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At
12:01 am on July 21, the sound of turning pages
will rustle across America as millions of readers crack
open the seventh – and last – book about a boy
wizard named Harry Potter.
Having
sold 325 million books worldwide (121 million in
America alone), J.K. Rowling’s series has been a
financial boon for its publishers. What it has
done for kids and their love of reading isn’t
too shabby, either.
For
years, librarians and parents despaired of getting
their children – particularly boys – to read.
And no wonder. The choices seemed to be either
treacly, bland stories that avoided all
controversy, or authors who wrote as if the only
way to attract 13-year-olds was to shove dirty
words between the pages. (Does a 182-page middle
school library book really need to use the
“f-word” 29 times and the “s-word” 43
times to be entertaining for kids?).
But
the Potter series changed all that as youngsters
discovered that what they really liked were rich
plotlines, strong characters, a hint of danger and
the forbidden, and a clash between good and evil
– with the good guys knowing they have something
worth fighting for. If the kids seemed at times to
be just a tad smarter than the adults – why, all
the better!
The
parents of children’s author Daniel Handler
(better known as Lemony Snicket) understood the
concept. Interviewed in George Lucas’
Edutopia magazine, Handler notes that his parents
read to him every night – but would stop at a
suspenseful part of the book, declare it time for
bed and refuse to read further. Putting the book
and a flashlight on the nightstand, they would
remind him that there was no reading after lights
went out.
What
could I do?” says Handler. “They would close
the door and go downstairs, and I would click on
the light and keep on reading. The next day, the
bookmark would be in an entirely different place,
and my parents would pick up from there as if
nothing had happened, and stop at the next
suspenseful moment. There was always a notion that
this kind of nocturnal reading was forbidden, but
there was also the notion that they were giving me
the tools I needed to keep on going. This got me
into the mystery of books, particularly that
addictive, slightly conspiratorial feel you get
with a good book.”
Conspiracy
… forbidden dangers … good vs. evil. From
Hansel and Gretel to "The
Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" they have remained a prescription that awaited
rediscovery by Mr. Potter and his colleagues at
Hogwarts.
And,
when rediscovered, the result was an explosion of
interest in children’s … well, literature.
That, in turn, knocked over more dominoes: The
2006 Kids and Family Reading Report found that
more than half of Harry Potter readers hadn’t
read books for fun before the series appeared –
and that 65 percent now claimed to do better in
school. That aligns nicely with a National
Endowment for the Arts report noting that adult
readers of literature are more likely to be
similarly engaged in civic life – in charity
work, performing arts events, even sporting
events.
Those
of us who know learning to read is a discipline
that necessarily includes phonics are often
falsely accused of trying to install “kill and
drill” in Virginia’s schools. What we really
want is simply to make certain that all children
learn the science of reading so they can
appreciate the art of reading – especially
literature.
In
one of his Narnia stories, C.S. Lewis
creates a character named Eustace Clarence Scrubbs
who reads books – but the technical kind. When
Eustace finds himself in a dragon’s lair, he is
clueless, Lewis writes, because “he had read
only the wrong books. They had a lot to say about
exports and imports and governments and drains,
but they were weak on dragons.”
There
are those who consider the Harry Potter series
dark and forbidding, a promotion of witchcraft and
anti-Christian values. Others try hard to avoid
literature that may frighten children, as if
avoiding the subject will ensure that they never
confront violence, cowardice or evil.
Lewis
himself took note of that attitude many years ago,
declaring that such avoidance “would indeed be
to give children a false impression. There is
something ludicrous in so educating a generation
which is born to the … atomic bomb. Since it is
so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let
them at least have heard of brave knights and
heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their
destiny not brighter but darker.”
The
Harry Potter series has inspired a new generation
of readers, with strategies of old. When the last
book finally closes on July 21, parents and
educators alike will owe a tip of the hat to the
boy wizard, and to the Muggles who created him.
--
July 16, 2007
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