Harry Potter Hype

I won't lie and say that I was excited to blog about Harry Potter. When the books came out I read and enjoyed them. I tried to keep up but the third book was actually the last one I read. My mom continued to make an event out of each new book release, standing in line at midnight at the Barns and Noble to buy each new one. But something about the fourth book, I can't really recall what it was exactly, turned me off to the series. Then the movies started...and I was done. Those first two really didn't look like the world of Harry looked in my head. While I appreciate what J.K. Rowling has painted for me, my mother, and my niece and nephew, I'm way over the Harry hype.

I just needed that off my chest.

So, I've decided to blog about what I appreciated about Harry Potter this go round:

1. character- Rowling is always introducing interesting characters, my favorites in this book are Aunt Marge, mostly due to the way Rowling describes her as looking like Harry's Uncle Vernon-fat with a mustache, and Professor Trelawney who is described as, "a large glittering insect." Rowling's characters are extreme caricatures with hilariously fitting names.
2. Names of persons, places, things. "The Knight Bus," "Dementors," "Levitating Sherbet Balls,"Buckbeat."
3. Honeydukes and everything described inside of it.
4. The Weasley family-each of their specific personalities and their relationships with one another as well as with Harry.

To me, what makes this book better than The Wizard of Earthsea, is the world Rowling has created. It's full of cleaver details all of which enchant children and adults alike. Each time Hogwarts main dining hall is described, I feel inspired to host a huge party with floating candles. I need those floating candles!!! Le Guin's overall tone seems very solemn and serious compared to that of Harry Potter. After refreshing my Harry knowledge, Earthsea seems dull, lonely and far less magical than the Harry world. That being said, Le Guin's messages ring loud and clear at the end of the book, whereas Rowling seems to be more concerned with creating adventure for her readers. I put done the Earthsea book with a full understanding of the argument Le Guin was making, appreciating the moral of the story and understanding it's merit for children. I put down Harry Potter and immediately want to eat sherbet and play make-belive. I'm not too happy with the primary world and am grabbing my wand and heading back to a secondary one.

This makes me realize that as an adult reader, I can push through Earthsea and easily find something meaningful. But after our discussion with Sarah, it was apparent that children may not make those connections based on their dissatisfaction with the secondary world presented. Harry Potter, on the other hand, gives children a wonderfully imaginative and creative world that they are continusly drawn back into. The themes are more easily understood and more reading is encouraged.

So I'll back off on the Harry Hype.

Book Bloggin'

Hello Children's Lit class. Welcome! I'm excited to jump into the imaginative world of children's books. I've read several of the books on our reading list but not since I've stopped frequenting the children's section of libraries and bookstores.

I'm wondering what I thought of the books back then when I read them for the first time. I've been flipping though Pipi Longstocking and I'm shocked that I wasn't as pumped about the story as I am now. I love her imagination and her quirkiness. I love how she can beat up police officers. But I can't remember feeling that sort of satisfaction from the book when I read it as a kid.

I think my favorite children's books used to be the Babysitters Club books. I found something exciting about visiting a world where older girls dealt with things like boys, school, friendships, their parents, and their babysitting jobs. I couldn't wait to be a big girl. I never got into babysitting though and my hunger for books about things that I was still too young to experience stayed with me.