A sign???

I'm not sure what this means, but I thought it was strange. I was thinking of writing a story about an American girl who becomes friends with a girl who just moved from India. A few hours later, I received this article in my in Google Alert.

"Children's author Ranjit Lall feels that fiction for kids in India stresses on morals -- that's where we go wrong. 'Since writers feel that every story must have a moral, we talk down to children. Writers here refuse to have fun and treat children as thinking beings who need entertainment. Harry Potter succeeds because of its sheer fun.' "

It sounds like there's a real untapped niche for children's books in India. This also strikes me as odd since they have a booming, Hollywood-like movie industry.

Not that my story would be for children in India. I was thinking of my neighbor girls and how well they play with my daughters and about their grandmother who speaks no English and how we communicate with smiles and gestures. And, how my sister-in-law learned to speak phrases in many languages as a toddler while playing with kids from all over the world while they were stationed in D.C.

Why is it that kids can overcome cultural obstacles that adults often can't or won't?