There's nothing fun about the aging process. The belly sags. The memory goes
bad.
But no amount of gray hair need end the pleasure of reading children's books.
Stories aimed for young readers are often guileless, seeking fun for fun's sake.
Yet they can be just as witty, suspenseful and thought-provoking as adult reads,
minus the angst.
Case in point: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J.K. Rowling.
The book, released stateside last month, was a huge hit when issued last year in
the United Kingdom, topping the adult best seller list as well as the kids'. The
sequel, already released in England, leaped to the top of the adult hardcover
best seller lists.
Part of the attention has focused on author J.K. Rowling, a struggling single
mom living on the dole, who scribbled the manuscript at an Edinburgh café.
Rowling's rags-to-riches story is much like the central tale of Harry
Potter: An orphaned baby, Potter is taken in by an odious aunt and uncle
and spends his childhood trying to escape the fat fists of his spoiled cousin
Dudley. His only solace comes from escaping to his room, a cramped cupboard
under the stairs.
But then a wondrous thing happens, as they are wont to do in books about
sorcerers. On Harry's 11th birthday, he receives a letter announcing his
acceptance to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, the best school
for young witches and wizards in all the land. It seems Harry's real parents
were prominent spellcasters killed by their rival, the evil wizard Voldemort.
So off Harry goes, departing through an invisible platform at King's Cross
station to arrive at Hogwarts, where he commences studies in Potions, Spells and
Defense Against the Dark Arts, all guaranteed to graduate first-rate wizards.
Here, Harry Potter takes on the tones of a much-loved fiction genre,
the British boys' school reminiscence. Classics such as Kingsley Amis' Lucky
Jim and James Hilton's Goodbye, Mr. Chips come to mind. The only
difference: the professors in Harry Potter are magicians, not Oxford
dons.
At Hogwarts, Harry throws himself into the school experience, making friends,
rooting for his "house," pulling pranks, avoiding studying at all
cost.
Given that he's a student wizard, he also hatches a dragon, evades the resident
poltergeist and learns to ride a broom. He even becomes a star player at
Quidditch, a popular game, sort of like soccer played high up in the air on
broomsticks.
But he also encounters evil professor Snape, who Harry and his friends fear has
the most wicked of intentions — to steal the sorcerer's stone, which promises
eternal life.
Harry Potter also has echoes of children's classics Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory and C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. With the
help of a noble if nitwitted giant, a few inept but big-hearted student
magicians, even a concerned if somewhat distant centaur, Harry takes on powers
bigger and stronger than him, growing older and wiser in the process. You don't
have to be a wizard or a kid to appreciate the spell cast by Harry Potter.
By Cathy Hainer, USA TODAY
Cathy Hainer, a staff reporter for USA TODAY, is also a lifelong fan of
kids' books.