Harry Potter

[monkeygirl]

Well, I refused to read it for a long time but when I was finally bullied into it I loved them. Sure, they may not be deserving of all the praise they got... But what it?? And it is great that it's encouraging kids to read decent length books. (Yes, I read a lot, yes, it's personal taste.)

 

Not so fond of the movies, but it's hard to like a movie after the film, particularly if it's aimed at children. Again, personal taste. *shrug*

 

But I do think Lucius was very sexy (in the movie)... mmm... am I sick?

Yes, it's sick, how could you be attracted to someone from Slyther..oh ...you mean he's young.

 

Then yes.

[Drunken Monkey]

But most who read Potter go on and read other books as well

 

well, i think this is where my cynical mind shows up.

 

i'm not entirely convinced that the kids who read harry poter will read other things.

 

i mean, well, i'm not really sure if its the reading that they are interested in or if its just the harry potter 'craze/fad'.

 

after all, when all of your little friends are talking about harry potter, it doesn't 'help' if you mention another book....

 

maybe i should have more faith in the youth of today.

[Red J]

maybe i should have more faith in the youth of today.

 

Yah, you better hope that they learn to read, especially since there the ones that will be taken care of you when you're in the nursing home. Let's see, what did his prescription say?

[Patrick]

Well, let's say they only read Potter. Would you rather have them read Potter or read nothing at all?

[Drunken Monkey]

true....

 

but still, you do understand my worries, right?

[battousai16]

well, as a librarian, i fully agree with drunken monkey. to many kids "just want to read harry potter", and nothing but. my little sister does that quite a bit; in fact, when word of the 4th book spread around, she re-read the first 3 to prep up for it. same with 5. she wants an early start on 6th. she wants to learn spanish now because our aunt bought her a copy in spanish (for some reason i can't even begin to fathom). she reads nothing else. and i've found that that's not exactly a rare thing, it happens all the time. usually, though, you can get a quick fix by recomending a lemony snicket book; they're better written, short, and increase the vocabulary of the little ones. heck, they increased mine too. and harry potter fans will read them. than it's just a matter of time before you can warp them with vonnegut and orwell... hehe, i love being a librarian...

[Red J]

...my little sister does that quite a bit; in fact, when word of the 4th book spread around, she re-read the first 3 to prep up for it. same with 5. she wants an early start on 6th. she wants to learn spanish now because our aunt bought her a copy in spanish (for some reason i can't even begin to fathom). she reads nothing else.

 

And this is a bad thing? She has done more reading than some college graduates have done and is learning Spanish. My question is did these books increase her reading and fluency or did it decrease it? I suspect it increased it tremendously as re-reading the first three or four books is quite a feat, especially for a youngster living in a playstation world.

[aefibird]

But I do think Lucius was very sexy (in the movie)... mmm... am I sick?

 

Fenris-wolf, I'm sicker than you are - I thought Professor Snape was very sexy in the movie!!

 

Personally, I'm a big fan of the books, even though they are for children. I love reading and I have a very wide-ranging tase, everything from classis literature to trashy crime novels. I think that they are good books and challenging reading for the age group they are marketed at (athough, the author has been quoted as saying that they are not necessarily 'childrens' books, just books that happen to have child central characters.)

 

I work with kids with special needs and one of my proudest moments was when one of the lads I work with came and told me he was reading Harry Potter. I could have cried - this kid is a notorious trouble-maker and would flatly refuse to ready anything before. Admittedly now he will only ready HP, but it is a start. I'd rather have him occupied with Harry Potter for part of the school day than trying to beat up the other kids or destroy something, which were his usual pastimes before he discovered HP. Even if the HP books were badly written I'd still love them if only for that reason!

 

I agree with those people who are concerned about kids ONLY reading HP, but surely it is better that they're reading Harry Potter rather than numbing their minds with the latest X-Box or Playstation game? At least if HP has introduced kids to reading then there's a chance that they'll be more likely to read other books.

[Drunken Monkey]

but then if reading anything is your concern then at least realise that kids (here in the uk at least) who play a lot of console games machines

 

ALSO religiously read the magazines that publish games info as well as reports on new technologies.

 

while the material isn't exactly top class literature, isn't it better that they aren't reading the same words (and remember, how many kids actually are 'appreciating' the words of harry potter books?) over and over again?

 

within the games world, there are actually more areas of interest than a lot of people think.

 

there's graphics, music, technology, script and even some complex issues regarding the medium (as well as similar media like film, animation etc etc) like mood, atmosphere, tone, character behaviour etc etc.

 

admittedly, the only ones who are interested in these are the older age groups (who would most probably go into those related areas anyway in terms of study) but they are there.

 

there's more involved with a game than a lot of adults think.

[battousai16]

once again i'm with drunken monkey, if for no other reason than it defends my time with video games

 

it would be one thing if harry potter was acting as a bridge to other books, but it's really not. using my sister again (i really hope she dosen't mind), she dosen't even read the books required for school. whenever she's assigned a book report, she goes straight for harry potter. yeah, she's reading, but she's missing out on vonnegut, orwell, salinger, twain. to kill a mockingbird, farenheit 451, all quiet on the western front, things fall apart. and to hit on what DM alluded to, her vocabs not increasing, her grammer blows, and her spelling is worse than mine. granted, she is learning spanish, but just to read a book she knows by heart anyway. how long until she decides it's to hard, and her only motivation is to read a book she's already read?

 

i don't strongly hate the books as much as DM, but i certainly don't think they're a god send.