Re: Harry Potter Objections

[Judy Crocker <drummer@rt66.com>]

1 August

Dear Netters,

I'm loving Harry Potter, but it's easy to see where there may be
objections.  In a community where even the Narnia Chronicles aren't
acceptable, Harry may be a lost cause.  However, it seems important to
me that Harry is doing his darndest to fight evil, and that at the end
of the first book, all I've read so far, Harry and his friends have done
a good job of it.  Remember, too, that Harry's parents were killed
protecting him from the sorcerer. The emphasis of good overcoming evil
should be reassuring to some critics.

We all know that there are parents and private schools for whom this is
not enough.  We will not change their beliefs.  In a church school where
they would be acceptable, the books would make a good starting point for
discussing denominational beliefs and learning to live with St. Paul's
admonition to be "in the world, but not of it". Parents might also want
to read the books so they can talk with their children about their own
beliefs.

It's already hard to help our readers recognize the differences between
fiction and real life.  It's going to be even harder to convince people
that reading about something and doing it are two different things.

Judy Crocker
Chamisa Elementary Library
301 Meadow Lane
Los Alamos, NM  87544
drummer@rt66.com

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