Snape

The other day I talked to my 10-year-old, fifth-grade grandson, Grey, on the phone. I told him that the  New York Times crossword puzzle had the following clue: "Head of Slytherin House"---he immediately said, "That would be Snape." Which, of course, it was.

I gave him, for his 9th Christmas, a little over a year ago, the complete set of Harry Potter books---hardcover, in a special trunk with a latch. Nifty gift, I thought. So did he, because it impressed his friends, but he never opened a single book. He said he preferred non-fiction. So the HP trunk became a piece of furniture in his bedroom.

Then---who knows why?---recently, he started in on the first one....and never looked back. Right now he is middway through Book Four so we had a lengthy phone conversation about HP (which I have never read, so he has to fill me in plot-wise)

Then he turned the telephone over to his younger brother, Rhys, age newly 8, second grade. I asked Rhys what HE is reading.

Goosebumps," he said.

Comments

[Tara]

It took me a while to get into it as well. I had borrowed the first book and it took me about six months to actually read it. Then I was hooked.

[Annie]

Oh, dear. The Goosebumps series will never go away, will it? (Of course, I can't be too hard on Rhys; I read the Baby-Sitters Club books--among others--when I was his age.)

I'm glad that Grey gave Harry Potter a chance. Maybe it'll be his gateway into other fiction.

[sandi]

I picked up Harry Potter for the first time around 2000. I wanted to know what it was about this book that people wanted to ban.
Easiest way to get me to read a book? Try to ban it.

I read the Giver for the first time several years ago after I heard there was controversy around it. (and I still, to this day, can't figure out what the problem is. Everything that's offered up as a problem just seems absurd.)

That trunk is a cool gift. As a Potter fan I am glad he's reading and loving them.

[Richard Hellesen]

Good morning...I don't know why it occurs to me to share this, but...My daughter--who is a lovely college freshman--was introduced to the Potter books by her 3rd grade teacher, who had picked up the first volume in England. That started us all off (though I admit that I'm the only one who hasn't finished the last volume). Anyway: we were talking about this recently, and agreed that though Harry et. al. will endure, the first generation of kids to have read the books had a unique experience: they had to wait for each volume to be written. During that time they discussed, debated, imagined, and in an odd way became even more hooked. Plus, when each volume came out, both the readers and Harry were older and more sophisticated--so the girl who started with the simple first book at, say, 8, grew into the last book at 17. (Book 5 was a bullseye, because both Harry and my daughter were now teenagers...)A different reading experience than being able to devour them all at will....When that generation has children, I wonder if they'll parcel the books out!

[lalowry]

Hi, Richard! Interesting! Your daughter really got the best of the experience, I think! Now that my grandson is hooked, there is no way he will hold off reading the rest until he is the right age! (Whatever the right age might be)

[Kumar]

It's great to hear that the younger generation of children are still discovering Harry Potter. I began the series at age 7 (or seven and a half as I used to insist back then), and followed it through until it ended when I was 14. Harry Potter completely changed my life, from the way I look at things to the way I appreciate books, films, and storytelling in general. It showed me just what you could do with words, and I thought it was wonderful. I guess you could call it my "gateway book", because I was soon reading books like The Lord of the Rings and The Giver.

[o.jimenez]

I love to solve the crosswords when I fly. Despite the cutbacks, the airlines have not discontinued offering their in-flight magazines where I find the puzzles. I must admit that I do "peek" for the answers when the pilot announces "we've started our descent."

I gave my daughter the "Potter trunk" and she was all over the books. She had already read the first three books by borrowing from our library (which I encouraged her to do. I think libraries are just great, and underutilized) The packaging of the books in a cardboard trunk was a clever gimmick, I was sold immediately. My daughter, however, ignored the package and went right for the books, (she also removed the fancy dust jackets, which she says get in the way, they are, after all, just marketing tools!) We went past a display of the "Twilight" series at Borders, talk about marketing!.... she read the first book of the Twilight series (She's influenced by older cousins) and I read it, too... She said three years is too long to wait to read the rest of the series, as I suggested she should, she's 9, though she argues she's almost ten.