, very resourceful.
The inventive imagination has no final end state in mind. It simply proceeds by fantasy images and questions.
I wonder if we could actually fly; how could we make a human fly. I wonder if we could understand how horses communicate with each other; how do cells communicate with each other. Can we change the way these ‘rogue cancerous cells’ communicate so that we can stop the cancer? All the technological and scientific advances have been due to our capacity to imagine.
Are you going to tell children that they may not dream of the impossible, that they may only fantasize about what is possible? How do we know the difference?
Doesn’t this mean that we end up with, not merely, the end of Superman, Batman, Spiderman etc, but also, with all our mythic’ or larger than life heroes – Odysseus, Hector and all the gods – Zeus, Poseidon, Athene, Ariadne – all of them lost to us. All their stories.
Ellie in TO: The guardian article you cite is 5 years old. I would be interested to know how books sales in the children’s lit segment are today – I suspect it is a good deal higher than in 2002. I will say that going to the bookstore today I was struck by the plethora of new authors in this category now, as compared to several years ago. Anecdotal, I know, but it does not seem unreasonable to believe that reading is now more popular among kids than formerly. Criticisms similar to yours have also been levied against Oprah’s picks. No offense, but it is hard not to suspect a tiny hint of elitism here. Reading, when picked up as a child, tends to be a lifelong habit, which is IMO a Good Thing. I imagine the kids who start on HP graduate to more challenging fare when they’re a bit older. Now, if these same parents buying Potter books for their kids could just turn off the damned TV! I am always struck by the gobsmacked looks on people’s faces when I tell them I haven’t watched TV in 10 years.
I’m disappointed by some of the comments here. If the books in question are not to your liking well fine. Each person has their own tastes. Some of the statements though, alluding to children being disappointed later in life if they read books of fantasy in their youth are bluntly ridiculous.
Dreamers are the ones who make things happen. They’re the ones who do the exotic research, propagate new political and social concepts. A very very few of them are also the ones who can foresee the consequences of actions and how to mitigate the outcomes. Without them we’d be a stratified, petrified civilization much like the so laudable socialist paradises of last century and some of the quaint societies of the middle east today.
A society that would prevent it’s children from dreaming is at best an overreaching nanny state. At worst it’s something I would die trying to overthrow (hopefully taking a few sideboys into hell with me to show my status). If a piece of literature doesn’t promote porn or the facets of our worst nature then I find it acceptable for young adults and children.
The books in question are more than acceptable. The early ones were aimed at a younger audience and a lot of adults wouldn’t be willing to modify their thought process to appreciate them. The later ones were aimed at a maturing group. Nowhere did I see anything but the best of human nature being supported. The people who object to our youngsters reading these books should really take a closer look at their own souls.
[the ‘hoping for the impossible’ is a necessary action.] ET
Agreed — but within reason.
Is 90% of Chapters books being in the fiction/occult section “reasonable” ??
I think you are misunderstanding me.
Quality literature is a good thing. Absolutely.
I have a problem, though, with kid’s books that fill their vulnerable minds with utopian, sometimes scary, obviously fradulent fiction.
Santa Claus brings the gifts in a sleigh — maybe it’s ok to fool them for awhile, but after they may be thinking; “Hey, you lied about Santa, what else is BS ?”
Ogo Pogo sea monster in Lake Okanagan — why scare them with fiction.
How many barrels of ink to perpetuate the myth that aliens made the crop circles ?? One media picture of the droped candy wraper in the field could have blown the myth. But oh, no. Let the kids(and grown-ups) fantasize. And be wrong.
I fully agree, JD.
With regard to the Christopher Little ebay scenario, the individual, Will Collier, who was selling his copy on ebay, crowing about his ‘rights’ to do so etc, seems to me to have missed the point. The fact that he bought his copy ‘legitimately’; that he is selling it ‘legitimately’ is irrelevant.
There is a ‘noblesse oblige’ understanding, not with the author, not with the publisher, but with the readers – that no copy will be available to this group of readers until the first minute of July 21st. To obtain and sell a copy before this, violates the principle of fairness to the millions of readers who don’t have access to this singular copy being sold for profit on ebay.
Yet, here is this individual, Will Collier, crowing about his ‘rights’, his ‘freedom’ – and ignoring his responsibility, not a legal responsibility, but a human responsibility, to the millions of readers. Sad.
