Harry Potter - An Interlude

First things first.  I have asked a potential guest blogger to blog regarding the Twilight series (guest blogger answer pending).  I know zero about these books (haven't read word one) other than their covers and the fact that young girls apparently go crazy for certain boys in the movies.  I was recently in Joseph Beth Booksellers buying a book in the Clique series for my daughter (I interrupt "first things first" to my interlude for the following aside:  the Clique series is awful--not that I've read the books because I haven't read word one of this series either.  But the books have all the themes you'd want your kids to avoid.  The book I picked up for my daughter is called, PS I Loathe You.  Seriously.  That's what it's called.  They all have titles like this.  Why do I let my daughter read such books?  Two reasons.  First, unless someone convinces me otherwise, I think that any and all reading is a good thing.  Second, it's our job as parents to teach values to our kids, so if they're picking up bad social habits from what they read, I can't blame the books, I have to blame myself.  End of aside.), and my son was with me.  I said to my son in front of the saleswoman, "You sure you want to read this?"  The saleswoman laughed.  My son, for the 1000th time in his life, wished (aloud I think) that he'd been born into another family.  The saleswoman then said, "It's like all those husbands who buy the Twilight books 'for their wives.'"

Anyway, the Twilight series and Harry Potter series are arguably the most influential book series of the last decade.  New novel releases were events.  And, of course, the movies.  Talk about events.

I love the Harry Potter series--not because I think that the books are the best stories ever told or the best written novels of our generation.  My love for the series is entirely personal:  I read each novel out loud to my son.  I couldn't get my daughters interested in the books.  My son and I must have started when he was 6 or 7.  With breaks, we read the books straight through until having to wait about nine months for the last novel in the series to be released.

I picked up HP1 (I won't use titles here--hopefully you've already cracked the code--"HP" for "Harry Potter" followed by the number indicating the book in the series starting with HP1 and ending with HP7) when my oldest daughter was 3 or 4.  I was curious and wanted to be prepared when she reached the age when the HP books might interest her.  I loved HP1.  So, I thought, "hey, the writing is somewhat simple for my tastes, but the story is pretty good, I'll try HP2."

Mistake.  To this day, I think that HP2 is, far and away, the worst in the series.  I could not finish HP2.

My son showed an interest in first or second grade.  I read HP1 to him.  We took a break.  Then, we started HP2.  Even 4-5 years later, I still hated HP2.  This one was a struggle--for my son and for me.  But we fought through HP2.  Then, we took a break.

We thought that HP3 was outstanding, and it had to be to re-energize us in the series.  We read each of HP3, HP4, HP5 and HP6.  We took breaks between each book because reading them aloud meant less reading by my son.  At some point, he became able to read the HP books on his own.  But he didn't want that (and I wanted it even less).  As I think I blogged in an earlier post, reading the HP series with my son is one of my parental highlights to date.

After HP6, we were months away from the release of HP7.  We ordered the book on Amazon for delivery on the release date.  By now, my son could read HP every bit as well as I could.  Fortunately, he wanted me to read it to him as much as I wanted to read it to him.

Again, do I think that the HP series is the best written series of all time?  No.  Is it the best story?  Some people would tell you that it's not even the best series for kids involving wizards (personally, and I understand that this will be blasphemy to some, I find the Lord of the Rings trilogy overrated and unnecessarily verbose).

The HP series continues, though, to introduce young readers (and their families) to a reading "experience."  Any book that interests kids and, more than that, any book that results in discussion between parent and child or between children is a good thing, a very good thing.

There are other great series out there for kids.  There are books out there for all kids--even for kids who don't love to read.  There was a NYT article in the last year discussing how to get young boys to read (I couldn't easily find it--if anyone is out there and is familiar with the article, please let me know).  The article mentioned books with "gross" topics, sports topics, etc.  Again, there's something for everyone.

I still mist up a little when I think of the "one more chapter?" plea as I read HP with my son.  Understand that the plea was posed by my son only some of the time; many times, I posed it.

I think that I've finally settled on a sign-off phrase.  I like this one.  I just decided to add a comma and one word to the Vulcan salute.

Live long, read and prosper