What is it About Harry

Story ID:	3128
Written by:	Carol J Garriott
Organization:	home/retired
Story type:	Musings, Essays and Such
Location:	Seadrift Texas USA
Year:	2007
Person:	Harry Potter

A couple of years ago, well into my latest career as branch manager of the Seadrift Library, I decided I should read one of the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. You know, to understand a bit what the kids were talking about.

I knew enough to read them in order, so started with “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (1998). Well, I was totally captivated by this Boy Wizard and his friends Ron and Hermione as they began their schooling at Hogwarts, the amazing School of Magic and Wizardry.

Just like the children (and other adults) I anxiously awaited every new installment. Each book is another year at Hogwarts.

Along with the trial and errors of learning to do magical things, the children are growing up, learning to get along with each other (or not) and in general finding the world a fascinating place. As well, they become aware of the dangerous forces that have become unleashed in their world, and they come to the realization that it may be up to them to overcome this evil. Even, indeed, perhaps it is Harry’s destiny to do so---a tall order for anyone.

This astonishing series of seven books remains a phenomenon in the business of getting kids to read. Most folks never thought 4th through 7th graders would read 600- and 800-page books. They even reread them! 8.3 million copies of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” 7th and final in the series, sold in the first 24 hours after its release.

I’ve read that a group will no doubt surface (surely called Dumbledore’s Army?), giving us a community within which to continue our enchantment with this magical world, much like the Baker Street Irregulars, a club for those keen on all things Sherlock Holmes.

Sonja Bolle, Los Angeles Times, referring to Rowling’s series, says nothing is quite like “a vivid image in the mind, and this ability to imagine is an essential ingredient in pursuing success.” Who would think a children’s fantasy book could put young people on the road to a lifetime of success? Magic indeed.

Just what is the secret of the popularity of Harry Potter? It could be that we, with our own challenges to our world, want to believe there’s someone out there whose destiny it is to save us.

Accompanying photos:
A relic of by-gone days near my little town, most likely an old cotton gin, fuels my imagination every time I pass it. Who of us can say that the buildings and equipment, the best we knew in our youth, did not work simply by magic? What about getting on a plane these days, taking off, and flying, yes, flying! across the country. Surely that’s not possible, it has to be a sort of magic! Now that we’re in the electronic age, doesn’t it make as much sense as anything that all these digital phones, cameras, TVs, Tivo, space travel, orbiting satellites, work by magic? Yes, I believe we, ourselves, today, live in a world of magic.