Whilst at a book club meeting the other day we started talking about books that people were reading and someone mentioned that they had just started the Harry Potter series.
Instantly the club was split and I realised that, as adults, you will almost certainly fall into one of three main camps;
- You never have, and never will, read any of the Harry Potter books.
- The series is one of your all time favourites,
- These are "kids books" and, as an adult, you have no place reading them.
Now those of you who have read several of my blog posts may know where I sit in the above spectrum but the honest answer is I don't really know who these books are aimed at!
Certainly you would imagine, prima facie (a posh Latin phrase meaning "at first instance") that a series of books involving someone at school able to do magic must be aimed at children - before reading the books this was what I personally had thought.
I had never thought of reading any of the books until I saw the first film, Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone (or the Sorcerers Stone if you are American) on TV one grey and dreary Saturday
This happended to conincide with the release of the fourth book in the series, The Goblet of Fire, which my Mum got for me as a surprise birthday present. At first I was really unsure about reading it however I soon found that my now wife was ignored as a read the book in under two days - not bad for a 640 page book whilst working!
After this I was hooked and read each book in the series, in order, from cover to cover! This is the one of only two series of books where I have managed to do this as I normally get a little bored half way through a series and so need to read something different to 'recharge my batteries' before coming back and finishing off the series.
Ok, so the content of the books is meant to be for children??? Let me draw your attention to a few brief, if somewhat edited summaries of the salient (or key) plot lines from each book;
- The Philosopher's Stone - a dead wizard possesses another person and attaches their face to the back of said persons head before torturing a young boy.
- The Chamber of Secrets - a strange force, that turns out to be a giant snake, or basilisk, truns children to stone or kills them with no warning whatsoever, and the spirit of a dead person possesses a young girl.
- The Prisoner of Askaban - a convicted mass murderer esacpes from pirson and stalks a young boy (Harry Potter) at school, attacking people/paintings in the process. Lets not forget the werewolf.
- The Goblet of Fire - a competition is rigged in such a way that two school boys are kidnapped and taken to a grave yard where an evil man cuts one of the boys to bring a 'dead' man back to life. A vicious fight ensues in which one of the boys is murdered and the other barely escapes with his life!.
- The Order of the Phoenix - ok so this has a teacher the kids love to hate which makes it a kids book - right? But then again the teacher issues detentions that lead to the students writing lines using their own blood, invisible animals seen only by people who have witnessed death, and a group of children subjected to torture before fighting adults intent on inflicting as much pain as possible.
- The Half Blood Prince - our hero uses a book that ends up with him, unknowingly, attacking another boy and leaving him bleeding on the floor. Various attempts at murder ensure before a battle in which someone is bitten by a werewolf and one of the main 'goodies' gets murdered in cold blood.
- The Deathly Hallows - we have to work through a child being attached in various ways whilst one of his friends is tortured, another friend (if you can call Dobby the house elf a friend) is killed, and then the hero himself choosing death to be reborn and kill the main 'baddie' ("He who must not be named" / Voldemort) in the final showdown.
I will freely admit that the above is a very brief, and therefore somewhat biased, summary of the plot of each film. That said I think it highlights the fact that the story lines, when explained a certain way, appear far from 'childish'.
At the start of this post I included two pictures of the UK covers of the fist book. One is the 'children's' cover and the other is the 'adult' one. Other than the picture on the front the two versions are the same. This is true for each book in the series.
They tell the same story, in the same number of pages, using the same words. For me, this says a lot about the author, and publishers, views on the books. Namely that they are aimed at both adults and children alike.
On a simple, basic level, the books will appeal to children as they will be able to identify with Harry Potter - the oddball who never really fitted in before yet makes some great friends who help him stand up to the various bullies and evil teaches (and other adults) that the books introduce.
If you delve deeper into the books though you find themes of a far more adult nature, including love, friendship, and the ever present battle of good versus evil. Indeed good versus evil gets quite involved as you work through the series.
You see, each character has their good and bad sides (just as we do in real life). I spent most of the series hating Professor Snape, only to finish it thinking that he as one of the best and bravest characters of them all.
In contrast, I started off hating Sirious Black for the mass murderer that he was, only to find that he was nothing of the sort before identifying with him as a lost, and somewhat misunderstood, soul.
This is before you deal with Harry's link to Voldemort, the Malfoy family's change of heart, Ginny Weaseley being possessed by Voldemort, and the (frankly stunning) revelations that Professor Dumbeledore was not quite the goody-too-shoes that we were led to believe.
Into the above mix you can add dragons, werewolves, goblins, giants, merpeople, centaurs and a whole lot more. Some of these you may expect in a children's story and others in a horror movie.
For me the simple fact that each book came with both an adult and children's cover says it all - the books are aimed at both age ranges. In my opinion, the only thing that will stop you enjoying these books is your own preconceptions!
All of the above is simply my own personal opinion. One thing I have really enjoyed in being part of a book club (where a debate encouraged me to write this blog post) is having my views challenged and being made to look at things in a different way so please feel free to share your thoughts!
If you haven't read any of the Harry Potter books yet than I would ask you to set your preconceptions aside and give them a go then tell me what you think! I have included links to each of the books in the series below to help you look into them a little more before you take the plunge or to reintroduce you to some old friends as the case may be.
Thanks,
Craig.
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