Harry Potter books top my charts!

 Have you felt the magic of Harry Potter? I have, ever since my daughter told me that the Harry Potter books outshine all the other books she read this summer. As a fifth grader, she breezed through them, and “loved every word on the page.” Since the late 1990’s Harry Potter has been taking the world by storm. Although the author, J.K. Rowling, originally intended her audience to be children, it did not take long for her to realize that literally everyone was reading her novels. The Harry Potter books are the best fictional series we have seen in the last century, due to the authentic and compelling story-line, the relevance of characters, the overall statistics the films/books generated, and of course, the magic involved.

First, we can evaluate the story. The Harry Potter books create a magical story of a parallel world filled with mythical creatures and wizardry.  The regular people (muggles) are oblivious to the abnormalities of this mystical realm around them. Rowling’s story appeals to diverse types of fictional categories. People who read these books will be embarking on a journey full of mystery, magic, romance, and a lot of good vs. evil type stuff. The complete story is authentic from start to finish, and we are talking about a story of 7 books ranging around 600 pages each! As Stephen King stated in Entertainment Weekly, “Her characters are lively and well-drawn, her pace is impeccable, and although there are occasional continuity drops, the story as a whole hangs together almost perfectly over its 4,000-plus page length.”(pg. 2)   I personally was unable to set these books aside.  I would finish one, and have to grab the next.  The details of the story and descriptions of everything make you feel as though you are running around with Harry; facing danger and trying to discern the reasons behind all that is going on.

So we know that the story line is fantastic, now we must review the characters Rowling created for these phenomenal books. Obviously there are many characters in these large books, but we will look at a handful of them from the good and evil side.  The main character, Harry, is shy, courageous, righteous, friendly, and, yet, he is imperfect.  Hermione is arrogant, smart, sensitive, and a know it all. Ron, who is Harry’s best bud, is funny, a little dense, but loyal to extreme. “On board the Hogwarts Express, Harry meets two classmates who will become his best friends and compatriots—Ron Weasley, a good-natured underachiever from a large middle-class wizarding family, and Hermione Granger, a driven bookworm with two ‘Muggles’ (non-magic humans) for parents,” states Tom Burns (pg. 119). These two friends make Harry what he is. Together the three can do anything.  In the books, they team up together to find the solution to impeding danger. Hermione is always coming up with logical strategies, while Ron aids with moral and physical support. We also have Professor Dumbledore, who is constantly dropping clues and guidance.  Dumbledore provides a basic amount of information, but encourages Harry to follow his instincts and explore his own reasoning. As quoted by Jeff Jensen, “In an interview with EW in 2000, Rowling explained the great theme embodied by Harry and all her characters: ‘What's very important for me is when Dumbledore says [in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire] that you have to choose between what is right and what is easy.... What is easy is often not right.’”(pg. 42) This is something I agree with whole-heartedly.  Just look at our homework.  We could cheat, get the grade, but it isn’t right.  We also will end up hurting ourselves for it.  The best way to go is to follow your instincts and do what is right.  Harry takes Dumbledore’s advice and proves himself to be just and righteous throughout this whole series. This is what distinguishes him as our hero of these adventures he is on.  He makes mistakes, yet he improves after the mistake has been done. This is something most people can relate to.

On the other hand, we have ‘Voldemort’, Tom Riddle, who is the villain, throughout the series. He is behind the dangerous and cunning manipulations to overtake the school initially and then the whole wizarding world.  Although he does not stand alone, he has a body of ‘death-eaters’ that follow his every command.  Voldemort is pure evil.  He has no remorse, nor does he have much of a soul.  In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it becomes clear that Voldemort has actually split his soul into several hortecruxes, leaving him almost immortal.  In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, we meet Bellatrix LaStrange.  She also is venomous, although her soul is intact.  LaStrange is depicted as deranged, she believes herself to be Voldemort’s most loyal comrade.  There are also Barnibus Crouch Jr. and Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail), who were also followers of “the dark lord”. Pettigrew marauds as a rat throughout the first two novels, Ron’s pet Scabbers.  He is, in fact, Voldemort’s faithfull servant.

J.K. Rowling’s created characters that readers could relate to, characters we could visualize.  Although, I don’t plan to see anyone running around shooting magic out the end of a wand any time soon, I do think that the importance of feeding our imagination is something essential to keep us reading. Rowling created a story that we could enjoy filled with energy and authentic content. Her characters are not flawless, but filled with emotions, strengths and weaknesses that the readers can bond with. Jo Rowling made Novels that you couldn’t stand to not know what happened in the next.  For these reasons alone, people will be reading her works for many years to come.  Her books were filled with morality and social appeal, which will probably mean professors’, may utilize them in colleges and schools.

