Eden

Do you mind if I continue comparing/contrasting with The Dark Is Rising (I promise I'll make it comprehensible to people who haven't read the book yet)? See, the thing with Harry Potter in the first four books at least is that the morality is just barely there at all. White is white, and black is black. There's no real grey area. That suits children, but it's also possible to write a book in which it isn't black and white, while still being comprehensible to children. I can give you an example from TDIR, if you're interested! In Harry Potter, there's a lack of subtlety/ambiguity, that obviously bugs me about it (although I'll happily read other novels that don't have that content: I guess studying it and it being so popular threw these issues into sharp relief for me).