There’s a kind of review that I see often. Every time I see it, I’m completely floored. Sometimes I giggle because it’s silly. Sometimes, depending on the brutality of the review, I’m enraged. Always, it’s something being “reviewed” by an adult that is intended for children.
And I’m not talking teens or “young adults.” Children.
The Review
The review always goes something like this:
“I just read/watched X and I don’t get it. It wasn’t very good. I don’t see why anyone would like it. Why is there hype around X?”
The worst reviews go on to tell you how stupid you are for liking the thing, yada yada.
A Recent Review
A group I’m in on Facebook recently had a post like this for the first book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. It said the book was “meh.” Some other commenters agreed. Some said that the series gets better. Some said not everything is everyone’s cup of tea. While that last one is close, no one stated a painfully obvious fact: this grown up didn’t enjoy a book written for someone around the age of 11.
Review of Those Kinds of Reviews
Simply, if you don’t enjoy the material created for children, that doesn’t make it bad. You didn’t enjoy something that was literally written with a specific and different audience in mind. I reference the most recent one I’ve seen for Harry Potter, but I’ve seen similar reviews for a variety of children’s material that adults seem to think they ought to be able to enjoy on the same level as the kids who do. I’ve seen adults dislike the children’s shows for Star Wars and Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Some reviews downright chastised the shows— hilariously, for being childish.
But what if you do like these things? Great. I enjoy a lot of the Star Wars things; I don’t enjoy a lot of the animated stuff, but it’s not geared toward me. I loved the Series of Unfortunate Events books as a kid and the show brought those to life in a beautiful way. I grew up loving Harry Potter (and refuse to let anything or anyone tarnish that for me, author included).
The Reviews that Misunderstand the Assignment
What I think is interesting is the comments on such reviews. Not only do people not realize that the reason adult might not like something is because it’s meant for children, but that they might like it later because it isn’t.
While some tv shows are geared toward kids from start to finish, Harry Potter as a specific example is not. Harry grows up over the series; so does the material. I think it’s interesting that adults said they start liking the series around the 4th or 5th book. What happens in these books? First: Harry is 14 or 15; he starts to think about his future and is no longer just a boy from a cupboard under the stairs. His fears, desires and such are more in line with the adults, or what they can remember about being that age. Second, they essentially become stories about political intrigue and war. The children of the stories are now leading the fight against Evil, even when most adults refuse to acknowledge Evil’s existence. They snoop and sneak and go on missions for the rest of the series; they are the primary combatants in the final battle. At this point, adults seem to be on board.
These reviews also don’t catch that Harry Potter 1 is the first book written by the author; that authors often improve the more they write and work to hone their craft. By the time the fourth book rolls around, she already had written several worldwide sensations and had honed in on what worked and what didn’t.
Thank you for reading!
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