Isn't that something you do with wine?
Jun. 24th, 2005 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threemonkeysI have been mulling over this general area of juvenile SF some more. One thing I just keep coming back to is the definition of "juvenile". I think it is clear that you cannot simply use fixed age ranges. In my own case I was reading adult (but not Adult) fiction while I was still in primary school. Any definition has to be behavioural or skill based, not age based. Where I am at a loss is how to characterise those behaviours, skill sets, developmental characteristics or whatever it is we decide to use.
Where this takes me to is an interesting segment of the population. There are a lot of people who are past the physical symptoms of youth but who are in some way still at a developmental level that we might think of as juvenile - I'm talking here just about reading, not other life skills. I think any consideration of juvenile fiction has to include this population segment. For example, although much has been made about how much Harry potter has "got kids excited about reading again", much less is made about how it has impacted on an older audience - including many who had not read anything more detailed than a glossy magazine for years. To me, that older audience of people who had given up reading is perhaps the most remarkable of all.
Where this takes me to is an interesting segment of the population. There are a lot of people who are past the physical symptoms of youth but who are in some way still at a developmental level that we might think of as juvenile - I'm talking here just about reading, not other life skills. I think any consideration of juvenile fiction has to include this population segment. For example, although much has been made about how much Harry potter has "got kids excited about reading again", much less is made about how it has impacted on an older audience - including many who had not read anything more detailed than a glossy magazine for years. To me, that older audience of people who had given up reading is perhaps the most remarkable of all.