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intro: the Harry Potter books highlight the adventures of a likeable young wizard who is orphaned in infancy, raised by his non-magical relatives, and later informed of his magical abilities and invited to study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry Potter is a standard tale of good vs. evil, and good always wins in the end. Harry, the hero, often triumphs because of his upright character and pure motives.
Unconditional love and courage are held as ideals of great importance. By following Harry and his best friend Ron, the reader gets a glimpse of true loyalty and friendship, as well as self-sacrifice. On the other hand, witches, wizards and other magical characters play the lead roles. Harry and his friends practice spells and create potions. And face-offs with the dark side are predictably intense.
the phenomenon: since its appearance in 1997, Harry Potter has become the biggest phenomenon in the history of modern publishing – giving origin to several environmental concerns as well [is Harry Potter green?]. Let’s look at the numbers:- the first five books in the series have sold more than 260 million copies worldwide since the debut of the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in 1997. The books have been sold in over 200 countries, and translated into 62 languages (with an ancient Greek and an Irish Gaelic version too). Beyond the books there is an industry - films, dolls, games and merchandise - making hundreds of millions of dollars a year;
- the first three books have been turned into movies. Between them they have done a box office of US$2.4 billion worldwide (through 27 June 2004), after costing just under US$500 million to film and market, according to Hollywood tracking firm Box Office Mojo;
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the fifth book) sold an astonishing 5 million copies in the USA alone within 24 hours of publication, generating as much money as the top Hollywood release of that weekend, “The Hulk.”
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth in the best-selling series, scheduled for publication on July 16th, 2005, topped Amazon's book chart less than 24 hours after its release date was announced. Thousands of customers placed pre-orders on the amazon.com.uk website for the new book.
Then, consider the popularity of the series on the internet:- according to the Daily Telegraph in London, J.K. Rowling’s website, which came online in late spring 2004, attracted 220 million visits in its first eight weeks;
- a December 2004 Google web search for “Harry Potter” produced 13,100,000 links; a December 2004 Google search for “Harry Potter 6” generated 9,430,000 links.
strong debate: there are strong arguments both for liking and disliking the Harry Potter book series. (The movies are another thing altogether.) The majority of school teachers are delighted at the enthusiasm with which so many of their pupils are lapping up Harry’s adventures, and have even found themselves having to confiscate Potter books so that students do not read them during lessons.On the other hand, the books have been criticised for not assisting kids to come to terms with the complex world in which they live, but helping to lead them, instead, into a world of escapism. For sure, the controversy over the intrinsic worth of the Potter books will continue for the foreseeable future, but what’s interesting here is trying to understand why millions of kids worldwide are so attracted by ‘magic’ and if this phenomenon could be used by teachers to drive pupils’ attention on sustainability issues…
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