Dear Carolyn
Without wishing to be offensive, I would not have thought you needed so many authorities in order to state the “bleedin’ obvious”.
One of the great errors that we find in modern journalism is the tendency to find someone to quote, even if they might be nothing more than another journalist. So we never find Carolyn Moynihan’s opinion other than, for example, in the context of “Washington Post senior books editor Ron Charles” scepticism. What makes Mr Charles an expert other than the fact that he works for the WP?
Harry Potter is not a big deal and the fact that he is a big deal is only because so many children (and adults) have bought JKR’s book.
He is, however, a breath of fresh air in children’s literature if only because he is unpretentious when compared with the books that have been forced on children in the name of literature during the past fifty years.
We are trying to educate children so that they can read, first children’s literature, eventually the better novelists then for those very literate adult readers Shakespeare and the Great Books. It is a time consuming process but so much easier if children are enthusiastic about learning. Having read some of the books which children were forced to read in the name of school curricula, I understand why children gave up reading. Strip away the actual plot material and Harry Potter is very simplistic - perfect for young minds to grasp. Good does, or should triumph over evil - see Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Robin Hood. It is not a theme which modern children authors have even attempted to embrace, preferring the social scientific truism that the world comprises shades of grey. Perhaps JKR is just another Enid Blyton. Someone for the children to love and parents to tolerate.

I definitely agree.  I love reading and I think that a great loss of the younger generation is that they’re constantly in front of thier PSPs, internet chat or the TV.  I grew up loving reading, not because my parents pushed me to read or that I “had” to read for school.  I simply saw how my parents (both avid readers) loved reading and were constantly with books and our home was filled with books.  I could not even say that my parents actually read to us when we were small.  All I remember was that they loved reading books and that naturally got me reading! All my siblings are the same. 
I hope and pray that the younger generation discover that reading good literature is just as, if not more, exciting than their PSP and their video games.
Oh, and yes, I am a Harry Potter fan too.

It is great that children are reading.Perhaps parents need to question some of the underlying messages though in Harry Potter books.The confusion of good and evil can affect the formation of a child’s moral conscience.

There are some great resources available that give parents tips on how to get children reading such as “ Honey for a Child’s Heart” (The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life) by Gladys Hunt.This book has an extensive booklist plus practical tips on how to get kids reading.

In “A Landscape With Dragons The Battle for Your Child’s Mind” by Michael O’Brien the issue of modern fantasy books and movies is dealt with.In these the pagan message is being packaged to appear “Christian” and recreate a relativist view of good and evil,where the evil is so diabolical that anything can look good by contrast.The danger being in the long run that we accept this new relative good as our new moral pointer.

“Educators are rightly concerned that young people are not learning to enjoy reading.But in an effort to stimulate interest,they are introducing many books of questionable merit.Few things are as stimulating to the young as the mysterious and forbidden,and teachers know this.As a result,neopagan literature is making its way.. As the appetite for fantasy increases,the industry grows,and writers and publishers turn to it in droves.Of course,some fantasy titles are of good quality,written in the christian tradition of George MacDonald....Others are blatantly anti-Christian-easy enough to identify.But in the wide zone between the two poles there is a large and growing body of children’s literature that is actually spiritual indoctrination wrapped in pleasing adventure packages.This kind of fiction may be the most harmful of all;it is the most difficult to identify."(from “A Landscape...” by Michael O’Brien)I think Harry Potter falls into this damaging category with powerful effects on a young mind.

The Harry Potter phenomenon is just another intellectually and artistically lightweight contemporary craze, right there beside “The Da Vinci Code” and neo-atheism. It may cause some positive side effects but on the whole it has no lasting value whatsoever. Or does it? In this case, I weep for the future of humanity...8)

Very interesting and thoughtful article, Carolyn. Thank you.

I especially agree with your final comment, “What...[children]...see their parents doing may well decide whether they read at all.” I work in early childhood education (with <24 mths old children at present) and when we sit down with a book, whether it is to read it ourselves or read it out loud to a child, a child will always sit next to us (or on top of us!) to share the experience. Many children will pick up a book and bring it to us to read it to them. It is a wonderful experience. Personally, I am not a HP fan (due to the content of the books) but I will always encourage reading and allow people to judge content for themselves. It is always good to discuss such topics.

Thankyou MercatorNet for your availability,
Robyn.
Queensland. Australia.

Thank you for the article. Having read book 7 of Harry Potter and, alas, been rather disappointed by it, I feel I would like to give some time before I draw any great conclusions (also because some of Mercator’s earlier commentators on book 7 said they felt one should not give the story away before most people have had a chance to read it).
On the whole I am still favourable to HP. Among other things, in my opinion, it has helped to get people of different generations (children up to great-grandparents) to discuss a common interest.

