Children’s Laureate calls Potter ‘boring’

Michael Rosen, the Children's Laureate, has stuck the knife into JK Rowling's Harry Potter books, claiming that the tales of the schoolboy wizard are "boring" and inappropriate for younger children. Despite the fact the books have notched up sales of 400m worldwide (and made Rowling a half-billionaire), Rosen, who succeeded Jacqueline Wilson as the fifth Children's Laureate in June, said he would never read the books to his own children because the narrative technique is over-complicated and most children would be confused by the sinister themes.

"They don't grab me personally," he said. "I am distant from them whereas I read some kids' books and I get quite drawn in emotionally to them. Whereas authors like Enid Blyton are hand-holding narrators who lead children into safe environments, JK Rowling is more of an adult writer in that she leaves you hanging in the air at the end of chapters with no idea what is going to happen next.

"Figures appear and you don't know whether they are a goodie or a baddie. You would think, traditionally, 'That is for an older reader', because young children more often than not cannot cope with that. My seven-year-old daughter watches the films but they tend to spell it out a bit more. I have not read the books to her; you do not want to bore your kids."