SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE ANY INTENTION OF READING THE NOVELS (AS YOU SHOULD) I DISCUSS A FEW OF THEM HERE.
As an English teacher, it is no wonder that my heart will always favor the novels. Rowling's work manages to envelop me every time I pour through the pages to experience the tale of the boy wizard. I fell in love with these during college in 2000, and continuously kicked myself for not noticing them sooner. Perhaps the reason they stayed off my radar is the same reason so many (unfortunate) people have yet to run through the barrier at King's Cross Station onto Platform 9 3/4: they have incredibly negative pre-conceived notions about who Harry Potter is.
It is not just young adult fiction. It is not just fantasy fiction. This is actual literature. Rowling manages to lay out the entire Hero's Journey across all seven novels. Archetypes pop up throughout the entire series with Potter being the Scapegoat Hero in the end. The writing advances with each book earning them upper level reading lexiles. This is genius in that the books are meant to grow with the reader. Even as an adult who reads the whole series on a regular basis (at least once a year), I try to get through the first three as quickly as possible because they are a bit juvenile They reflect the life of a 11//12/13-year-old, but by Order of the Phoenix I've escaped back into Harry's world because the much larger themes of humanity, loyalty, friendship, integrity, love, death, etc. are all present and just as meaningful to a 30-year-old as they would be to a 15-year-old reading them for the first time.
As soon as I was hooked, I made it a point to be at every midnight release for books 4-7. I did stay up through the night devouring Rowling's words much to the teasing of some of my friends. I just had to know what happened to Harry! I have a vested interest every time I read because I love the characters and feel their pain, happiness, anger, fear. Harry grows page after page and I remember being a teenager and what that entailed (two points: Harry was born in 1980 which would make him MY age and even though I was never expected to bring the downfall of an evil regime, I still had to make my way from awkward teen to responsible adult like Harry does).
One of the most beautiful aspects about Rowling's writing is her ability to weave the stories across each other. Everything has a purpose. Nothing is superfluous. If she mentions in one book that two characters have birthdays around the same time of the year, it will be important later (it could have been Neville Longbottom and the Sorcerer's Stone). That is also why re-reading them is just as entertaining and awesome as reading them for the first time. In Order of the Phoenix, Petunia makes a reference to Dementors that "that boy" told Lily about. Well naturally the reader is to assume Petunia is speaking about James. It isn't until Deathly Hallows that we learn it is actually Snape! Brilliant!
I know I keep referencing Order of the Phoenix. It's my favorite, and I'm okay knowing that I'm in the minority in that. Here is where Rowling really shows her eloquent grasp on what it means to be human especially a human teen. Harry is arrogant and angry and agitating. He has already saved his own skin multiple times and feels entitled to leadership rolls including being a full fledged member of Dumbledore's "good guys" club. As an adult, I know that Harry still has much to learn about himself and the world (I'm sure my friends in their 40s and 50s would say I still have much to learn about myself and the world). Naturally, I like watching Harry be knocked back a few pegs by not being selected as a Prefect. He may be the "Chosen One," but he's still only 15. (I teach 15-year-olds and wouldn't trust them to take down Voldemort.) He must learn to deal with not being "chosen" for once, and it is difficult for him. Everyone deals with "failure" at some point.
One of my favorite places we are introduced to is St. Mungo's Hospital where witches and wizards are taken care of by Healers when they are ill. I love that we see this side of the magical realm. Even with their abilities, they are still human and flawed. They can still be hurt and die. It also shows the wide range of careers witches and wizards enjoy (this includes all the things going on in the Ministry of Magic which we also get to know in book 5). They are people with 9 to 5 jobs and families to feed. In doing this, Rowling only makes her world and the characters within in it so much more believable. Perhaps the most poignant event is Neville visiting his parents. This gives him a dimension we have yet to see, and we understand a little more about the pressure his Gran places upon him to become the great warrior for good his parents were.
Order's greatest antagonist is not Voldemort this time, but rather a toad faced witch: Dolores Umbridge. She is the personification of all that is wrong with bureaucracy and the education system. As a teacher in a system that I feel is sometimes beyond help, Umbridge's declaration that passing tests is what school is all about solidifies my distaste and hatred for her and those/the system like her. She's the worst kind of evil because she truly believes she is doing what is right and has the powers in control supporting her!
Then there's the death of Sirius Black. He's the best link to Harry's past since he is Harry's godfather and James' best friend. My hopes where set on Harry and Sirius being a family when all was said and done. For three novels Rowling had me believe in it. It's just so upsetting I'm not even sure I can even continue writing about this...
All the books are timeless and the bottom line is these books are so much more than paper and ink! One of my dear friends loathes to read the written word, but she managed to read this entire series. I think that says a lot. I cannot wait until my son is old enough for me to begin reading to him the tale of the boy who lived!
I think Umbrigde is the vilest character ever written. Pure evil. And I hate that she never gets her true comeuppance.
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