Should Children Read Harry Potter

Firstly, I would once again like to mention that I had never read any Harry Potter before this class.  I decided to get a head start during spring break, however.  I read the first installment and watched the movie, intending to write the film review, and could not stop.  I finished the entire series (with the exception of Book 3 because I could not find it in the library) and watched two of the movies within the week of spring break.  I like the series.  Even though it is primarily written for children, the story itself is gripping.  Perhaps it is because I did nothing over spring break except to read the books, but when I closed the last one, I was tired.  I felt as if I had aged alongside Harry.  I think that this sort of quality in a story is profound.*

That is beside the point.  I like the story, but is it really good for children to read?  Points have been made that children are not really naïve enough to believe that fiction is real.  If that is the case (and I think that it is), what is the danger in allowing children to read about wizardry? 

The rhetorical answer would be none.  However, I do think there is some danger.  True, they probably will not decide to run off to Hogwarts because they think it is a real place.  But think of the enormous amounts of money Disney makes off of little children wanting Disney toys and costumes.  Little girls walk around dressed as their favorite princess.  Children may know that these characters are not real, but they still want to be like them.  The difference between this and children looking up to Harry Potter is that there is such a thing as wizardry – there is no such thing as mermaids, no matter what you may see on the History channel.  Reality may be completely different from the world of Harry Potter, but Harry is enough to make children a little more curious than they should be.  I know: most of you will probably scoff at that and say that there is no such thing as too much curiosity.  But when you play with fire, you are likely to get burned.  If you don’t, you are either lucky or God is protecting you.  But if you do, you could be seriously hurt.

Again, I do like Harry Potter.  I do think that the books should be read, but perhaps before children read the books, they should be grounded enough in reality to know that the reality of witchcraft is dark and not everything needs to be experienced to know it is dangerous.  Furthermore, I think children will understand more if they read Harry Potter after they have matured a bit.  There is so much I would not have grasped if I had read them in middle school, when they were being released.  (I’m not sure I would have really wanted to read them then, however.  The people I knew that were really into Harry Potter were rather scary, and it is those people who might be in the sort of danger I mentioned above.) I simply think that parents should be aware of what their children are reading and – while not exactly censoring – should definitely monitor the content entering their heads.    

 

*You don’t really feel like this after reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but I think it is similar to the situation the children find themselves in.  They step inside another story that becomes their own, and they age and mature within it.  But eventually, they have to return.  I think it is like that in most really great books.