On June 26, 1997 J.K. Rowling launched her first book of the Harry Potter series “Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone”. Little did Rowling know that after all seven books in the series were published she would sell over 400 million copies as well as receive over 30 awards. The Harry Potter series contain the main character Harry and his journey learning about and using witch craft and wizardry; along with the story of Harry, come stories of friendships, heart breaks, battles, and hope.  Harry Potter is a series of books that entice the reader. The series is very popular in the UK as well as around the world.  J. K. Rowling’s series is enjoyed by adults and children alike and has seriously influenced our society.

     In the book Harry Potter’s World Wide Influence, chapter 14, paragraph two, says “A search for “Harry Potter” in the online archive of the New York Times (2009) on 11 January, revealed 227 Potter-related articles. By comparison: “George W. Bush” produced 27,399 results; “September 11” came up with 16,322 articles. Other search terms used were “Obama” with 3,620 hits, “Shakespeare” 897, and “Da Vinci Code” 62.” After these results are laid out, the book continues to explain how Harry Potter compares to national events and historic writing. People were almost more captivated by Harry Potter than they were Shakespeare and they were more intrigued by Harry Potter than the Da Vinci code. This book proves how interested society is in the life and magical world of Harry Potter.

     Chapter books such as Harry Potter are usually leisure books but Rowling did such an outstanding job that even professors teach lessons from them. The Harry Potter series is used as a lesson to teach literature styles.  One professor speaks in Scholarly Studies in Harry Potter : Applying Academic Methods to a Popular Text about how the books are fun to read but the students truly learn different skills by reading through the books. This professor wrote “Further, these books teach students to appreciate such scholarship. Each semester, my students not only enjoyed reading their assignments, sometimes an entirely new experience for them, but also by the final day of class, each student had read almost 2000 pages, given a group presentation, and written between 30 and 40 pages.”

     Children who read Harry Potter dreamed of the day they turned 11 expecting a letter delivered by an owl. Many people are against Harry Potter because of their beliefs while others treat Harry Potter like it’s their religion. Many churches and private Christian schools do not support Harry Potter because of the idea of magic.  There are thousands of fan pages where a wide variety of things happen such as fan fiction and debates… there is even a whole Youtube page ran by Harry Potter fans. The Harry Potter series has three foundational points according to Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter which are, literacy is meaning making, reading and writing are connected.  Lastly,  technology spreads the use of  constructs of text, reading, and literacy.  This book also states that Harry Potter has an unprecedented fan fiction, it has influenced much writing.

     Harry Potter is still very huge today. The last movie came out on June 15, 2011 and to this day there are growing amusement parks devoted to Harry Potter. The Harry Potter fandom is growing even stronger than when the books came out and there doesn’t seem to be any stopping it for a long, long time. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” all started in 1990 while Rowling was boarding a delayed train…this book became a series and even though the series books and movies have been released, Rowling continues to excite the crowds by writing new novels about the future of Harry’s magical world and even a couple non related novels. Even now, Rowling is producing a play and movie screenplay (within a span of 19 years).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Eccleshare, Julia. Guide To The Harry Potter Novels.

     London: Continuum, 2002. eBook

     Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 5 Dec. 2016. 

Hallett, Cynthia Whitney. Scholarly Studies In Harry

     Potter : Applying Academic Methods To A

     Popular Text. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press,  

     2005. eBook Collection

     (EBSCOhost). Web. 5 Dec. 2016.

Heilman, Elizabeth E. Critical Perspectives On Harry

     Potter. New York: Routledge, 2009. eBook

     Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 5 Dec. 2016

Hibberd, James. "Pottermania Is Back!." Entertainment  

     Weekly 1426 (2016): 10. MasterFILE

     Premier. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.

Patterson, Diana. Harry Potter's World Wide Influence. 

     Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge

     Scholars Publishing, 2009. eBook Collection  

     (EBSCOhost). Web. 5 Dec. 2016. 

Whited, Lana A. The Ivory Tower And Harry Potter :

     Perspectives On A Literary Phenomenon.

     Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002. eBook   

     Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 5 Dec. 2016.