When the Children Read Fantasy

C is a huge fan of Terry Pratchett. She read Wee Free Men from the Disc World series recently. She cackled and chortled through the whole thing. I haven't read it (I wish I could devote as much time as she does to fiction!) but she has good taste and she considers it an excellent book.

A few days before Christmas we watched Hogfather. The girls loved it, but I found it hard to follow in a British sort of way. It didn't help that it's 3+ hours long and R was on a monkey man tear. From the Amazon review:
In the fantasy world of Discworld, their winter festival is called Hogswatch, which is ruled over by the Hogfather... a fat jolly man with tusks who doles out gifts to nice little children. An Assassin is hired to "take care of" the Hogfather, and he goes about it by invading the lair of the Toothfairy. To try to keep the world in order, Death puts on the Hogfather Costume and tries to sub in for the evening... meanwhile, Death's grandaughter, Susan is off to figure out what happened to the Hogfather.

Having read a good deal of fantasy/sci fi myself, I don't worrry so much about C's preference for it. I grok.

I know other parents who struggle with the steady diet of SF/fantasy. In fact, the librarian who facilitates C's book club actively tries to steer the kids toward anything that isn't SF/Fantasy. Her disapproval of their choices is blatant. Today I Stumbled Upon this article by Terry Pratchett. I like his point--that children know about dragons--that fantasy lets them know that dragons can be killed. I probably won't recommend it to the librarian, but I will think of it the next time she asks the kids for book suggestions "other than fantasy."