Thank You J.K. Rowling!!

I feel so very lucky to have been alive during the Harry Potter phenomenon. I also feel blessed to have had a son who was the perfect age when the first books came out.

In 1999 I was a single mother of a 10 year old son. I do not remember where or when I first started hearing about the Harry Potter books .... but the 3rd book, The Prisoner of Azkaban was coming out with much ado in the media and I had not yet read the first two books! According to Amazon.com I ordered all three books at the same time in October of 1999.

I was hooked with the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I devoured the first three books .... and talked my 10 year old son into reading The Sorcerer's Stone after me. He was not much into reading at the time. But what do you know?? The Sorcerer's Stone sucked him in, too! And if I have nothing else to thank J.K. Rowling for, which I do, I am immensely thankful to her for writing the first book which pulled my child into the wonderful world of reading!

At family gatherings for Christmas 1999 we found out that my nieces and nephews were also reading the Harry Potter books .... as well as their parents!! That encouraged my son, Robbie, to keep reading the next two books ... The Chamber of Secrets and The Prisoner of Azkaban. I remember being amazed at these 10 year old children who were eagerly devouring a 435 page book .... and then talking to each other about them! And the adults were all talking about these books, too! And the adults were talking to the kids and the kids were talking to the adults and everyone was talking about Harry Potter. And everybody was eagerly awaiting the next novel.

Also in late 1999 I met the man who would later become my husband. He was a reader, too, and he was also reading the Harry Potter books. A 45 year old man reading Harry Potter! In fact, it was his sister-in-law who finally told me how to pronounce Hermione's name correctly!! She and her husband and son were all reading them, too. It seemed everyone was reading Harry Potter and I found that to be amazing.

In July 2000 Harry Potter 4 ... The Goblet of Fire came out and I made the mistake of only buying ONE copy!! OH MY!! I immediately had to go out and buy another copy so that Robbie and I could both read the book at the same time! Thank goodness it was summer so that it didn't get in the way of schoolwork! His nor mine nor my students'!! This book was 734 pages long and kids everywhere were racing through it! Robbie kept wanting to talk about it as we were reading it ... I was always chapters behind him and this frustrated him to no end! But we would discuss the parts I had covered already, and he never failed to notice things I hadn't noticed, and offered me insights I hadn't thought about. My 11 year old and I were reading the same book and talking about it! Enjoying it!!

By the time Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came out, in July of 2003, Tom and I had been married for two years and I was wise enough to order 3 copies from Amazon.com .... which were delivered to our door on the day it came out.

The first and second Harry Potter movies had already been in theaters and they had put a face and a vision to all that was Harry Potter. None of the movies were as good as the books .... but they were still amazing creations. The actors and actresses were PERFECTLY casted. The movies were a visual treat!

The Order of the Phoenix was 870 pages long and was the darkest and my least favorite of the Harry Potter novels. Yet .... because we were reading it in July of 2003, the orange kitten we took in at that time is now our cat named Weasley .... after Ron .... and the other carrot-headed Weasleys. We call him Weasel for short ... and it fits him. This time it was Tom and Robbie and I all reading the book at the same time ... all checking with each other to see what chapter who was on ... and discussing the parts we all had read. None of us liked the 5th book much. It was well written and well done ..... and necessary to the story overall ... but none of us liked seeing evil move in and take over the way it did in Book 5.

Robbie was 13 in July of 2003 ... and the Harry Potter books were not coming out fast enough for him. He asked us for books to read. He wondered if we knew of other books, similar to Harry Potter, which we thought he might enjoy. Enter The Narnia Series of books by C.S. Lewis. Enter Philip Pullman and the Dark Materials Trilogy. Enter the books Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini. Enter Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein. Enter Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series ....

I have a son who loves to read! And so many young people his age have found reading ... and the main person we have to thank for all this is J. K. Rowling. It also doesn't hurt that I love to read and that our home is full of bookshelves which are full of all kinds of books. Tom and I both always have a book near our side. But J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter got Robbie into reading at a much younger age and he has never been afraid to pick up a 1,000 page book.

Robbie has also learned how much better a book is compared to the movie based on the book. We all love the Harry Potter movies .... but none have been better than their book. Speaking of which .... I am also glad to have been living during the time of the fantastic filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The books were still better .... but what an amazing cinematic achievement the movies were! So here's an aside "Thank You" to Peter Jackson for bringing those wonderful books to life on the big screen in such a fantastic way!

