From: Chelsea Couillard <couillac_at_gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:48:55 -0700

One of the aspects of the series that I appreciate the most is the intergenerational appeal. I remember being in high school when one of the titles came out the day before I was set to leave for a week at summer camp. We preordered the book and received it the day it was released, and I remember being in the car on the way to camp, furiously reading so that I could finish before we arrived. You see, I had to compete with both of my parents and my younger brother for reading rights - there was NO WAY they were going to let me take the book to camp and keep them from it for a whole week! At times, we would have 3-4 different bookmarks in a given copy as each of us made our way through the book (though my brother and I usually finished in 1-2 sittings, sometimes we would reread it more slowly while my parents were savoring it, since it was lying around anyways). Family discussions would focus on trying to talk about the book without spoiling it for the family members who were not quite as far along.

Recently, as a children's librarian, I have seen a lot of younger parents in particular coming in with their kids, excited to have them finally at an age where they can start sharing the series. It's become a kind of rite of passage when kids reach a certain age (which varies from family to family), but at some point, they show up asking for the books because their child is now "ready for Harry Potter," whether it's to read independently or to have read to them by an equally excited parent. And when they're done, I get that greatest of all questions, "What do we read next?" and Harry Potter becomes a gateway to so many other fantastic books. Once they start the series, I know I have them hooked long into the future!

Chelsea Couillard Youth Materials Selector Sacramento Public Library
Received on Wed 06 Jul 2011 01:48:55 PM CDT