The Times said “J.K Rowling has woken up a whole generation to reading.” And this could not be any more true.
I find it difficult to imagine a childhood, any childhood for that matter, without this series. They would be replete and demotivated if a travesty like Harry Potter deprivation were to occur. Although the Harry Potter books were not among my initial reads as a child, they reassured me that reading is a habit that will pay in full…especially if you land on the right series. Because it is a gold mine sitting at the end of the rainbow, just waiting to be discovered.
There is more magic to the Harry Potter series than you would assume on reading it (although with Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and Quidditch, it may be difficult to imagine). There is something magical in itself how words can create worlds. How we grow with fictional characters, maturing and developing a special bond merging fantasy and reality.It’s amazing how magic can be found in pages and I am grateful to have been on the journey with Harry, Ron and Hermione along with countless other characters, like many others of my generation.
Years into the future, maybe if I’ve got little tykes running around the house, gasping for breath, in need of a break from their shenanigans, I hope they stumble into my library ( because I’m hoping that I’ll have a mansion with a room for just my books). I hope they’ll find one of my old copies of Harry Potter and they’ll spend some time reading them…
and reading them…
and reading them.
I hope they will grow up with these characters as I did (but if they’re not inclined to reading on their own, I may intervene and read to them before going to bed to ensure their dreams would be filled with pumpkin pasties and Hogsmeade trips, leaving the basilisk and Lord Voldemort to take a slot in their nightmares).
I am now re-reading the series almost ten years from when I picked up the very first book and there’s something ineffable about the experience of reading the same text as both a child and adult. One thing I have learned is that time passes but…magic never dies.
The Tea-Infused Typewriter 