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WRITING PRACTICE
Banning Harry Potter?
Ever since becoming popular, the Harry Potter series has been
among the most frequently challenged books, as measured by the
American Library Association. While the series has been welcomed
by many parents and teachers for getting children interested in
reading, not to mention being a good story, others feel that the
series presents dangerous ideas and attitudes that are bad for
readers. In some parts of the United States and United Kingdom, the
Potter books have been banned from being read in school, taken out
of libraries, and even burned in public.
The most prominent objections to Harry Potter fall into three
categories: they promote witchcraft; they set bad examples; and
they're too dark. Let's take a look at each of those.

The Trouble with Magic

One school to ban Harry Potter was St. Mary's Island Church of
England school in Chatham, Kent. Head teacher Carol Rockwood
explained that "The Bible is very clear and consistent in its teachings
that wizards, devils and demons exist and are very real, powerful
and dangerous and God's people are told to have nothing to do with
them." She added that "I believe it is confusing to children when
something wicked is being made to look fun."
Rockwood is not alone. Her opinion is shared by others who believe
that real witchcraft exists, and that all witches are evil. They fear that
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any books which have good witches or good magiclike the Harry
Potter serieswill lead people not to take the threat of real witchcraft
seriously, and possibly lead them to take the Bible's teachings in
general more lightly. They might even lead readers to become
witches themselves.
Others disagree. Some point out that Harry Potter is a fantasy, not a
true story, and claim that even children know the difference between
the two. Whether or not there is such a thing as evil magic in real
life, it has nothing at all to do with the made-up spells and potions
found in the books. As an editorial in Christian Century put it,
"...critics are right in thinking that fantasy writing is powerful and
needs to be taken seriously. But we strongly doubt that it fosters an
attachment to evil powers. Harry's world, in any case, is a moral
one."

Setting a Bad Example

Some people find the Harry Potter books to be inappropriate reading
because of the way Harry and his friends behave. Some note that
Harry "lies, breaks rules, and disobeys authority figures, including
the professors at Hogwarts," and that he ends up being rewarded
and praised for his actions. They feel that heroes should be entirely
good people who do as they're told and respect others.
Others feel that Harry's rule infractions are part of a long tradition in
storytelling. A bit of rule-bending is necessary to get to a story
outside of the ordinary, they say, but children can understand that
behavior that makes a good story is different from behavior that's
good in general. They also point out that Harry's rule-breaking does
not go without any punishment. And some note, as Mike Hertenstein
does in his review of the first Potter film, that "much of Harry's rulebreaking... involves the principle of disobeying a lower law to keep a
higher onenot to say he's Rosa Parks, but who could criticize
Harry's violation of the no-fly rule to broom his way over a bully and
stand up for his friends?"
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Finally, some believe that even heroes aren't perfect; Harry and his
friends may do some things wrong, but they are positive role models
on the whole, working selflessly for all that's good and noble.

Scary Stuf
Some people think that the Harry Potter booksespecially the later
onesare too dark and scary for children to handle. The series
begins as Harry is orphaned, and he soon learns his parents were
violently killed. There are intense battles. Good people die, suddenly
and horribly. This, some say, is the stuff of nightmares, not
something to be handed to kids as entertainment.
Others feel that children can handle more than they're sometimes
given credit for. Some even feel that reading scary stories is one
safe way kids learn how to deal with the reality of death. At any rate,
they say, there is a long tradition of gruesome ghost stories, scary
fairy tales, and sad novels for children. Such diverse classics as The
Red Badge of Courage, Little Women, Charlotte's Web, and The
Hobbit all include the deaths of major characters. Harry Potter fits
right in.

Banned Books Week

The American Library Association (ALA) celebrates "Banned Books
Week" in the final week of each September, to call attention to the
fact that people try to ban many booksincluding Harry Potter
every year. Their position is not that all books are good, or even that
all books are suitable for children. However, the ALA feels that each
family ought to be able to decide this for itself, rather than having the
decision taken out of their hands by others.

WRITING
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IMAGINE YOUR TEACHER FORBIDES YOU TO

READ HARRY POTTER. HE SAYS ITS BAD
BECAUSE OF THE REASON CITED IN THE TEXT.
WRITE A LETTER TO CONVINCE HIM TO
CHANGE HIS MIND. GIVE EXAMPLES. BE
FORMAL, BUT NOT TOO FORMAL.
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