Book 6 ... Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out in July 2005. Here is an added thanks to J.K. Rowling and her publishers for making sure the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th books all came out in July!! How else could everyone get them read so quickly? It was perfect for students and teachers with summers off! I can't imagine having to teach a classroom full of teenagers the day after a Harry Potter book was released! We would have had to throw away our lesson plans and just let everybody read! A good thing for an English class ... but I teach Math!

Anyway ... once again, I ordered 3 copies of Book 6 from Amazon ... and once again, they were on our doorstep the day of the release. Once again we all read the books at the same time and discussed the parts we all had read. I liked book 6 much better than book 5 ... but I did not want Dumbledore to be dead. And I had so hoped that Snape was actually a good guy. Book 6 left us with lots of clues and questions. It was a perfect set-up for the 7th and final book. Now all we had to do was re-read the first 6 books and WAIT.

July 2007 finally rolled around and it was to be a Harry Potter Bonanza Month!! First came the movie .... Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The cast from the 1st movie was still intact (except for Dumbledore) and Harry and Ron and Hermione, along with all the other teenage actors, were all aging with their characters. Who would have thought that Ron would be taller than Harry?

Anyway ... Tom and Robbie and I went to see The Order of the Phoenix at the Studio Movie Grill in Lewsiville. Numerous families were in attendance with us. I particularly noticed a young boy, probably age 10 or 11, sitting with his father a few seats down from us. As the previews were playing there was one particular preview which caught my attention and as I was watching it, I wondered what book it was based on and how I could have missed reading such a wonderful book. I asked Robbie if he recognized the preview as being from a book? The preview made the movie look like it was going to be wonderful (although I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the movie) and I kept thinking how I needed to get ahold of the book before that movie came out. At the end of that preview, and before the next one started, I heard the young boy near us say to his father, "I want the book!"

"I want the book!" Words which came out of the mouth of a 10 or 11 year old boy while sitting in a movie theater. The very same words that Tom and Robbie and I all happened to be thinking, too! Not "I want to see that movie!" but "I want the book!" I have been searching the web for links to movie previews to try to find what movie it was previewing and to see if I could find the book ... but it looks like I may have to go see The Order of the Phoenix again, just to find out what that preview was! (If anybody reading this blog knows what it was, please let me know!)

Side note: I think it might have been "The Spiderwick Chronicles"?

Anyway ... The Order of the Phoenix was very well done. Keep in mind, this was my least favorite book, so I was a little bit worried about the movie. Evil Umbridge was well casted and played. She did not look like a toad, as she was described in the book, but it made her evil seem even worse because it was coming from this pleasant looking woman. ((Hmmmm .... reminds me of some ex-friends of mine.))

Finally on Saturday July 21, 2007, the 7th and final Harry Potter book arrived on our doorstep .... once again in triplicate. Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows swept the world. Robbie, now 17, was the first to dig in. Tom and I soon followed and the silence in our home was amazing. We were each in our own little Harry Potter inspired world, and quite happy to be there! We did have the British Open on the TV on Sunday and the commentators mentioned more than once the number of people they saw in the crowds who were actually reading the Harry Potter book in between the action on the course! And in our home there were actually a couple of evenings when the television set didn't even come on! That is unheard of around here (sadly).

SPOILER ALERT .... don't read if you don't want to know what happens in the last pages of the last book.

I think each of us who read the last book slowed down as we neared the end. As various beloved characters died, a sadness began to set in. Then it became clear that Harry himself was going to die in this last book. But yet, his death seemed right. The only way to stop the spread of evil was for Harry to willingly go to his death. In fact, it seemed a decidedly Christian sacrifice that Harry was being asked to make, a sacrifice he was willing to offer. A sacrifice I was going to have trouble reading ... but which I totally understood. And Harry did die. Harry was killed by Voldemort. Harry also lived again and in the end, good conquered all. But not without loss of friends and family. The book ends with a last chapter set 19 years later, when Harry is 36. He is married. He has children. Same for Ron and Hermione. Hogwarts still exists, and their children attend.

SPOILER OVER ....

Thank you, J.K. Rowling, for creating Harry Potter and all that he has become. Thank you for writing books which children of all ages could enjoy. Thank you for writing books which adults can discuss over a beer and children can discuss on the playground and families can discuss over dinner. And thank you for enriching my son's life from age 10 to 17 ... he grew up while Harry grew up. You have many wonderful lessons entwined throughout your books which I hope Robbie has picked up on .... many I KNOW he has picked up on.

I could go on and on ... I already have ... but one more time ... THANK YOU, J.K. ROWLING!