Fun and atmospheric. Kids love it and that’s ok.
Comment on Anon can't go on a field trip
tyler@programming.dev 23 hours agoRule of cool supersedes making sense. Yeah there’s a ton of nonsense, but you called it yourself, it’s fun. That’s all that matters.
Ibuthyr@lemmy.wtf 16 hours ago
hitmyspot@aussie.zone 23 hours ago
More than fun. It’s whimsical.
She’s a terrible person. I read the books to my kids but they are puarated so she doesn’t get a penny. Same for the movies.
Genius@lemmy.zip 21 hours ago
What happens when your kids want to buy merchandise from a store? When they get older and decide to spend their own money on DVDs? What about the racism and misogyny these books teach to children?
GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 21 hours ago
If the worst you have to worry about your kids’ interests is whether they spend their allowance on things that somehow benefit an asshole person you are really very lucky.
Genius@lemmy.zip 21 hours ago
Personally, I only prevent the one single worst thing that I can think of happening to my kids. As long as they don’t become Hitler, I’m happy. My son murdered and raped a family of 4 last week and is in prison, but I don’t think I need to worry about that because he’s not Hitler.
hitmyspot@aussie.zone 21 hours ago
When they are old enough to make their own decisions they can. I’m able to seperate the art from the artist, without introducing them to hateful commentary that they aren’t able to properly process yet.
Not showing them Harry Potter does not mean they won’t be exposed to the media or the merchandise through friends and shops.
Genius@lemmy.zip 21 hours ago
It would take a saint’s patience to stop the book at every racist moment and explain why it’s wrong.
Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 20 hours ago
Why not skip the books then? The movies were made by hundreds of awesome people while the books were written by just her. The movies cut out a lot of the controversial stuff too.
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 9 hours ago
Yeah, I enjoyed the movies I saw as a kid, but it’s so painfully mediocre watching it now. And that is before factoring in the garbage human who wrote the books.
neatchee@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
The issue I have with this line of reasoning is that there are equally whimsical, better written series that just didn’t have good fortune to pop off the way HP did.
It’s marketing. And cover art. And simple timing of fads. It sucks. And it funded a horrible person through pure happenstance
homoludens@feddit.org 20 hours ago
Which ones can you recommend? I mean, my reading list isn’t already too long but…
Seleni@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
If we’re talking ‘young adult’ (which I think is a silly book classification group), the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede always gets my top pick—shorter, sassy, fun, with well-written female protagonists. (All her books are pretty good, really.)
Another of my top choices in the Fantasy YA category are the Tiffany Aching books by Sir Terry Pratchett. Great fun and Sir Terry’s wonderful brand of biting wisdom.
If you like the ‘kids go to boarding school, have magical adventures, save the world’ formula, Mercedes Lackey did a pretty good series called the Shadow Grail. Although the kids are older (and more sensible) than the Harry Potter protagonists.
The Castle Books by John DeChancie are another fun romp of a series. Younger me loved the idea of a castle filled with 144,000 portals to adventure. Although the technology in it is a bit dated—at this point in time, rather humorously so.
Gail Carriger’s book series are all a good read; my favorite she’s done so far is the Finishing Series. Not as much magic as other books on this list, but still a well-thought-out system. Her books are really more steampunk-fantasy with a sprinkling of magic on top.
China Mievelle doesn’t really write series, per se, but all his books are fun and well-written, with interesting twists and ideas. I’d say they are the very definition of whimsical.
If your requirements are ‘good books by authors as awful as JK Rowling’, well, that’s tougher, but fortunately David and Leigh Eddings decided to throw their hats in the ring! Horrible child abusers, but their writings are genuinely good, way better than what Rowling writes.
goatbeard@lemm.ee 14 hours ago
Discworld
neatchee@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
There are some great recommendations in other replies already!
IMO the best YA content right now is actually coming out of Japan (where they’re called Light Novels)
Some series worth checking out:
Don’t let the titles fool you (especially that last one). A silly title will often lead to a deep and complex story only loosely related to the title.
The first three I named are some of my absolute favorites.
And this is just the fantasy stuff. If you’re looking for sci-fi or rom-com, or something a bit heavier/darker, there are plenty more recommendations I can provide :)
azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 19 hours ago
Not books, but the Misfits and Magic TTRPG show from Dimension 20 is everything that HP isn’t. It’s fun and whimsical and the characters are lovable and the writing is great and the world building is astounding and it never misses a chance to take the piss at the many problematic aspects of HP it’s satirically lampooning. I think the first episode is free on YouTube.
dermanus@lemmy.ca 16 hours ago
IMO there isn’t a whole lot in the kids/young adult space but The Magicians by Lev Grossman is good (and one of the few cases where the TV show is better than the book)
rainrain@sh.itjust.works 10 hours ago
Horrible person?
I never met her actually. What’s she like in person?
MBech@feddit.dk 9 hours ago
Don’t need to meet a person to know they’re a horrible person. I know Orban is a horrible person. I know Chris Brown is a horrible person. I know Trump is a horrible person. And I know that anyone who defends them is a horrible person, for ignoring their horrible views and actions.
rainrain@sh.itjust.works 9 hours ago