Oh Harry Potter...I love these books! I think I've touched briefly on them before, but they are my serious trip donn memory lane. One of the reasons I like these books so much is that I started reading them when I was 14 or 15 and as Harry grew up so did I. Maybe that is why so many women like Twilight...I personally think the first one was okay, then it just was dragged out from there. Anyways, moving on...
I own the entire Harry Potter set of books that I bought in England. For those of you who don't know, they changed some of the lingo slightly when the books were published in the USA, because we don't get thinks like "Car-parks" (parking lots) or "Lemon Sherbets" (which are basically lemon drops) so the American versions are a bit more Americanized. The earliest books were the ones that were changed the most (ex the British title is "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", which by the way is more accurate for anyone who knows anything about mythology, especially alchemy...There is no such thing as a Sorcerer's stone in mythology...) I prefer the British versions, there is something so...so...BRITISH about them and it reminds me of England (I lived there for about a year going to college). In fact, I have actually never read "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", the American version. Some one asked me what the difference was and I couldn't tell them...But from what I understand they are pretty close to the same now, probably because Scholastic finally realized that Americans do understand some British lingo, and it adds to the charm and appeal of the books. At least it always has for me! Mind you I read Dorthy Sayers and Agatha Christie for the Britishness, although I shouldn't really count those, because they are set in the '30s...
I actually prefer British authors over American ones when it comes the YA Fantasy. British authors know what their talking about, but Americans tend to tear old stories and myths to pieces and put them back together in a really patched up manner. Americans are too crass and are trying to get a "coming of age story" in the manner of Judy Blume mixed up with the fantasy, so the story-line gets a little lost in the process . It ends up being parallel stories. British authors manage to mix the two so the coming-of-age is part of the story-line...once again this is just my opinion. I think it has something to do with British authors practically being raised on old legends and myths, if not in their schools every town seems to have legends of some kind. I think it also has something to do with still having prayers in school and the Bible being part of the curriculem...Americans have a Puritian up bringing (don't deny it...it is part of the school system here), so their background tends to be more practical, more realistic and not so saturated with myth and legend (including the Bible, which I see as true, but it is still full of hard to believe stories). That is something we read in books, rarely do we experience it. At least in the West! We are also raised to see those stories and tales as taboo, almost embarassing to talk about (including the Bible to a degree!).
So we Americans tend to be a little awkward in writing YA fantasy, either going completely over the top (like those books that are completely set in foreign worlds and everything is a complicated mess) or we err on the side of reason, trying to explain every single detail or base our stories in as much reality as possible to escape sounding taboo. British authors know how to let the story explain much of the questions the reader might have about the story they read.
This is all my opinion, but I'll put a book back if it is written/set in America. Or at least I'll think twice! Although I have read some good books by Americans. I adore Patricia Wrede and I like Tamora Pierce (I have a hard time with her, because "coming-of-age" for her usually includes the character having sex for the first time...but not always!), Caroline Stevemere (sp?), Meg Cabot (she has such a witty sense of humor, I can't help but like these books! Not all her's are fantasy either, but she does really well with it). Notice that these are all women? Ironic...I prefer women writers, because they don't dwell on the scantly clad women characters...Almost every male fantasy writer has at one point or another had a scantly clad elf or queen, etc...blarg..male testosterone will ruin a good book every time! :)
