In a recent poll of children to find the decade's "ultimate hero" the clear winner by a staggering margin was alleged "writer" J K Rowling with second going to Zac Efron and third and fourth place split between Barack Hussein Obama and Cheryl Cole. General David Petreaus, Lance-Corporal Johnson Gideon Beharry VC, or even genuine writer Sir Terry Pratchett didn't even get a look in.Western Civilisation: It was nice while it lasted.
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Kids? Terry Pratchett? A lot of Sir Terry's best output is aimed at educated adults, and I don't think he really knew how to write for children. Pratchett's children's literature feels like "there's a really funny joke I'd like to put right here, but you won't get it, so I'll just leave it out", in my opinion.
Pseudo-author Rowling gets first place, obviously. The feel-good^W^W^Wself-esteem-based teachers were so happy that the students were reading, they praised her to the heavens (good taste is so 19th c. anyway). Hussein Husseinovich, kids' parents heard about him from Oprah and gushed about his book, so he gets the "grown-up book" vote. Hell, when I was a kid I'd have said whoever wrote the highschool textbook I was reading for non-fiction, and Conan Doyle (Lost World more than Sherlock Holmes), HR Haggard or Isaac Asimov for fiction. I have since discovered Groo comics, watching bad movies and drinking scotch.
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