[dragongirlG]

Just found this news article...to all the HP bashers, ha!!!!<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Hooked on Harry<BR>Students explain why they’d rather read than watch TV<BR>By ALSON COLE, news writer <BR>“Harry Potter is the best thing to ever happen to children’s literature,” claims Northside Elementary fourth grade teacher Erin McGee.<BR>And that’s saying a lot in a day and age when TV, video games and movies often replace recreational reading.<P>But, McGee contends that British author J.K. Rowling’s four books chronicling the adventures of Harry Potter (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) have done much to ignite a love of reading among her students.<P> She’s not alone. <P>Each of the Harry Potter books has dominated The New York Times’ best-sellers list. The fifth sequel, set for release in June, is expected to continue the Harry Potter multiple-million-selling frenzy.<P>And even after Rowling hesitantly sold the rights to her book to Warner Bros. in a shrewd deal in which she maintained a lot of say-so concerning the screenplay, and even after that first Harry Potter movie went down in the history books as the biggest grossing film of 2001, it’s the books that kids just can’t seem to get enough of.<P>So what makes Harry so hot? Ask the experts.<P>Northside fourth grader Maggie Dycus, 10, fifth grader Aaron Williams, 11, and third grader Josh Beverly, 9, are avid Harry Potter fans. In fact, they can hardly put the books down.<P>“I’ve read them three times each,” Aaron counted.<P>Maggie’s read the first three a second time and is currently reading the fourth for a second time.<P>Aaron explained that each sequel is lengthier than the one before it.<P>“The last one is 736 pages,” he said -- and with few illustrations.<P>That might sound like quite a challenge for even an adult reader to tackle, but Maggie, Aaron and Josh say they don’t care how long the books are, they just enjoy reading them.<P>“I really got into it when the movie came out,” Josh remarked. He said it took him about six months to read the first three books.<P>“I’m on the last one right now,” he noted. “I”m right in the middle of it.”<P>Maggie and Aaron had a head start. Maggie started last summer, and Aaron started a couple of years ago. <P>“I read constantly,” Maggie said, a comment echoed by Aaron. Both also said they can now read entire Harry Potter books in a matter of just a few days.<P>“You really get excited when you read them,” Maggie commented. “They’ve got good plots ... They’re exciting, and they have lots of suspense.”<P>“They have a lot of action,” Aaron added.<P>Initially, Harry lives with his mean aunt and uncle, the Dursleys, and their son, Dudley. His room is a closet at the foot of their stairs. One day, he receives an invitation to a special school where he goes to learn to be a wizard.<P>Just call it escapism for kids.<P>Harry turns a year older in each book. And with each book building on the events of the previous, kids like Maggie, Aaron and Josh can’t wait to find out what will happen to Harry next.<P>Maggie said, so far, she likes Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban best. Aaron’s pick is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Josh said he can’t decide on a favorite.<P>And Maggie, Aaron and Josh are not the only ones reading Harry Potter.<P>“Some of my friends have the books, too,” Maggie added.<P>Northside librarian Beverly Judd is particularly happy to see such young students engrossed in reading.<P>“I think children have always been ready for a good story, and that’s what Harry Potter gives them,” she said. <P>Judd attributed the success of Harry Potter to his relate-ability to kids and his challenge to them to use and develop their own imaginations.<P>“It’s a child’s struggle between good and evil, and the child wins,” she remarked.<P>Judd noted that students of varying ages, even high school age, are enjoying Harry Potter, and she said the books appeal to both genders. Furthermore, she said she has multiple copies of each of the Harry Potter books in the school library’s stock but that they’re constantly checked out by students who are hooked on Harry.<P>And for a librarian, that’s the goal. If the books are on the shelves, they’re not being read. When it comes to Harry Potter, Judd sees her students taking an interest and actually enjoying reading.<P>“Maggie’s always telling me what she thinks is going to happen in the next book. She comes up with all sorts of interesting things,” McGee smiled, thrilled at the possibility she might have a budding author in her class.<P>And as far as the movie goes, Maggie said she still prefers the books.<P>“You picture things differently in the books than the way it was in the movie,” she said, explaining that she likes imagining Harry’s world for herself. <P>“I would just rather read,” Aaron commented.<P>What? Did a seemingly normal 11-year-old boy just say he would rather read than watch a movie?<P>Yep. <P>But that’s the power of Harry Potter, and as far as Maggie, Aaron and Josh are concerned, they’re ready for more.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>