Three years ago I walked around with a raised eyebrow any time the mention of Harry Potter 'the book", or Harry Potter 'the movie" was mentioned. I did not understand the overwhelming media attention. Of course, I never got sucked into the Star Wars, Star Trek, and Lord of the Rings fervor either. I am a self-declared science fiction hater. Perhaps its just the realist in me, but even as a child, I preferred The Flintstones and The Jetsons to the more 'out there' cartoons like Scooby Doo and Bugs Bunny. Harry Potter did not appeal my sense of style at all.
Publicly declaring my dislike for all things Harry Potter (and science fiction), a friend encouraged me to read the first book. He said that it's not science fiction, but rather, fantasy. Since summer was approaching and I knew I would have the extra time, I decided 'what the heck' and began the series. I had spent a lot of time bashing a series I really knew nothing about, except for the movie promos.
Nearly 4 months and 4,000 pages later, I was a believer. I loved the series. Loved, Loved, Loved. As a reward for finishing each book, I watched the corresponding movie. During these four months (May to August), my then 8 year old son would ask if he could read the series or watch the movies with me. At 8, I thought he was too young to do either. Other 3rd or 4th graders had seen all the movies, whether age appropriate or not. A few had even tackled the book series. I was skeptical that children of that age could grasp either at all, much less it being appropriate for them.
It was after my husband gave me the series in hardback for Christmas that same year that I reconsidered reading them with Adam. It was under the condition that we would read them together that I said I would allow him to begin the series after his 9th birthday.
From the earliest days of his life, I had always read with Adam. We tackled the Ready Freddy series in first and second grade and read all the Magic Tree House books by the end of the summer before fourth grade. Reading chapter books together was not a new concept for us. However, tackling a series of this magnitude was definitely new. With the first two books being over 300 pages each, even the shortest of them could not be considered short. "One page at a time. One book at a time" that was my motto. The thought of tackling all 7 books sounded overwhelming by any one's standards.
Initially, Adam would read one or two pages to every 5 or 6 pages that I read. Because, let's face it, if we tried to read page for page together, we would have never have even finished one book, let alone a series. Sometimes I felt like I should have been given a sainthood status. It took an incredible amount of patience to sit through Adam's reading when we first began. Nothing will test your reading ability as reading out loud. That is true for children and adults alike. In fact, I have new found respect for people who make their living narrating books on tape. Over time, Adam has really come a long way with reading to me and he's really grown in that department. Even his teacher noticed a marked improvement in his reading/comprehension scores once we began the HP series. Now for every two pages Adam reads, I read about 4.
Taking into consideration that we, on average, read together about every other day for 30 minutes, it has taken us about 18 months to read through the first five and 1/3 books. Currently, we are two hundred pages into Half-Blood Prince, which is relatively short at 650 pages. Short? Sounds ironic, doesn't it. Yes, compared to book five "Order of the Phoenix", which is 870 pages, this one feels absolutely breezy in length. Crazy. Anyhoo....
Most of the time when I tell fellow Christians that I read this series with Adam, it is met with a little--and sometimes a lot--of criticism, which is actually the point of this blog, although I took a long time to get here. Are there series that are better suited for us to read together? Most definitely. But the fact that I have a preteen son who still wants to engage with me is more important to me than wanting to be 'politically' correct in our book choices. The simple fact is that while this book is filled with dark versus good, witchcraft and wizardry, it is also filled with friendship and love prevailing over all. In third grade Adam 'lost' his love of independent reading. If I can find a series where he feels engaged and excited by reading, then I am all for it.
As a mom, much less a devoted follower of Christ, it would be irresponsible of me to allow him to read this series unsupervised. Even if he would be able to understand it without help (which he cannot --even though he is almost 11), we need to discuss what we are reading and what it means. I can bring God and Christ into this book series, even if JK Rowling doesn't. The fact is that most of the people who feel strongly against HP have no experience with the series, either book or movie. I don't mind someone having an difference of opinion of it as me if they read it for themselves and deemed it inappropriate. What I don't like is the hypocrisy of judging something by what media, the church, or 'others' have told them rather than experiential knowledge.
In addition to challenging Adam's reading and comprehension levels, I've noticed some other great benefits. We can talk about parseltongue, Erisad, Salazar Slytherin.....anything Harry Potter, and it opens the door to talk about other great topics. Frankly, if my son is talking to me as a pre-teen, maybe I can keep that open line of communication into those rough teen years. Is it guaranteed? Of course not. But at least he is learning that his mom is relevant in his life and is hip to what he likes and doesn't like. After reading all these books together, we are already thinking ahead to what happens when it's over. We are comtemplating our options as our next book series together. It's nice to know that he appreciates this time with me, too.
No matter what opposition or judgement I face by the masses, I don't now regret, nor ever will I regret, this special time I've had with my son. I hope it's actually just the start of many more series together.
Publicly declaring my dislike for all things Harry Potter (and science fiction), a friend encouraged me to read the first book. He said that it's not science fiction, but rather, fantasy. Since summer was approaching and I knew I would have the extra time, I decided 'what the heck' and began the series. I had spent a lot of time bashing a series I really knew nothing about, except for the movie promos.
