Can we please stop with all this Harry Potter stuff ...

[Theknacktoflying]

Promotion e-mail from Waterstones that they are having a HP book night ...

I know that it has done wonders getting kids reading, I know that it is a huge phenomenon but please can we get past this idea that there are no other childrens’ authors than Rowling, Dahl, Walliams and Kinney ..

And a bookshop should be promoting other overhyped books ..

Maybe the question isn’t ‘why aren’t they promoting ‘local talent’? But would anyone come to an event that isn’t about a very well known author?

Waterstones and the likes are a commercial entreprise and they won’t do things that doesn’t bring people in.
If what’s bringing people in is HP, then that’s what they do.
It’s not their role to educate the public etc...

Seeing the reaction when there has been some local authors coming to my dcs school,I think it’s at school and at home that th8ngs need to change first.

Hav8ng said that, if people/children go to an vent because of HP and end up going out with another book, I think that’s a success anyway isn’t it?

If HP's the route in - then it's as valid as any other inspirational book / series, and if progression from HP is a way forward for older children, that's great too.

But that's how it should be - a fantastic into to reading, or listening and used in a wider context of inspiring children to read as much as their appetites can manage.
If it becomes a merchandising exercise, then it misses a real trick.

*intro

Chris Riddell is local for me, and he works his arse off as an author and as a very decent bloke. Very approachable and not Superstar at all.
Name some obscure, fabulous children’s authors you feel are neglected, because there’s a lot if derivative dross out there too.

Are you a local author OP?

I sort of agree with you OP. HP has been done to death. There’s a lack of creative thinking around getting kids into books. In addition, as much as HP was a good story it wasn’t really that well written. The characters were quite one dimensional. If you compare HP to the His Dark Materials trilogy for example, it’s found very much wanting.

Agree with what woffling and Annie said.

Harry Potter still captures imaginations. Saw a young child running to the lego shop the other day, calling out HP with such joy it made me smile.
Bookstores & the High Street need to do all they can to stay afloat due to the likes of Amazon. I really don’t want to see complete domination with extension onto the High St by Amazon (at which point their prices will rise & it will be too late)!

Wish I was!

It is just that there is so much other stuff on the shelves - not better or worse but away from thinking that children’s fiction/reading should just be about HP.

It is like thinking African literature is only about Wilbur Smith ...

In addition, as much as HP was a good story it wasn’t really that well written. The characters were quite one dimensional. If you compare HP to the His Dark Materials trilogy for example, it’s found very much wanting.

Oh absolutely agree with you. HDM blows HP out of the water in every way, however I can see how HP appealed to a wider audience. I think it’s partly down to the poorer writing sadly.

Look, it's pretty simple. You do the stuff that brings in the crowds, the Harry Potter popular stuff, and either a) while they're in the store they might see the local author section - which they certainly aren't going to come in specifically to see - or b) you get enough income from the mass-market events that means you can afford run events to promote local authors while recognising that effectively those events are the ones that you run at a loss, subsidised by the popular stuff.

Why not start a thread with recommended reading for 8-12 year olds? You’d reach a lot of book-buying parents and teachers with your suggestions.

Na I agree OP

Primark has turned into a Harry Potter/Mickey Mouse junk shop for the last year

There is a bit of a problem with the general insistence that children's literature is just a handful of authors - a lot of places where books are sold have a very small selection of kids' books which are just the same names over and over again.

But your average Waterstones is likely to run quite a range of book-themed promotions, and the HP night will be one among many, which possibly boosts the profits a bit more than an event for a less well-known author. So I wouldn't have a problem with it.

Ah, now I don't like his dark materials. I find some of the themes a little uncomfortable. I don't encourage my children to read them.

However the following have also been a hit in our house:
How to train your Dragon
Percy Jackson and others by that author
Tolkein
Belgariad and Mallorean
Artemis Fowl
Terry Pratchett

Am sure there are more.

What a thoroughly odd thing to be annoyed about.

Ugh how dare people like something popular. How dare a book shop try and help people enjoy it together. Awful.

I'd love to see a wider range of authors given more promotion, but I think this is a different thing.

I'm a fan myself, and I think the level of fandom around HP gives people of all ages a safe space to dress up or immerse themselves in something magical.

There's also some interesting writing out there about the increasing value of experiences in today's society. When you attend a Harry Potter night you're part of something official and international, you're making that juggernaut part of your own life and vice versa.

For readers who remember the feeling of waiting for the next book to come out, it's also a way to relive that excitement. And you get to wear house scarves and colour pictures of owls, so it's a win whichever way you look at it really.

Sorry, that was quite the essay!

This is likely one of many events the book store. I know my local Waterstone is a major part of a local book festival, regularly has or promotes local author book events, and sometimes does events for very popular books. It's not uncommon for them to have 'if you like [very well known book], you may also like [less well known, sometimes local author book]. It's not one or the other, different types of events work and can bring people together and to new books.

It's frustrating that often children's literature is treated like owned by a few authors. This varies over time and location but there is this widespread attitude that there are certain books that are the books to introduce kids to reading & will be all kids most treasured and anything else is twaddle. There is a somewhat similar attitude with the idea of adult "classics", but I don't think it's as culturally enforced. Plenty of people are open to say they've never really read or enjoyed Dickens or Austen and while a few fans will defend them, I've yet to see someone seem to take it as a personal attack. Say you're tired of or have no interest in HP or Dahl or similar and it's treated as an attack on childhood or reading or the individual fans rather than personal taste or just wanting something different or bored of the bits and bobs that seem to be in every store.

So, I think it's great that the vanishing bookstores can use HP to bring people together alongside a wider range of events, but I can get why some may prefer if there were more options and that it wasn't so everywhere.

Yabu. We're having our own HP book night at home. I was going to organise it in the local community centre but my mental health has stopped me.

I'm jealous at new people reading it as they won't have the wait between books.

But then they won't get the chance of queuing up at midnight dressed up to get the new book.

I never dressed up but I seen people in the queue outside asda like that. My book was coming from Amazon.

HP household here and I was so jealous of DD going to a science fair that had a chemistry show that was based on a potions class. It was a fantastic way to get her interested into science and they also covered physics using HP materials.

It was the series that got her into chapter books and she now spends most of her pocket money in the second hand bookshop buying Agatha Christie along with teen fiction.

By getting people through the door with a popular event I'd have thought the staff are hoping people will browse other titles buy or see future events advertised that they might consider if they enjoyed this one. They can put displays of other author's books out and make recommendations to hook new readers and customers in. A wealth of opportunities they'd be foolish to ignore just because a few people think Harry Potter is passe. If you don't like it, don't go - simple really...

What about promoting local talent?

Nobody would go to a book night about a book they’ve never read from an author they’ve never heard of. It would be pointless and a waste of time and money for the bookshop.