“Ellie in TO: The guardian article you cite is 5 years old. I would be interested to know how books sales in the children’s lit segment are today – I suspect it is a good deal higher than in 2002.”
The fact that Scholastic, the US publisher of Potter, is struggling to keep afloat financially would suggest this is not the case. The book industry is in serious trouble and if Potter can’t even save its own publisher, it can’t be doing much for anyone else.
“No offense, but it is hard not to suspect a tiny hint of elitism here.”
I’ll take “elitism” (the pursuit of higher standards) over mediocrity any day, thanks. And with all due respect to Ron, the problem isn’t that “90% of the books on the shelves are fiction.” It’s that 90% of that 90% is trash.
“I imagine the kids who start on HP graduate to more challenging fare when they’re a bit older.”
Hello? The kids who started on HP are still reading HP. They haven’t “graduated” to anything.
“Now, if these same parents buying Potter books for their kids could just turn off the damned TV!”
They won’t. They’re sitting down together watching Potter DVDs. Over and over and over and…
[Dreamers are the ones who make things happen. They’re the ones who do the exotic research, propagate new political and social concepts. A very very few of them are also the ones who can foresee the consequences of actions and how to mitigate the outcomes.]JD
You mean like Al Gore ??
This is exactly my point — it should not take 20 years to expose a fraud. Fictional books delay the truth coming to light.
If kids are to read fiction it should be made clear to them it is simply someone’s “thoughts” and not necessarily true. Don’t worry if it scares you. Don’t blindly follow the ‘imagination’. It may just be a garden path.
“To obtain and sell a copy before this, violates the principle of fairness”
ET, the “principle of fairness” is not a law. He’s being accused of breaking the law, which he has not done.
ron in kelowna – no, I don’t think that if children are told that, there’s no sea monster in Lake Okanagan, then, they would know that there are no such scary things.
What’s fascinating about the human mind is that almost all lakes have mythic tales of ‘monsters’ in the deep. I don’t think these are copy-cat tales; they are tales that we, as humans, invent in each and every situation. Therefore, we’re going to invent them again, even if a scientific voice denies their validity.
What’s wrong with Santa Claus? So what? The annual Santa Claus parade in my town is one of the biggest parades of the year – and it isn’t only children who attend. To believe in the impossible is a human strength.
If you debunk the alien stories, another one about aliens will spring up. Think of how often the 9/11 conspiracy has been debunked.
How are you going to stop the wild fertility of the mind? Listen to Achilles answering Odysseus who was trying to make Achilles feel good about being dead – and Achilles answers: “Don’t try to prettify death for me, noble Odysseus. I would rather live as a cowherd in the service of a poor peasant, with barely enough to eat, than reign over all these wasted dead”. (xi, 490) The dead mind has no imagination. Imagine living among people who cannot imagine what is not now. As soon as that sets in, one is effectively dead.
Poor Ron in Killona was only allowed to read the Encyclopedia Britanica or the Eaton’s catalog as a kid. No use having his hopes dashed by reality now is there. Of course he never pretended that he was Roy Rogers, a Musketeer, Buck Rogers, or one of the Hardy boys. To the salt mines with you.
Imagination is where creativity lies, and inovative ideas developed. I have not read any Potter although I have seen part of a movie and it looked interesting. Anything that encourages young people (and adults) to read or head to the library cannot be as evil as claimed. It is a parent’s job to help their children to distinguish between fact and fiction, not banish imagination.
JD’s comment was right on the money.
Banishing reading for entertainment’s sake is so taliban.
Another more recent article,supporting the initial survey’s findings:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/books/11potter.html?ex=1184990400&en=407c33726360d38c&ei=5070
“According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a series of federal tests administered every few years to a sample of students in grades 4, 8 and 12, the percentage of kids who said they read for fun almost every day dropped from 43 percent in fourth grade to 19 percent in eighth grade in 1998, the year “Sorcerer’s Stone” was published in the United States. In 2005, when “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth book, was published, the results were identical.”
Kids are reading less, not more. Potter and Goosebumps and all the rest of these kid-lit fads haven’t done a damn thing to change that.
So, perhaps the reason a clearly fraudulent ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ got so far is because people like fiction ?? Is this good ??