Nearly 4 months and 4,000 pages later, I was a believer. I loved the series. Loved, Loved, Loved. As a reward for finishing each book, I watched the corresponding movie. During these four months (May to August), my then 8 year old son would ask if he could read the series or watch the movies with me. At 8, I thought he was too young to do either. Other 3rd or 4th graders had seen all the movies, whether age appropriate or not. A few had even tackled the book series. I was skeptical that children of that age could grasp either at all, much less it being appropriate for them.
It was after my husband gave me the series in hardback for Christmas that same year that I reconsidered reading them with Adam. It was under the condition that we would read them together that I said I would allow him to begin the series after his 9th birthday.
From the earliest days of his life, I had always read with Adam. We tackled the Ready Freddy series in first and second grade and read all the Magic Tree House books by the end of the summer before fourth grade. Reading chapter books together was not a new concept for us. However, tackling a series of this magnitude was definitely new. With the first two books being over 300 pages each, even the shortest of them could not be considered short. "One page at a time. One book at a time" that was my motto. The thought of tackling all 7 books sounded overwhelming by any one's standards.
Initially, Adam would read one or two pages to every 5 or 6 pages that I read. Because, let's face it, if we tried to read page for page together, we would have never have even finished one book, let alone a series. Sometimes I felt like I should have been given a sainthood status. It took an incredible amount of patience to sit through Adam's reading when we first began. Nothing will test your reading ability as reading out loud. That is true for children and adults alike. In fact, I have new found respect for people who make their living narrating books on tape. Over time, Adam has really come a long way with reading to me and he's really grown in that department. Even his teacher noticed a marked improvement in his reading/comprehension scores once we began the HP series. Now for every two pages Adam reads, I read about 4.
Taking into consideration that we, on average, read together about every other day for 30 minutes, it has taken us about 18 months to read through the first five and 1/3 books. Currently, we are two hundred pages into Half-Blood Prince, which is relatively short at 650 pages. Short? Sounds ironic, doesn't it. Yes, compared to book five "Order of the Phoenix", which is 870 pages, this one feels absolutely breezy in length. Crazy. Anyhoo....
Most of the time when I tell fellow Christians that I read this series with Adam, it is met with a little--and sometimes a lot--of criticism, which is actually the point of this blog, although I took a long time to get here. Are there series that are better suited for us to read together? Most definitely. But the fact that I have a preteen son who still wants to engage with me is more important to me than wanting to be 'politically' correct in our book choices. The simple fact is that while this book is filled with dark versus good, witchcraft and wizardry, it is also filled with friendship and love prevailing over all. In third grade Adam 'lost' his love of independent reading. If I can find a series where he feels engaged and excited by reading, then I am all for it.
As a mom, much less a devoted follower of Christ, it would be irresponsible of me to allow him to read this series unsupervised. Even if he would be able to understand it without help (which he cannot --even though he is almost 11), we need to discuss what we are reading and what it means. I can bring God and Christ into this book series, even if JK Rowling doesn't. The fact is that most of the people who feel strongly against HP have no experience with the series, either book or movie. I don't mind someone having an difference of opinion of it as me if they read it for themselves and deemed it inappropriate. What I don't like is the hypocrisy of judging something by what media, the church, or 'others' have told them rather than experiential knowledge.
In addition to challenging Adam's reading and comprehension levels, I've noticed some other great benefits. We can talk about parseltongue, Erisad, Salazar Slytherin.....anything Harry Potter, and it opens the door to talk about other great topics. Frankly, if my son is talking to me as a pre-teen, maybe I can keep that open line of communication into those rough teen years. Is it guaranteed? Of course not. But at least he is learning that his mom is relevant in his life and is hip to what he likes and doesn't like. After reading all these books together, we are already thinking ahead to what happens when it's over. We are comtemplating our options as our next book series together. It's nice to know that he appreciates this time with me, too.
No matter what opposition or judgement I face by the masses, I don't now regret, nor ever will I regret, this special time I've had with my son. I hope it's actually just the start of many more series together.
Nice Bonnie! I enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteMy sister just returned from The Harry Potter World in Orlando and I am now a proud owner of my very own time turner keychain. Needless to say, I adore HP, along with my kiddos, husband and family. Kimmy and I read the first book together after seeing the first movie when it came to the theaters. Only she was just five, so we only made it through the first book as the next one was a bit scary for her. I, however, was forced to read on as I was hooked. She eventually read them on her own from about 4th grade on. Yes there are witches as such but it is really just another good versus evil with good winning. It doesn't hurt that the writing is superb. We are all looking forward to the final movie. Nice reflection Bonnie.
ReplyDeleteWe received the first Harry Potter book a few years ago. I think by next year Seth will be reading them and will be hooked. (But for now its stuff lke Magic Treehouse.) :-)
ReplyDeleteBonnie, I wish we lived closer together as I am sure we would have a close friendship. We both are very much alike and have similar tastes. I took my son to see the HP movie when it came out because his friends were really into it. I was not sure it was appropriate and he was older than Adam at the time, but I went along. We loved the movie and read the first and second book together and much like you did with Adam. After the second book we read on our own and discussed where we were in the book, etc. I think that for book four he got the book on tape and read and followed along or just played the tape as he fell asleep. I had all books on my iphone a few years ago and would listen when driving. I love HP, but the best is the memories I made with Wesley when we read them together and he was always my date for the movies.
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