On top of having the books, Warner Brothers has turned six out of seven of these into films.  This too has had an effect on the ‘Pottermania’, a word to describe the Potter phase by Danielle M. Soulliere.(The University of Windsor 2007. "Much ado about Harry: Harry Potter and the creation of a moral panic" Journal of Religion and Popular Culture.).The movies opened the eyes to many that had not read the books. While there have been over 400 million copies of Harry Potter books sold, the movies have blown that number away.  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, made $938,468,864 just in theatres, and the latest movie, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince grossed $937,499,905 (www.the-numbers.com).

The movies generated literally billions of dollars across the world. This series has created its own legacy, not unlike that of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, or even The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.  With the statistics it would be hard to argue that this author did not create a classical set of works.  People will be reading Rowling’s Harry Potter books for years to come, just as they have been for the last decade.  The movies may be remade in the future, but whether or not they will be able to exceed these first editions, will have to be seen.

The movies owe their success to the directors and producers as well as Jo Rowling. It is not often that you find movies generated after books in likeness of their predecessor.  The cast and effects used in these movies stayed very close to the book.  In the movie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, there was very little variation from the book.  Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) was excellent in all the movies.  He was believable and just truly fit the role he was selected for.  All the characters in these movies were wonderful.  The graphics used in the scenery was appropriate, and the humor in the films was nicely complementary to the situations. All of this created some wonderful works.

Other than the characters, the story, and the movie production, J.K. Rowling captured her audience with the imagination and dreams she sparked with these novels.  When we look at other children authors, we see books about kids doing silly things, or books about animals.  The problem with some of these books is that they don’t build the children’s imagination like Rowling does.  We can look at authors like, J.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), or R. Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians).  Both are fictional authors that have created a story with mythical creatures and battle where good versus evil.   However, both lack the mystery involved in Harry Potter.  I have read the works of both these authors, and when compared, feel that Rowling’s work surpassed the others.  Now, this being said, I like the other authors, but there was more to Rowling’s writing.  Riordan bases his writings on a lot of Greek and Roman Mythology.  These creatures have already been created.  He revisits the same places that Odysseus goes in The Odyssey, which makes it lose some authenticity.  In Tolkien’s work, we see originality, like Rowling.  We don’t see the same humor and mystery though.  Tolkien definitely did fantastic work, yet he lacked the emotional connection to his characters that Rowling had.  Where the Harry Potter novels kept you wanting to read more, The Lord of the Rings would drag in several places. 

Another well-known author that can be compared to Rowling is R.L. Stine.  His works have made the top charts repeatedly, but not many people actually remember all his books.  While Stine is a great mystery, thriller type writer, his characters don’t evolve.  He loses readers after they hit teenage years. As Stephen King (The Tommyknockers, Misery) said, “R.L. Stine's kids are kids forever, and the kids who enjoyed their adventures grew out of them, as inevitably as they outgrew their childhood Nikes. Jo Rowling's kids grew up...and the audience grew up with them.”  (Entertainment Weekly 2007)

The Harry Potter fad has held on for 13 years now, over a decade.  It doesn’t look like that number will be diminishing soon.  I actually think that it will be quite the contraire, with the final movies left to be completed, and more kids stepping up to the plate.  My 5^th grade daughter read the books this summer and just loved them.  That has to tell you something.  A ten year old reading over 4000 pages over the summer!

After several days of research, I have come up with only one major critical issue regarding these books. According to Danielle M. Soulliere, there are religious groups questioning the social impact that magic has on kids.  Believing that magic is used for evil purposes, they have been criticizing this author right from the start.  As you can see from the ratings, the effects have not been very influential.  However, the issue has stood for a decade, and these religious groups have tried to remove the books from our libraries.  On that note, I have to say that the magic is what makes these books endearing.  We grow up and lose sight of magic, hope, and enthusiasm.  The productions and writings that bring us back to that ‘magical’ moment make us realize life is priceless.  We have to have that imagination, that creativity to indulge ourselves so that we can relate to kids and let them enjoy their childhood. 

These books do just that.  In a technological world where kids don’t have to read, it is nice to know that they can, and will.  As long as there are books that peak their interest, they will.  J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books are the best fictional stories we have seen in this century, because they have caught children and adults’ attention alike.  In an article by Deepti Hajela titled, Deathly Hallows’ packs a punch, Deepti states, “from ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ to ‘Deathly Hallows’, Rowling has completed an astonishing cycle of books that can only be described as a true literary classic.”