Many, many bloggers this week have discussed their love for Harry Potter and how much he means to them. Like everyone else he means a lot to me as well. But what I am most sad about is that my kids will not have the experience that I had with Harry Potter. They will not get to go to a midnight release and wait in line for their copy. They will not stay up even later to start the book because they just can't wait.
This group of children might not even pick up the books because they will have seen the movie. They will not eagerly read to find out what happens to Harry because they will already know! They will know who dies in the last battle. They will not have the motivation to pick up the books because of the movies!
The movies are wonderful, don't get me wrong, but it's hard to motivate a kid to pick up the books when they already know how it all ends!
These books did make readers out of a whole generation of children! But, they are not maintaining that because of the movies, and that makes me sad. When I have kids come into my library looking for a good book I always try to get them to read Harry Potter. No matter how great the movies are there is a reason that these books were the biggest selling books of all time--they are amazing. Well written, amazing characters--a whole world.
Maybe in a few years when the movie fever has died down it will be easier to get kids to pick up the books again, but I worry we've lost a big chunk of readers...hopefully not.
At any rate, my sons and I will be at the movie today at 1:00 waiting to see it all come to life on the big screen!
Aw, I didn't think about that. Hopefully kids will still want to read the books.
ReplyDeleteI think in a few years there will be renewed interest in the books. I have just found that the more avid the reader, the easy it is to get them to try the books. In my librarian experience, they're just not capturing the reluctant reader like they did when they first came out.
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