Title:
Harry Potter (and the Something or Other)
Author:
J. K. Rowling

I read the first of the books, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's) Stone a while ago, to see what all the noise was about. It was readable, it was fun, but it wasn't what I'd expect to rival Robert Louis Stevenson or Mark Twain, to name two authors whose books woke my love of reading. J.K. Rowling's first novel seemed to be flighty and derivative, borrowing heavily from Roald Dahl, for the most part, as well as any number of stories in the definitely British tradition of "a boy's life at a boarding school." I even found myself recognizing a touch of Terry Pratchett here and there. It wasn't a disagreeable result, but it wasn't all that great, either.

I ignored HP and the Chamber of Secrets roundly when it came out, ditto the next two books. I was aware that there was going to be a movie, and kept having to skirt ever larger piles of HP collectibles heaped in the aisles of the local bookstores. Everybody seemed to be wild about Harry, but when last year I was called upon to sit on a panel at CONduit, the Salt Lake City SF convention, to discuss the Harry Potter phenomenon, I had to admit that Harry Potter hadn't struck my fancy.

For whatever reason, when a few weeks ago I found "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" in paperback at a discount, I did buy a copy. I was pleasantly surprised at what I found. Rowling is finding her own voice. The second novel was still much in the spirit of the first. Harry Potter still has to deal with his disagreeable foster family. There is still the "Tom Brown's School Days" theme running through, but there is leavening in the mix, as well. She is stuck with many of the scenes she has set in book one, but this book took on new color. I could see now why kids were looking forward to book three, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," which is even now lying on my desk with my bookmark in it, a well worn copy from the local public library.

I don't know if later books will finish a series that will eventually become the 21st century's "Treasure Island" or "The Black Arrow." There is a lot of powerful competition for the hearts of reading children. Dianne Wynn Jones has written several books that easily rival the intensity and fun of Harry Potter. Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials," completed with the latest "The Amber Spyglass," is a tour de force, and great fun to read besides. And so on. Just because young readers aren't themselves demanding (in a literary sense) doesn't mean that writers for young readers have no competition. What is clear is that Rowling has struck a nerve with Harry Potter, and for the next few years the tousle-headed boy-wizard is going to be part of the lives of children and adults around the world.