Harry potter is a great writter and has made the young generation be captivated and innovative in coming up with very imaginative scripts which are fabulous.

“The confusion of good and evil can affect the formation of a child’s moral conscience.”
I can only presume that at some time somewhere, “Kathryn” has been taught the theory modern literary criticism which might explain the confusion from which she suffers. 
Had she first shown how reading affects the “moral conscience” of children and distinguished that cause by showing that it is greater than, for example, modern music, or even the good habits that conscientious parents try to instil into their children, one might have a starting point from which to discus whether HP should be taken seriously or just enjoyed as a a good read.
Teaching children to be literate should not be confused with teaching morality. they are two totally different ends and require different means. The problem with the teaching of English in schools has been precisely the confusion of these ends so that authors with nothing more than a computer and keyboard suddenly become teachers of wisdom simply because they can compose attractive sentences to describe mundane plots with a “profound message”.
Is the “poet” really the repository of all wisdom? If Rousseau is to believed, yes. Where creativity was once the province of God, after Rousseau, it became the prerogative of the poet. How else do we explain the pop star’s penchant for expressing an opinion about subjects beyond his understanding and and the magnetism of that opinion to members of the media!
Forget about Harry Potter. He is harmless. If you want to worry about your children, be concerned with the effect of rock music and its derivatives. If Plato is correct, we are corrupting the souls of our children by letting them listen to it. The problem is, the vast majority find it so enjoyable they won’t stop listening to it.

One thing for sure: JKR is smiling on her way to the bank every day . .  Fr. Charles Nixon

Sorry, Harry who?

There are far too many good books for children than this inconsequential and poorly written garbage. I let the first book go once I had read the first few pages. My five children want nothing to do with it as they have found many other great books to read. The sales for Harry P were bumped up by media amplification of its dubious virtues and the sob story of alleged near poverty of its parvenu author. We never pay much attention to the media as we do not watch TV or listen much to the radio. We also almost never buy a newspaper. We are too busy reading great literature & doing great artistic activities in our house.

Hmmm. We are branching out from Carolyn’s article and turning this into a bit of a chatroom. Still, not being one to avoid a similar faux pas, here I go…

David Long’s reply to Kathryn can’t go unchallenged. David - you make the same error you accuse Kathryn of making. You suggest modern music is more damaging to a child’s moral conscience than literature. And I must ask you as you asked Kathryn: How? why? and to what degree?

As far as I can tell, Kathryn is merely suggesting (from her reading of Michael O’Brien’s book) that what children read can and will have a profound impact on the formation of their intellect - including their moral conscience.

The intellectual diet (i.e. reading and/or media for 99% of us in the modern world) is paralleled by the physical diet. Some substances we ingest are actively nourishing to our intellects, some are horribly addictive & destructive (like pornography & Marxism) and some are apparently wholesome and pleasant while actually forming a subtle attack against our intellect itself.

Many sweet and lovely and admirable and noble things can be found in the Harry Potter books - and that’s great. What Kathryn (and Michael O’Brien) suggest is that you shouldn’t just stop there and say “Cool - no problem” but that you exercise your intellect and look even deeper to evaluate carefully the potential impact on your child’s higher faculties rather than merely the immediate affect on their emotions.

My jury is still out on Michael O’Brien’s article - but I think that it’d be outright foolishness to not give his thoughts some consideration at least. He expounds his concepts further here: http://studiobrien.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=51&Itemid=69

I am an avid reader who enjoys a wide variety of novels that are considered classics(Tolstoy is one of my favorites) But I still enjoy Harry Potter.

No, the writing in Harry Potter isn’t that of great literature. Both Tolkien and C.S Lewis were much better writers of fantasy. But the plot line is entertaining and I don’t need every book that I read to be a literary masterpiece.

Although I like the series, I would advise parents to read the books with their children. If anything in the novels is objectionable then you, the parent, can discuss these issues with your child.

Hi, fortunatately, harry potter is all about magic, and im waiting for it all to pooof and disappear, for i believe it is not in the same league as tolkien & CS Lewis, & it might be intersting to investigate the beliefs of Ms Rowling and how her faith lead her to writing this stuff.
Somehow i dont think in the end it helps the formation of a childs conscience,

As we all know, J. K. Rowlings has just reached a new low of crass opportunism by retroactively designating one of her characters “gay”. She is most definitely not a kind of person that would be able to offer any useful moral advice to anybody. But every epoch has only such mentors as it deserves.