Harry Potter Intro Article PDF

# How the Harry Potter phenomenon changed children's literature By Karen Sandstrom Plain Dealer Reporter Thirteen days remain before the final book in J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series is released to the masses, answering a decade of magical mysteries and capping an era that taught a generation...

# How the Harry Potter phenomenon changed children's literature By Karen Sandstrom Plain Dealer Reporter Thirteen days remain before the final book in J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series is released to the masses, answering a decade of magical mysteries and capping an era that taught a generation of children about the power of fiction. As fans prepare first for Wednesday's debut of the fifth Warner Bros. movie, and then for the sale of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" on Saturday, July 21, the Potter influence is likely greater than it ever will be again. "Half of me is really excited because the series is going to wrap up, and I'll know the answers to all the mysteries," says 14-year-old Ellen Skonce of Lakewood. "The other half of me is sad, because there'll be no more anticipating." "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is set to conclude wizarding adventures that have gathered converts in grade schools and retirement homes alike. Rowling's books have been embraced by parents who watched their kids turn off the TV to read. They've been heralded by librarians and teachers. Rollie Welch, young-adult librarian at the Cleveland Public Library, believes Rowling radically altered the book industry's view of children with novels that sometimes ran 700 pages and longer. "Kids just aren't afraid of fat books anymore," Welch said. But size succeeded because readers found the content irresistible. Ask Potter fans what they like, and the conversation invariably turns to the complexity of the world Rowling built. Athena Vrettos is associate professor of English who specializes in 19th-century literature at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She is an unabashed fan of the books, and the mother of an 11-year-old, Gray Flint-Vrettos, who has read and reread the series too many times to count. "The one thing I'm most impressed by is the inventiveness of the details of the world [Rowling] creates," Vrettos says. Katie Naymon agrees. The Laurel School freshman has been reading and rereading the books since second grade and says, "It's just unbelievable how many layers it contains. There's so much back story and foreshadowing." The Potter franchise is typically measured in book sales and box-office receipts. But it's the small, human details that present a sharper picture of the way Rowling's fantasy series has infiltrated the culture. At Case, for instance, incoming freshmen are given a writing placement test that has come to be known as "the Sorting Hat," a reference to a fixture in Rowling's fictional boarding school that determines which of the four Hogwarts houses a student will join. Even politics has been touched. Liberals trying to link their opponents with evil now sell satirical campaign buttons emblazoned with "Republicans for Voldemort," an allusion to the stories' dark wizard. And on Wednesday, July 25, the so-called "wizard rock" bands Harry and the Potters and Draco and the Malfoys make a tour stop at the Cleveland Public Library. The groups -- from Boston and Rhode Island, respectively -- have concerts scheduled across the country through August. ## The source of the sorcery The phenomenon started in 1997, when mom-on-the-dole Rowling published the first fantasy, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." It became a word-of-mouth hit in England, and the book was published as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the United States the following year. The franchise gained traction upon publication of the second book, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," and a happening was born. Suddenly, toy shops and bookstores brimmed with witch hats and Bertie Bott's beans, the 21st century's answer to the Jelly Bellies made famous by Ronald Reagan. In 2002, the Cleveland Museum of Art offered a "Harry Potter tour" of its collections, focusing on griffins, basilisks, unicorns and other mythical -- and Potteresque -- creatures. The boy wizard was everywhere. If the series is loved by legions, it is also loathed by plenty, including preachers concerned with its magical message. Some challenge the books' presence in school libraries, a fact that underscores the grip of Pottermania on the culture. Members of the literary elite strained to defend the canon from the wizard's spell. ""Harry Potter' will not lead our children on to Kipling's 'Just So Stories' or his 'Jungle Book," complained scholar Harold Bloom, while novelist A.S. Byatt dissed the series by insulting its fans: "It is written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons and the exaggerated... mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip." Even among regular folk, there's no shortage of those who can't wait for the hype to end. When The New York Times asked online readers to predict how the series would conclude, a good many responded with words to the effect of "not soon enough." But in most respects, the pro-Harry camp has won the day. Rowling's books keep selling in hardcover, paperback and boxed sets. Though bibliophiles worried that the movies would stifle interest in books, best-seller lists indicate that sales spike with every new film. The influence of Pottermania is wide. What remains to be seen is how deep it goes, and how long it will last. Case professor Vrettos says her family has enjoyed lengthy dinner-table conversations about the stories, and she counts that among the many wonderful gifts of Rowling's creation. Still, she says it's too soon to tell whether Harry will take his place next to Huck and Tom and the March sisters in the annals of children's classics. Plenty of books that are hotly popular in their day fade into obscurity as the decades pass, she says. "Half of the cultural phenomenon so far has been this kind of communal sense of wondering what's going to happen next," Vrettos says. After July 21, that conversation changes. Fans will no longer be a fraternity of readers-in-the-dark. The stories enter a new era in which they will rise, fall or stand steady on their own merits, without unanswered questions and massive marketing to fuel them. Philip Nel, director of the children's literature program at Kansas State University, predicts the books have staying power. His elective course, "The Harry Potter Library," usually fills within 24 hours of opening. Nel says books become classics by two means. One is critical praise. In the case of Rowling's books, "the academy is paying attention to it, and for the most part appraises it well." The second means to longevity is popularity. "'Little Women' did not become classic through the critics," Nel says. "Mothers passed it down to their daughters, and it hung on and hung on." That's what Ellen Skonce predicts for her favorite books, which are stacked up on her bed, beneath her stuffed dog. Every night at bedtime, she closes her eyes and points to one of the books, slips it from the stack and begins reading from any chapter. "It makes me feel a little better," Ellen says. "At my age, a lot of friend problems can happen. It just takes me to a different place, and just lets me live in a whole other world."