In 2001 when the first Harry Potter movie came out I thought I was going to go crazy from hearing about it all the time.  The media was constantly talking about it on the radio, the television and there were posters and ads for it everywhere.  I was so tired of the name Harry Potter that I actually started to criticize it without having seen the movie or even reading the book.

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (The second in the series of seven)

Then one day I saw someone on television talking about the fact that they wanted to actually ban this book from schools.  I had to listen in and find out why.  This woman was absolutely convinced that this book was going to turn children away from being Christian and turn them into devil worshippers!  This really concerned me a lot.  I thought that either this woman was totally crazy or she could be right.  After all, I had no idea what the book or movie was even about except that there was a young boy with goofy glasses and a magic wand involved.
Here you can watch the trailer for the first movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

It was right then that I decided to stop making fun of this sensation and find out for myself what it was all about.  I got the book and read it from cover to cover as quick as I could.  The book was wonderful!  The woman on the tv was actually crazy, she must have been!  There was not one word of devil worship mentioned.  I don’t know where she got her ideas from, but she totally wrong!  The book is all about an eleven year old boy who was orphaned at an early age and had to go and live with his aunt and uncle who did not like him and treated him very poorly.  On his eleventh birthday he finds out that he is actually a wizard and must go away to school at a place called Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  

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(JK Rowling, author of Harry Potter)

From that point on the book gets more and more interesting.  He makes lifelong friends, as well as a few enemies but not of his own doing.  He finds out that the person responsible for the death of his parents is also after him and so the story continues on into the next books and movies.  My children and I have all read the books and seen the movies that are out so far.  We are waiting impatiently for the next movie to come out this month.  If you have never seen or read anything about Harry Potter, you really should give it a chance.  No more will I ever make fun of something that I know nothing about.  I was so wrong and I am grateful to JK Rowling for writing her books and also that crazy lady that was being interviewed on t.v. because if it hadn’t been for her, I might never had read or watched Harry Potter at all.

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Fans waiting for their copy of Harry Potter 6 (The Half-Blood Prince)