When you put it that way, you're totally right. I never thought about it that way, but yes, if you were to try to read OotP on its own, it would be a huge disappointment. Whereas you could read the first few books as stand-alones and still read a great story.
Maybe that's why I'm enjoying it more now, because I'm reading it as part of the long tale and not as The Book That Just Came Out.
Also, how much do I hate Pansy Parkinson? All she does is walk around being awful. At least Draco has LAYERS.
I couldn't help noticing that the Durmstrang fire bender turned a snake into a phoenix.
Discworld question - Audible lists Wee Free Men as "Discworld Children's Book 2". Is there a book 1 I should be looking for, or is this the first Tiffany Aching book?
Is there a book 1 I should be looking for, or is this the first Tiffany Aching book?
That's the first Tiffany Aching book. Make sure you get the Stephen Briggs version. Another guy does the abridged version of Hatful of Stars and he's not nearly as good. I think Pratchett did another book marketed to kids but it wasn't in this series.
Thanks! Audible has Stephen Briggs doing all of them, it looks like.
Wee Free Men is the first Tiffany Aching, go ahead and jump in. Discworld Children's Book 1 might be The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents? Or a mistake.
I'm reading Wee Free Men at the moment, and so far the only thing that seems "aimed towards children" is the fact that Tiffany's a kid. But I've never been clear on what makes something YA.
The age of the protagonist.
Seriously, I cannot think of any other reason for something like
The Book Thief
to be considered YA. (I think it was marketed as adult in Australia, at least.)
The age of the protagonist.
Not always, though.
Bastard Out of Carolina,
for instance, is largely about a child, but it's not a YA book. It doesn't mean teens can't or shouldn't read it, but it's not marketed to them because the subject matter is really weighty, and it's an adult's perspective on the issue.
Winter's Bone
is another example, while
True Grit,
if written today, probably would be marketed as YA.
A comment from Teppy that I'm replying to in this thread:
Also, and I realize this is the wrong thread for it, I just finished Heartless, and it actually made me say "Holy SHIT!" out loud, at about 4 different places in the book.
I KNOW, RIGHT?! I love the last image of the book. LOVE.
I finally caved and subscribed to Yen Press's digital manga magazine so I could read the monthly installments of the
Soulless
manga. I agree with Pete, that is NOT what Lord Maccon looks like. Not at all. But the manga version of Lord Akeldama is fantastic.
