I had a sad epiphany today while driving carpool. Ezra and his friends were talking about H@rry Potter. They were assigning characters to each other and the conversation went something like this:
"I'm Sirius Black, so I am a dog."
"Well I am a warewolf so I am professor Lupin"
"You can be Peter Pettigrew"
"Yeah well, he is scabbers and he cut off his toe."
"Well, James Potter, Harry's dad is a stag."
Basically the conversation was one giant spoiler for Book 3: "The Prisoner of Azkaban."
The only problem is that these boys are all in kindergarten and first grade. None of them have read this book (Ezra and Greg are in the middle of book 2 if I am not mistaken). They all know the story from the movies. The H@rry Potter books brought a generation back to reading. The problem is that the next generation didn't have to read the books, they all saw the movies.
I feel sad for my son that he won't experience the joy of sitting and reading book three and finally getting to the end and finding out that the Sirius is the big black dog Harry mistook for a grim, and is in fact his godfather. I don't know if he will even want to read the book or the following books because he knows the whole story already.
JK Rowling did so much for children's literacy. She then took it all away, when she signed away the rights of her book to be made into movies. I am not sure if I will ever forgive her.
I'm afraid it's not really realistic in today's day and age to expect such popular books to not be made into movies.
Posted by: Jewboy at May 24, 2006 09:36 PMPerhaps, but it is still a shame. How many good years of reading did the world get out of Harry Potter, 2-3? It is a shame. At least the Lord of the Rings was appreciated (not by me of course) for decades before it was (pardon my french) whored into moviedom.
Posted by: peninah at May 24, 2006 10:04 PMOur son is devouring the books. It's true that we won't let him see any of the movies after the Prisoner of Azkaban until he's at least 10.
I don't think that he enjoyed PoA any less even though he saw the movie.
This was probably one of your best posts to date.
Posted by: anon at May 25, 2006 09:53 AMSoccerDad-I am glad to hear that he was still able to enjoy book 3. there is just something about having a book that surprises you at the end that is missing from this equation.
Anon-I'm not all fluff and randomness. I just don't usually post anything serious or deep(ish) on this blog.
Posted by: peninah at May 25, 2006 12:22 PMIt is true that J.K. Rowlings brought a lot of kids back into reading..or introduced them to the joy of reading...but I don't think you have to worry about Ezra..he is a reader and I'm sure when he is a little older and more sophisticated you can convince him to read the series...and appreciate the differences between the books and the movies!!
Posted by: bubby at May 26, 2006 06:09 AMAlthough, as "the mom" you could have just made them read the books rather than/before seeing the movies. hmmm...
Posted by: Anon 2 at May 28, 2006 12:18 AM