A few weeks ago, shortly after the 7th Harry Potter book, I was in a favorite bookstore, Powell’s Books, and I happened to overhear a group of clerks talking together. They were discussing the launch party they'd helped to run, and one of their favorite topics was the derision they felt towards the teenagers who attended. "Come on, that guy had to be like, eighteen, at least! Doesn't he have anything better to do on a Saturday night? I mean, come on, it's a kids' book!" (paraphrasing heavily, but you get the point)
Now I understand that one of the ways to survive your job sometimes is to make inappropriate jokes about it with your co-workers. Goodness knows I’ve made some. However, even knowing that, I was very disappointed in that bookstore. This was not just one knucklehead spouting off, it was a group, and they were all enjoying the joke. Add to all that, they were having this conversation IN THE YA SECTION for all the children to hear. Shame! Shame! Shame!
Now, if they want to make fun of the grown up readers, they should go right ahead. I will cheerfully take on anyone who wants to berate me for reading kids' stuff (narrow-minded people do this on a regular basis), but leave the teenagers alone! A kid who is eighteen now may well have started reading the series when the first book came out ten years ago. These kids have grown up with Harry and they, perhaps more than anyone, had a right to be there for the final installment.
A recent study of 500 young Harry Potter readers found that 51% did not read for pleasure before they met Harry. I have seen this happen so many times in my classroom. Students discover the wonders of Hogwarts, and then they start to get curious about what other interesting worlds might be hidden in those previously distrusted items called books. No matter what you think of Harry or his fans, large amounts of credit are due for that effect.
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