The Magic of Harry Potter

The last time a children's book spent more than a few weeks on The New York Times Book Review bestseller list was in 1952 with the publication of E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web." That was until American adults and children became swept away by the wizardry of J.K. Rowling's series-"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." As of this writing, all three books sit squarely at the top of the bestseller list. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," Rowling's first book, has been on the list 50 weeks and now is perched at the top of the paperback bestseller list as well.

Rowling, who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, and started writing the series while seated in a coffee shop, has transformed her life from a welfare mother to one of the wealthiest women in the United Kingdom as the Harry Potter books have been translated into 28 languages. Her protagonist, the orphaned Harry Potter, undergoes a similar metamorphosis, from living in a tiny room under the stairs in the home of his despicable Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon to being the most famous student in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Naturally Harry Potter fever has swept the Web. Scholastic Books (the United States publisher of the series) has designed a Harry Potter Web site at http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/index.htm. This site has a wide range of material, from screensavers for kids to lesson plans for teachers. The site also is hosting a live J.K Rowling interview on Feb. 3 for registered users.

Other fan-hosted Harry Potter sites are abundant on the Web. The Unofficial Harry Potter Fan Club site at http://www.geocities.com/harrypotterfans/ includes information on the first Harry Potter movie, a Harry Potter cover gallery, Harry Potter party ideas, a Harry Potter quiz page and much more. The virtual Hogwarts School at http://www.geocities.com/hwarts/ gives Harry Potter fans the opportunity to join "Hogwarts Historians" to collaborate in creating 1,000 years of Hogwarts history.

Harry Potter does have his detractors. All three Potter books have been among the many books that routinely are challenged and/or banned in school districts and public libraries. (To learn more about the distinction between a challenged book and a banned book, see the American Library Association's Banned Book Week site at http://www.ala.org/bbooks/challeng.html. The National Coalition Against Censorship site at http://www.ncac.org/ features an essay by Judy Blume, the popular writer whose own books frequently have been challenged and/or banned, entitled "Is Harry Potter Evil?" Evil? A character who motivates the Nintendo generation to actually pick up a book and read! Don't know what to think? Go to your neighborhood library or bookstore and pick one up. If all the kids of Western New York haven't swept them up before you get there, that is!

-Gemma DeVinney and Don Hartman, University Libraries