Reading Harry Potter

TRC is reading Harry Potter. I’d been curious to see what his response to the books would be. No hype. No huge wait and anticipation between each book. No news stories all about how important they are or how many copies they’ve sold. TRC didn’t even really know anything about Harry Potter before he picked the first book up. Maybe he’d heard some things in passing at school–but I asked him ahead of time, and it wasn’t like he was very enthusiastic about the character or anything.

So how’s it going?

He’s devouring those pages faster than anything he’s read before. When faced with the choice of video games or reading, he’s chosen reading the past week. He reads at breakfast. He reads on the way to church. The kid just can’t put them down.

So there you have it. To me, that’s one of the biggest signs that Harry Potter is much more than just hype. I remember when the books were being published how some people would claim they were poorly written, or that they were overblown–that they’d blow over after a decade or so. I wondered that myself, even though I looked forward to each one and read through them like wildfire.

I don’t wonder that anymore.

For the record, TRC has three series that he’s read on this level: first came the Animorph Chronicles, then the Ranger’s Apprentice, and now Harry Potter. Potter is by far the fastest read for him thus far, although some of that could be because he’s gotten so much more practice reading.

Anyway, I don’t have time for much else–I have to dash off to Bangor for a Cataloging Standards meeting. Librarian stuff. I know–you’re jealous. Just thought I’d share this with you before I left today.

Happy weekend, all!

4 thoughts on “Reading Harry Potter”

  1. I’ve seen the same thing with my daughter Abigail–she started reading the HP books the summer after kindergarten and it was like just this reading EXPLOSION. She went from knowing her letters and grudgingly doing her reading homework to a 4th grade reading level–she read them so much that she had parts memorized. I so love those books. I finally let her read the 4th one and she keeps telling me it’s too scary to keep going, but then 5 minutes later I turn around and she’s curled up with that enormous tome again. I seriously credit the HP books for how well she’s doing in school right now–that powered-up literacy makes a huge difference!

  2. It’s really interesting to see what a draw they have. I need to go through and reread them–especially the first few–to see how Rowling pulls it off. Very impressive.

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