And most importantly, what Rowling makes absolutely clear is that her characters assert their love for one another, and that those bonds exist as an aspect of identity and community that are worth self-sacrifice, as Harry shows us in the final book, but never the sacrifice of others as symbolic, token or necessary substitutes. This moral core is fundamental to RowlingвЂ™s Harry Potter series, as Harry, Hermione, Ron & DumbledoreвЂ™s Army consistently choose to fight VoldemortвЂ™s totalitarian regime. CoulterвЂ™s and Lord AsrielвЂ™s complete lack of empathy for those they torture & kill respectively. ItвЂ™s there in The Golden Compass where Lyra always commits to helping those who are being victimized, and she consistently positions herself against the adults in power who kill the weak for the greater good: the children at Bolvangar, RogerвЂ¦ Philip Pullman makes this contrast explicit in Mrs. And in TwainвЂ™s extended critique of Tom SawyerвЂ™s cruel victimization of Jim in the final section, when Tom directs a prolonged, unnecessary prison escape, despite knowing that Jim is now free. You see this in Huckleberry Finn, where Huck cannot betray the immediacy of his friendship with Jim, even though he believes helping a runaway slave is wrong & will land him in hell. Children refuse to treat others as objects, affirming instead subject to subject relationships. The moral core of good childrenвЂ™s lit is the absolute assertion of the value of the individual relationship against arguments of sacrificing one or many for the greater good. The power & the truth of childrenвЂ™s lit lies in the valuing of a childвЂ™s point of view, which in the вЂrealвЂ™ world, we adults view as immature, naive, ignorant, etc etc, in contrast to the more mature, nuanced & complex understanding adults have as a result of experience, knowledge, and wisdom, as the result of more time spent on earth. In The Hunger Games, Suzanne CollinsвЂ™ story exemplifies what I have come to see as the moral core of childrenвЂ™s literature, which I have taught roughly twice a year for 10 years now.

Hunger games version longue