Anybody who doesn’t like the Harry Potter novels? I think they are so much fun to read, great stories and great characters.
When you read the novels in one go, it becomes quite obvious how she planned the main storyline from the beginning. You notice how things that happened earlier on have a bearing in a later book. I also have to say that I didn’t notice any “broken links”, you know, where the logic is not followed through or a contradiction of what happened earlier, which is quite impressive.
None of it is new, of course. Apart from maybe the idea to have the books grow with its readers. And if I had an eleven-year-old that started to read them now, I might not think that such a good idea. I wonder whether there is parenting advice out there how to handle that particular problem?
Something else that occurred to me is why are so many children’s stories set at boarding schools? Is it because the school essentially is a children’s environment? The kids are definitely in the majority.
Harry Potter also has its detractors. It had some pretty ludicrous criticism levelled at it. From being fantasy to showing witches in a positive light! Well, I’m sure these come from people who are either jealous of all the money she is making or are jealous of any fun anybody is having. Let’s face it, all fiction books by definition are fantasy. So my counterargument would be that at least in the Harry Potter novels, the kids can’t mistake it for real.
I’m very much in fantasy mode at the moment as I’m re-reading the Thursday Next novels in preparation for the 6th. One of the main issues in “First among Sequels” is the falling readership numbers and I’m sure that is not only true for Thursday’s world. So I would like to credit J K Rowling with having converted many kids to reading books. This alone should make up for anything else people would like to criticise her for.
