Harry Potter Series Review
by: Maddie Marret
5...4...3...2...1....It's the moment they've been waiting for throughout six previous books. It's midnight on July 21, 2007 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is officially on sale! Soon all the burning questions will be answered and speculation will be put to an end. The "Summer of Potter," as it has been described because of the book and movie releases within 10 days of each other, has come to an end.
The Harry Potter series has been around as long as most of its readers. J.K. Rowling, known to her fans as Jo, started writing the award winning series on a train in London in 1990. The first installment of her seven part series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published in England in 1997 (1998 in the U.S.). Over the next ten years, five more books were published in the United States, England, and many other countries across the globe. This past July, her seventh and final installment was published: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
325 million copies of Harry Potter books had been sold before Deathly Hallows was released. In the first 24 hours, the British publishing company Bloomsbury reported that three million copies of Deathly Hallows were sold in 24 hours; Scholastic said 8.3 million books were sold with 2.2 million pre-orders through Amazon.com. Deathly Hallows was published in more than 90 countries selling 11 million total copies in the first 24 hours. Deathly Hallows broke the former Harry Potter book, Half-Blood Prince's record set by its release in 2005 with nine million copies in its first 24 hours on sale. Lisa Holton of scholastic said, "The excitement, anticipation, and just plain hysteria that came over the entire country this weekend was a bit like the Beatles' first visit to the US."
The books have been a topic of debate since they were published. The Potter series came in seventh on The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000. J.K. Rowling came in fourth on Top 10 Challenged Authors (1990-2004). People are always trying to get the series out of public and school libraries, saying they are "anti-Christian." The books have been challenged to be removed from school libraries in Michigan, Minnesota, New York, South Carolina, and Georgia. The books have been challenged most recently in Georgia by a woman named Laura Mallory. She has been trying to get the books taken out of Gwinnett County schools since April 2006. She has lost many appeals to her case, the most recent one on May 29, 2007. Even though a large percent of people disagree with the books, an even larger percent of people whole-heartedly support the books. They have inspired children across the world to start reading. The books take children and adults away to a land with dragons, flying broomsticks, magic wands, and an entire wizard world. They are an escape from the reality and craziness of people's days.
Junior, Brittney Robertson has read all seven of the Potter books. Book three, Prisoner of Azkaban is her favorite. She has read the first six "at least six times each." She has been reading them since she was 10, and has been to two midnight releases. She explains, "I went to book five and book seven, I would've gone to book six, but I was desperately ill. Book five wasn't as organized. The book seven release had contests and a theme." Robertson preordered her book from Borders and had it read in three days. She is "kind of disappointed with book seven because of the cliche ending." Robertson concludes by saying, "I am so glad Harry didn't die!"
I was a bit reluctant to begin reading. As exciting as it was to being so close to knowing the final outcome of the Harry/Voldemort battle, I was also sad for the journey to be over. I haven't been reading Potter as long as some (since 2002), but I was still very sad to see the end of all the speculation and fan fiction. Many people have grown up with Harry. We relate our lives to his; he is like a long lost brother or cousin. We put ourselves into his shoes; we feel the pain and suffering along with him. We wish we could be right there with him. I know I was sad on my 11th birthday when I didn't have a letter from Hogwarts. The Potter books really have brought a generation of kids (who have now grown into teenagers and young adults) together to be happy about reading. I was sad for it all to be over, but I got over that in about five minutes and dove into the book.
Overall, the book was what I expected it to be. Harry and his friends go looking for the Horcruxes and Hermione saves Harry's butt countless times. The wizarding world enters into a war with the Dark Lord and again, Hermione saves Harry from many insane dangers. The book was well written and answered many of the burning questions we all had: who lives? Who dies? What are the deathly hallows? Is Snape good or bad?
Some questions, however, were not answered. What lies behind the veil is still a mystery. Jo is rumored to eventually write an encyclopedia. We are not sure if or when she is going to do this. Jo claims she "would really like a break" and we "might be waiting a while." But if and when it is published, I'm sure Jo will answer all of our burning questions. She has said many times Dean Thomas has an interesting history; he will most likely have a part in the encyclopedia along with all of our other burning Potter questions.
Sources:
"Challenged and Banned Books" from the American Library Association
"Big News! Name of Character Given Reprieve Stated by JKR, Says She Will Write Hogwarts Encyclopedia" from TheLeakyCauldron.com July 24, 2007
"The Trouble with Harry." From the Georgia Trend by Susan Percy
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