If Shirley Temple is credited with saving Fox Studios, perhaps history will credit Harry Potter with saving the publishing industry.

(Ha! The publishing industry is a multi-billion dollar beast, but you have to admit that's a great opening line so I'm sticking with it anyway. )

It can't be denied that Harry Potter has increased a thirst for reading in our generation. I'm a book addict--have been since I could read. Most people I associate with are book addicts. But these books have helped ordinary people become story junkies too. A good thing for writers.

Think of the earnings bookstores have made because of this series alone. Recently, I saw an article asking, what will happen to bookstores when there are no more Harry Potter releases.

The impact of these novels has been huge. In 1999 libraries had waiting lists to check out these books—one waiting list was 730 children strong.

An old article by Publisher's Weekly said this "With 800,000 copies in print and 30 weeks spent on the New York Times bestseller list, the first title, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, published in the U.S. in September 1998, is nothing less than a phenomenon."

Oh, how right they were.

As I read the series, I read it with varied thoughts.

What makes these books so successful?
How dangerous are these books, really?
What storytelling magic does J.K. Rowling possess that I can glean from her?
How did this novel go being jotted in a coffee shop to the top of the world?

The Harry Potter books are very encouraging to an aspiring writer. While many boo-hoo writers, giving us the dreary facts—only %1 of fiction writers actually make enough money to live on . . etc, etc, . . . this series of books stands out. Story is still King.

What on earth makes these novels such a success? I'll offer my opinion, for what it's worth.

In order to dissect this series, one needs to know the story

**Warning, Spoilers Ahead***

The novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, begins with Harry's un-magical uncle (Mr. Dursley) having a most unusual day. There's a strange cat watching his house. Owls are swooping all over London in daylight, and there are folks walking about in robes and wizard hats congratulating each other, scarcely able to contain their joy. Even more disconcerting is that fact Dursley has heard the name "Potter" whispered.

The Potters are rather an embarrassment to that side of the family. They've excommunicated the Potters. A witch and a wizard in the family! Most embarrassing. So disconcerting in fact, the Dursleys have never even met their nephew Harry.

The Dursleys, however, are about to have an unpleasant surprise.

In the magical community, an astonishing event just happened. It's why the wizards and witches, who normally make an effort not to stand out, are rejoicing in public. The dark wizard Voldemort was defeated when he tried to kill 1-year-old Harry Potter (after killing Harry's parents.)

No one knows why Harry survived the attacked. The curse that should have killed Harry only left a scar—one that resembles lightning—on his forehead. And before he's old enough to talk, Harry Potter has become famous in the wizarding community. He's defeated the powerful dark lord, but now Harry now must also go live with Muggles (non-magical people)—the Dursleys.

"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written a letter."

"A letter?" repeated Professor McGongall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous—a legend—I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future—there will be books written about Harry—every child in our world will know his name!"

"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"

So Harry Potter spends the next ten years of his life under horrible circumstances. He lives under a staircase and is rarely fed enough, while his cousin is spoiled and petted. Harry's only clothing are hand-me-downs. He never receives birthday or Christmas presents. He's blamed for anything that goes wrong in the Dursley's household. (And interestingly enough, strange things do happen to him, like being able to talk to snakes.)

Then one day, he received a letter which his uncle refuses to allow Harry to read. The next day, Harry receives two, then three. Then floods of letters are coming down chimneys and following him wherever the Dursleys take him. Harry is desperate to read the letter, but the Dursleys are equally desperate to keep him from learning what they say.

Finally, at midnight on Harry's eleventh birthday, the door is pounded down and Hagrid, the gigantic groundskeeper of Hogwarts (school of wizardry) enters. The letters are Harry's acceptance into this school.

Harry learns that he's a wizard, and not just any wizard, a famous one. He's been invited to come learn magic at Hogwarts—a school he's been on the waiting list for since birth. He learns about the magical community, which he's been a part of but never knew.


Harry discovers there are streets in London that only magical people can access—wandshops, stores for potion supplies, broomsticks, cauldrons etc,. There are trolls and dragons guarding the only bank in the wizarding world. And Harry has quite a fortune left to him from his parents.

