Reading does not necessarily refer to the text within the book but encompasses the cover, outer illustrations, and inner illustrations. J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter is a long standing series with seven books that have begun in the childhood of many and concluded once they have reached adulthood. The series does not appeal to a specific generation, but to a wide spectrum. There are different copies of the series that appeal to an audience of children and adults. The book covers are “characterized towards the ‘implied reader’, and predispose them to the books and the books for the reader.” (Gupta, p. 5) Children are more inclined to read books with illustration that interests them. According to David Lewis here is a relationship between the “interactive participants and the represented participants through these illustrations, where the represented illustrates pictures for specific interactive participants.” (Lewis, p. 155) These illustrations set the beginnings of the children’s imaginations while reading the Harry Potter series. Reading at different ages can generate “different experiences, but ultimately it becomes a craving for interactions that are not supplied by our world and ideas of fantasy.” (Birkerts, p. 5) Children tend to read beyond the text and set ideas in their minds for they have experienced this notion of reading at an early age. According to Wendy Griswold, Terry McDonnell and Nathan Wright, “two thirds of Americans report that they started reading by age seven and parents read to their children even during their first year of life.” (p. 129) Children are exposed to reading whether directly or indirectly at a young age and, in conjunction, form an imagination as well. This flourishing imagination created a “sense of disapproval through the idea that fictional works stimulated the imagination, and could lead to all kinds of dangers.” (Willes, p. 136) Children understand the ideas that they know and connect them through a book like Harry Potter. This would certainly allow them to connect with the themes. Students will be able to write about the “deeper meanings and themes, think through issues, and develop understanding.” (Beaton, p. 101) The books not only rely on the surrealism of magic but also the real issues that children experience. The Harry Potter books bring out the “inner child who mixes the magical world with reality, through themes such as alienation from the inner circle or notions of social class.” (Radigan, p. 694) There is a larger perspective as to what is “considered to be “children’s literature”, which is a term that can be used to perpetuate the ‘standardization of children.’” (Gupta, p. 46) Not all children are the same therefore not all students are the same. The classroom discussions and the creative writing projects allowed the students to “examine events in the novel and connect them to their histories and experiences.” (Beaton, p. 103) Although there is not one type of child, they all go through some of the same experiences such as, friendship and feeling isolated or misunderstood. (Radigan, p. 694) Reading, in itself, is an experience for children. It is an “evolutionary process that is closely tied to the deepening of awareness, practical knowledge, and social sophistication.” (Birkerts, p. 7) Harry Potter contains themes that can appeal to any age. It can be taught to children of young ages and allow them to learn deeper themes through connections made to their own lives. The series became popular, in part, “from the fidelity with which the stories speak to the dynamic and unconscious conflicts, fears, and wishes” (Damour, p. 15) of the children reading it. Series such as Harry Potter relate to this notion of a carnival theory. A theory where children, in reality, are oppressed and powerless but experience an opposite effect while immersing themselves in books and experiencing a strong and brave character, even for a limited time. (Heilman, p. 227) J.K. Rowling “emphasizes the pre-eminence of the imagination of childhood and the need for children to question and dream.” (Whited, p. 127) Harry Potter allows the active imagination of children to grow and become interactive with the represented participants.
References Cited
Anatol, Giselle Liza. Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.
Beaton, Tisha. “Taking Time: Harry Potter as a Context for Interdisciplinary Studies.” The English Journal 95.3 (2006): 100-03. JSTOR. <http://www.jstor.org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/stable/30047053>.
Birkerts, Sven. Reading Life: Books for the Ages. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf, 2007.
Griswold, Wendy, Terry McDonnell, and Nathan Wright. “Reading and the Reading Class in the Twenty-First Century.” Annual Review of Sociology 31 (2005): 127-41. JSTOR. <http://www.jstor.org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/stable/29737714>.
Gupta, Suman. Re-reading Harry Potter. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Heilman, Elizabeth E. Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter. New York: Routledge, 2009.
Lewis, David. Reading Contemporary Picturebooks: Picturing Text. London: Routledge Falmer, 2001.
Radigan, Winifred M. “Connecting the Generations: Memory, Magic, and Harry Potter.”Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 44.8 (2001): 694. JSTOR. <http://www.jstor.org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/stable/40018741>.
Whited, Lana A. The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2002.
Willes, Margaret. Reading Matters: Five Centuries of Discovering Books. New Haven: Yale UP, 2008.