I had the pleasure of running into a young man yesterday who opened a door for me at the recreation center. Of course I recognized at once that he had put down his Harry Potter book to do so. I pounced on that. "So is that the fourth or sixth book you are reading?" (The cover was green - I know my Potter books!)
"It's the sixth one." He replied with a shy smile as if he couldn't believe a woman who was using a cane could know anything about a Harry Potter book!
"Oh ... well ... has Harry started his lessons with Dumbledore yet? " I asked, hoping I had regained my credibility.
This time he had a genuine smile. "Yeah."
"Well enjoy the book!"
I was out the door but his mother, finding out from the secretary that I was a writer, ran out after me. She turned to her boy and said "This lady is a writer!" Then his Mother turned to me and said."You know he's only 10 but he's read all of them up to this one! He never liked reading until he began reading the Potter books." She tousled his hair and they both had very proud looks on their faces.
That made my heart sing as I've heard that more than once about JK Rowling's Potter saga. And anything that makes more readers has to be a good thing. I saw my chance to talk about the opening of PotterMore next month and how The Leaky Cauldron would have a Reading Group open to make the journey through PotterMore even more fun. I told them about dueling and making potions and invited them to join the fun.
The mother thanked me and then said, "You know, I've been thinking about reading the Potter books myself!"
Ah, I loved that response! "Oh you really should! They are for all ages. It's just great literature."
I wondered later if that mom would take the plunge to read " a children's series." I truly hope so because reading good literature is just too much of a kick! Besides good readers make good book buyers!
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