Uncertain and unsure of himself, Harry makes his way to Hogswarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. On his very first day to school, on the train platform, he meets the Weasleys—a wizarding family, who show him how to cross from our world to the wizarding world so Harry can board the train.

The Weasleys are very poor and every one of them is red-headed. Ron, the youngest son, becomes Harry's best friend. He's described as being overly tall and shabby.

On the train, Harry meets Hermione (her-my-oh-knee) an exceedingly smart, muggle-born girl, who has just discovered she's a witch and is riding to Hogswart too. She's described as having bushy hair and buckteeth.


Hogswarts School is a fabulous invention of J.K. Rowlings. She's obviously imaginative, but her creation of the school is one of her strongest points. She manages to make the reader feel that just being at this school is dangerous (plants that can kill students, forests with werewolves, or corridors that lead to painful and certain death) yet Hogwarts castle is homey too:

• Feasts in a large hall with an enchanted ceiling that look like the sky
• The "people" inside portraits and pictures frequently leave their picture to go visit other pictures
• Ghosts float about making the students feel like they've been through a drenching, cold shower every time they pass through them—and indeed, these ghosts are also main characters
• Staircases that move
• Chess pieces that argue with students during the game
• Classes can be in towers or dungeons
• Dormitories are in turrets with four poster beds

There are four house in Hogswarts: Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. The house that students are placed in becomes their "family" at Hogswarts, and indeed a rivalry between the houses exists, particularly between Slytherin and Gryffindor.

Gryffindor is the house of "the brave," where Ron, Harry and Hermione are placed.

Dark wizards most often come from Slytherin, and that's the house where one of Harry's antagonists resides—Draco Malfoy.

Professor Snape is head of the Slytherin house, and makes it a point to be snide with Harry and embarrass him.

While at school, Harry turns out to be a natural on a broomstick, and becomes a seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team—the equivalent of becoming the star quarterback on the high school football team during your freshman year.

There's also a mystery that Ron, Harry and Hermione stumble into. The school's headmaster is guarding something dangerous and secret in the castle. They want to know what, and spend their first year at Hogwarts trying to solve that mystery.

In Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone, Harry goes from abused-obscurity into instant-celebrity, but not without the awkwardness of youth.

By the end of the novel, Harry once again meets the dark wizard he defeated as a baby.

Catch any recipes for success?

Here are some thoughts:

1.) It's easy for people, particularly children, to relate to someone thrown into a situation they haven't learned the skills to handle yet. (Harry entering the school when he's known no magic but the others have)

2.) J.K. Rowling appeals to those who secretly wish to be important by giving them a story of someone who never felt important being paramount in an alternate universe. Let's face it, that storyline appeals to us.

3.) I LOVE how Rowling shatters the theory that the protagonist must be popular and likeable, because "that is how people like to picture themselves, so that is what they want to read."

I've always thought that the WORST writing advice I've come across. Harry is a skinny and awkward youth. Ron is shabby and gangly, and Hermione has problems making friends because she is an insufferable know-it-all. If you consider the percentage of kids who feel "popular," verses the number of kids who feel awkward—you'll see that J.K. Rowling has actually written this book for a much broader audience.

5.) There is not "one" antagonist against Harry. There are multiple ones. The Durselys, Snape, Draco, and most importantly Lord Voldemort.

6.) The castle in and of itself is interesting enough to read about, so on top of characters that suit our secret fears and desires, Rowling has an amazing backdrop.

7.) There's a mystery and always an element of suspense

8.) The story has "deeper" feel to it, because Rowling also writes about classes and homework and essays among the mystery of learning what's being guarded at the castle. She knows exactly where to draw the line between "write only what propels the story forward" and what she can get away with that gives the story 'the feel' it needs.

8.) While Rolwing's craft in book one isn't nearly as developed as it is in book four, she's a natural born storyteller. Personally, I think this is the most important quality a novelist can possess. It's instinct. It's being able to pull a reader along, even if you can't pinpoint why you want to keep reading.

Okay, I'll have to stop here, because seriously, that's all the time I have to write today.