Blog: A Tribute to Harry Potter

I’m kicking off Harry Potter Week – the countdown to the opening of Part One of Harry

Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with a tribute to the series that I have enjoyed for more

than ten years.

Beginning in first grade, my father would read Harry Potter to me every night before I

went to sleep. “ Dad. Dad. DAD! Read it OUT LOUD!” my first-grade self would yell

as my father would get caught up in the story and forget that he was supposed to be

speaking. Because Harry Potter literally makes people speechless. These books got me

interested in reading and to this day are the only books that I can read even after I have

been bombarded with so much schoolwork that I feel as if I have been confunded.

I just love it.

I love the intense debates the world of Harry Potter causes – from theology, to

philosophy, to an argument I had with an 11 year-old at the Midnight release of the last

book about how many columns are on the wizarding bank, Gringots.

I love that the books are based on a completely made-up world, but that it is a world that

has strong emotional ties to my own life. It’ s fantasy and it’ s fantastic. I love the magic

and adventure, but most of all I love the characters who have, essentially, made me who

I am today. I have been molded by Arthur Weasley’ s open-mindedness, Severus Snape’ s

lesson on not judging something based on what it may seem, and by Dobby’ s admirable

loyalty.

I love the fan base. If anyone ever lets on that they are a fan, I immediately hold respect

and admiration for that person, no matter if they are an uber-fan and own a replica of

Victor Krum’ s wand, or if they have just read the books and like them a lot.

I love the variety of the people that read and enjoy these books and movies. I have a

friend with a photographic memory who has every one of the books memorized and yet

another who has just discovered the awesomeness of the series in the last month! Today

someone tried to argue that the Harry Potter series is just for little kids. I must refute that.

The books are so excellently written that anyone – from a first grader who is listening to

her dad reading them aloud, to a literature professor, can comprehend and enjoy them.

To a young kid the Harry Potter series is an amazing story, but to a high-school student

who has read the books too many times to count, they are revolutionary creations

designed to teach, entertain, amaze and inspire.

Natalie Parker