User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-3326177-20110713133637

I love Harry Potter. I can still remember when the first book came out and my kids' elementary school was debating whether or not to ban it. I decided to read it so I could make an informed decision about how I felt. All I can say is WOW! I was enthralled from the very beginning. This was more than Cinderella having a terrible life until the prince and her fairy godmother saved her. That story ENDED with a vague "and they lived happily ever after". Harry Potter, on the other hand, STARTS with the happily ever after, and it's a wonderful happily every after that my imagination could never have dreamed of. What child, at one time or another, hasn't wanted to be able to fly? How often have we wished that there was somebody we could count on to always be on our side, like Hagrid was for Harry? And best friends who we can trust and who trust us implicitly, like Ron and Hermione?

Harry Potter also wasn't just some children's book where all the adults were unobservant idiots and the children merely worked around them while they tried to save the world. The adults were REAL people. Draco might have been a total snot, but he had a mother who adored him and wanted to protect him, as well as an obnoxious, self-important father who is obviously the reason why Draco is the way he is. If I were a child, I would want Mrs. Weasley to be my mom. As a mother myself, I would love to be LIKE her. Even Snape, who was horribly unfair to Harry for most of the books.... we finally learn that he was in love with Harry's mother and that Harry's father had pretty much bullied him as a child (how could they have left this out of the movies?!!). So pretty much, Harry Potter is a world in itself. All the characters are realistic and crisply defined (when I saw photos for the first movie, I easily recognized everyone from the book - even the minor characters!), and the world that Harry lived in was totally defined as well. We've ALL gone clothes shopping and school supply shopping - but when Harry did it, it was so much more fun than when I did it - nobody ever bought ME an owl :-) We've all taken classes - but not the exciting classes Harry gets to take.  We've all gone to sporting events - but none as riveting as Quiddich.

In general, Harry Potter lives in a wonderful world that is so well defined that it feels real while you're reading it. But it's a "real" that is SO much better than anything I'll ever live myself. I totally enjoyed immersing myself into these stories, and my biggest disappointment is that we never got to see graduation at Hogwarts. I watched Harry, Ron, and Hermione grow from awkward, inept children to poised and wonderful adults.... but I don't get to see the end result of all their hard work???