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Children of all ages cheer and dance at the Bay and Bloor Indigo Books in Toronto, July 20, 2007, as they await the release of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
On July 21, 2007, British author J.K. Rowling made literary history with the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, selling more than 11 million copies worldwide in just 24 hours. The fantastical finale capped a blockbuster children’s book series that, as a whole, has sold more than 400 million copies in some 70 languages, spawned a popular movie series, theme park and assorted merchandise, and, at least for a while, made its creator a billionaire.
Now, precisely five years after those last magical words were printed, how fares the famed fantasy franchise? We asked students, educators and everyday fans to gauge how young Harry and his gifted pals — now that the hype spell has been lifted — rate today among readers young and old. Most of all, we wondered whether Rowling’s series could endure to become a true kids-lit classic after another five, 10 or 20 years.
Based on more recent sales figures, Hogwarts Express has lost some steam but is by no means stalled. According to Publishers Weekly, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy reigned over children’s literature last year, with 9.2 million copies sold. During the same year, Potter books sold a comparably small, but still considerable, 2.5 million copies, boosted in part by the release of the final film in the series.
Meanwhile, among somewhat older readers, Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight series rose to absurd popularity around the conclusion of Harry Potter, selling 8.5 million copies in 2010 and 1.6 million in 2011.
The question is: could young readers soon forget about Harry, as they move on to the next big read? For children, Harry is still one of the most sought-after characters in literature, especially for the 9-to-12 age category. While Hunger Games and Twilight cater to an older audience, no series has debuted to rival Potter in the younger age bracket.
Susan Caron, manager of collection development at the Toronto Reference Library, isn’t convinced that Collins and Meyers will achieve prolonged popularity like Rowling. She believes “Twilight and Hunger Games are geared to young adult readers” who “prefer their culture to be current and of their generation.” This specificity may contribute to a lack of relevance down the road.
“There is a general consensus that the Harry Potter series are classics,” Caron continued. “Each new generation of children discovers the series and can then grow up with the characters over the seven books. Rowling’s characters not only age but her plots become more complex and dark — beloved characters die — which mirrors the growing maturity of her readers.”
The Toronto Public Library purchased more than 600 copies of Deathly Hallows to prepare for the demand when it was released. Five years later, 285 copies have survived the wear and tear of public use. Caron estimates that the title has been checked out more than 35,000 times in hardcover alone. In its prime, the seventh book had more than 1,500 holds. Today, there are still 44 readers waiting eagerly for the text.
Remember that this is the last in a very lengthy (for children’s literature) series of books. Thousands of readers of those library copies would have already waded through six previous titles. The entire series clocks in at more than 4,000 pages. Compare this to some 1,600 pages in the seven-book Narnia series by C.S. Lewis and a bit over 1,000 pages (albeit with denser text) for the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien, and you have a testament to the endurance of Potter fandom.
Still, does Harry then have what it takes to breach the barriers of canonical classics? William Kemp, professional writing student at York University, isn’t so sure. “I don’t think Harry Potter belongs among the classics as ‘high literature’ because to me, the prose simply doesn’t hold up. I think it’s fantastic that it got so many kids reading, but I think Rowling did a disservice to kids with boring, simple prose. She didn’t challenge them.”
Yusra Rizwan, a student at McMaster University, similarly suggests that while Rowling was a pioneer in her genre, “there were many other great authors before and after her, the most notable of which has to be Tolkien. Rowling used the same ideas as Tolkien, but made them simpler and more relevant . . . she made it a little easier for readers to connect and relate to the characters.”
The simplicity of the prose may have worked to Rowling’s advantage. Annie Slade, 19, first read Harry Potter as a child and “fell in love with the story; the mystery, the adventure, the pure magical whimsy.” Having connected so intimately with the storytelling, Slade says, “I certainly feel that Harry Potter is the next childhood classic . . . I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years every kid is reading Harry Potter when they are 12 and younger.”
High literary classics or otherwise, avid fan Shivanna Sooknanan, 16, believes that the series “has built itself to become a household name where people are naturally going to pass it down to their kids and say, ‘This is what mommy read when I was your age and when you’re done we can see the movie or go to the theme park.’”
Even today, Harry Potter books have united many children and their parents through the sentimental bond of reading together. Local mom and Potter fan Ashleigh Thompson LeSauvage fondly reflects on her memories of reading the series to her son.
“We spent several months where we would curl up in my bed and I would read a chapter or two out loud,” she recalls. “It was a way of doing something with my son, knowing what he was interested in and having something that was just for us. We have both read the series several times since and he still talks about how I read them to him. That’s something I will never forget.”
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