#shannon: *writes a series intended for 8-12 year olds*

[bookwyrminspiration]

i talked to some kids today who like kotlc, and its so funny to me that this is still like- a kids book. I think we all got a little too caught up in the war crimes and the very lovely idea of fintan and bronte dating and forgot that there are just kids out there who really want to be sophie and save the world n all, thats kinda sweet to me

That's very true!!! I think a lot of that comes from the community we have here on tumblr and how being online (instead of finding people irl who read and enjoy keeper) affects the age ranges of the series.

The intended age for kotlc is middle grade, which means it's targeted for people 8-12. Those are children and tweens!! This isn't the case for everyone, but a lot of the time poeple that age don't have access to technology, or at least not the kind to be regularly online. I know when I was 10 (using middle for example) I didn't have a phone and I never used the family computer, so if I ever talked with someone about a series it was because I knew them in person and they were the same age I was: a child.

However, the minimum age requirement to join tumblr is 13, already above that range. Not that there are huge insurmountable differences between 12 and 13 year olds, but my point is that assuming the majority of users actually follow the guidelines and don't join tumblr until they're supposed to, our age range is set way above that! like 13 to...I don't know a good guess for the average top age. We've got a lot of teenagers, but there have been adults in the fandom throughout the years.

Being several years older, we tend to focus on different aspects of the book and interpret them in different ways. At such a young age a few years can make a lot of difference, so we're looking at it from an entirely unique perspective! Which is added to by the reinforcement from peers, most of us going along and encouraging what everyone is saying and doing.

I think it's also easier to forget when we read the later books, as they have a much heavier tone to them and the issues the kotlcrew face are so much bigger. That and also Sophie does age throughout the series, going from 12 to about 15 now, and like I said at such a young age a few years makes a big difference--even more so for Sophie who is dealing with such traumatic things. She's quite literally not the same person in Unlocked as she was in Book 1.

but looking back at those first books, the kotlcrew really do act like kids! They are funny little guys just vibing in this elven world, and the humor is so...childish /pos. The books are full of fart jokes and silly teasing and immature insults and bullying. These characters don't have a care in the world! they're friendly and light and having fun with each other--it truly does feel like a kids book, and that's because it is!

and it's so interesting to see that and know that that's the lens younger readers see the whole series through, even with all the heavy topics Shannon has managed to get into. Reading the series when I was younger I was aware that bad things were happening, but it didn't really register; it was just the story to me, and I thought the characters were cool and the world was amazing--I distinctly remember actually being annoyed that Shannon had written the elven world because it seemed like exactly the thing I would want to write, but I couldn't now because she had beat me to it.

We bash on the series a lot and change canon and do what we want, but it's so sweet how kids interact with it. Shannon likes writing for kids and that's what she's doing! It wasn't anything she did that made a bunch of teenagers get attached to it and continue reading it way past the intended age.

There are kids out there reading the series who want to be told a nice story, and kotlc gives them that! it gives them fun characters and a new world and it's wonderful! it's super sweet--the tumblr fandom may be a closer knit kind of fandom, but it's easy to forget that the overwhelming majority of the fanbase are people who are just out there, not on the internet. And that's why we don't get those perspectives and that kind of enjoyment of the series (not that we can't enjoy it, we just do so differently)

I hope all the kids reading kotlc enjoy the series, as I definitely did! And still do! I mean, I've got thousands of posts dedicated to kotlc, so I'm pretty sure that's indicative of something