Why I Love Harry Potter



At the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 premier in Trafalgar Square in London.  Picture from Zimbio.com

In the final days ever of the kind of anticipation that only the next installment of a Harry Potter book or movie can bring me (I seriously almost cried at work this morning looking at pictures from the London premier), I've been reflecting on why Harry and the gang have made such a huge impact on me.  I've decided that while Harry Potter is the series that will stick with me forever, it could just as easily have been Twilight, The Hunger Games, Uglies, or whatever the next big young adult series happens to be, that found its way into my heart.  I'll never judge another crazy Twilight girl because if I were their age, I would be one of the craziest among them.  While objectively we can all agree that HP is the better of the two series in question (right?!), its quality of literature is not what made me such a rabid fan... it was its genre.  While I was falling truly, madly, and deeply in love with Harry Potter, I now realize I was really falling in love with young adult literature.

The Spark
As a kid, I always enjoyed reading when books were assigned to me for school or as a way to get out of boring classwork.  I even joined a reading challenge team in fourth grade because my teacher often let me skip worksheets if I was preparing for the competition.  At home, however, I always had better things to do with my time than read a book: I stayed busy with dance, and I loved my Nickelodeon. 

So one Christmas when my mom gave me one of the first Harry Potter books, I was disappointed.  My mom has always been the best giver ever, and I couldn't figure out why she had failed so miserably on this one.  Why along with my super cool flared hip-hugger jeans and awesome portable ballet barre was she giving me a kid book?  A 309-page kid book, but still.  I mumbled a "thanks" and shoved it aside for what I thought would be forever, but one afternoon when I was probably grounded and not allowed to watch tv or something, I picked it up.  It didn't take long until I was hooked.  I was eventually forced to admit that my mom was right about the book and that she is still the world's greatest gift giver.  Thanks, Mom!

The Story
When young adult readers fall in love with a book, it isn't for the magical metaphors or the lilting flow of the words; it's for the story.  They love a fast-paced book that keeps 'em wanting more.  You know a story is good if readers are still dying to know what happens next after a whole year or more has passed since the previous book was released.  The fact that Harry Potter is capturing so much attention thirteen years after it debuted in the United States is a testment to the power of its story. 

I was lucky to meet Harry Potter and his friends at the perfect time--when I was 13, just two years older than Harry when he first travels to Hogwarts and old enough to handle the length of the books--and I feel like I've grown up with the characters and now the actors who play them.  If only I were so glamourous (see Emma Watson below).  When Harry, Ron, and Hermione were dealing with mountains of homework, so was I; and when they were dealing with the awkwardness of crushes, yep, been there, too.  Thank goodness I didn't have to face the horror of a powerful evil wizard wanting me dead, but that's what makes it a good story: the suspense and fantasy that keep us turning pages mixed with the characters and everyday experiences that are relatable.  Harry Potter fully delivers with its story.  We laugh with it, we cry with it, and we beg for more.



At the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 premier in Trafalgar Square in London.  Picture from BBC.com

The Community
Besides the story, the second thing young adult readers love about the genre is the community they instantly become a part of when they open a popular book.  In seventh grade my friends and I were all completely obsessed, and not having read the two books that were out at the time made one a pariah in our eyes.  I thought I had committed a mortal sin when I spoiled the end of the second HP book for a my friend during one of our many fights.  We liked to pretend to be our favorite characters and act out scenes from the books as well as making up our own.  (Did I mention I was super cool?) 

This was our low-tech version of fanfiction in our Harry Potter community that extended to our friends across the hall at school.  But young adult readers today enjoy worldwide fan communities that are instantly accessible online.  Young adult authors are doing a great job of creating digital worlds for their books (see the YA series links above and my previous post about Pottermore), the books are being adapted into movies and comics (such as Twilight: The Graphic Novel), and fans are contributing to the mania by blogging, chatting, creating websites, and writing fanfiction.  Even in the adult world, my office is buzzing with excitement for the upcoming movie.  Who doesn't love shared enthusiasm?

The Launch
Once a young adult reader has found The One, he or she will often search all over looking for something to fill the hole left when the beloved series is finished or while waiting for the next installment.  The search often leads one to becoming a greater part of the fan community.  This can involve literary analysis in discussing the books in person and in lively online debates.  Fans also like to talk about the differences between the books and the movie adaptations and often end up analyzing the importance of these differences and how they affect the story.  Along with improving literary analysis skills, participants in fan communities can also improve their reading and writing skills by blogging, reading and writing fanfiction, reading everything they can find related to the series, and enjoying many other literary-based activities. 

Young adult readers missing their favorite series might instead turn to other literature in hope of finding something else they'll enjoy just as much.  They might pick up what schools think of a "classic literature," or they might not.  Either way, these readers are improving their literary skills by fully engaging with a text they love.  As an English teacher, that is what I love to see.

Although Harry Potter did not teach me how to read as it did the Brazillians pictured above, it did help me become a reader, and so I, too, say "Thanks, Jo!"