Sexeteria

The seventh and final book of the Harry Potter series is due out at the end of July. As of today, I will begin to do what I have done for every release since book four: read the series all the way through from start to finish, timed to end just before the release of the latest book. I plan to savor the process thoroughly, since it will be my last time to do so with the expectation of a new one to read at the end of the process.

I love children's literature. I always have. As a child, I practically inhaled the children's series by authors like L. Frank Baum, Roald Dahl, C. S. Lewis, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Lewis Carroll, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Rumer Godden.

Even then I could tell the qualities that made a great children's novel as opposed to the merely average. The great children's novels were those that didn't talk down to children or censor or sweeten things up to "protect" them. Just the opposite. The great kids' stories were intriguing, complex, sometimes a little odd and unsettling, and sarcastic and weird and fun and funny as hell. Just like life. And most importantly, they were smart--the writing was good enough and the themes clever enough for an adult to read and enjoy, but they were expressed in language simple enough for a child to read without having to look up every other word in the dictionary. And the best books were designed to to last--while the stories were understandable and enjoyable at any age, often the writers would put in jokes, comments, or story elements that might go over a child's head at age eight, but allow them a great good laugh for having gotten it at age 10. Or 14. Or 32.

Children are not stupid. They understand the world is complex, and not always easy to travel through. They can handle it in their stories. And they like things that challenge them to think. They like unravelling the joke inside the clever word play, or the mystery behind the strange events that unfold. They like being treated as if they have the potential to know even more than they do. They like being able to have the opportunity to safely venture into worlds and challenges and realities they might be a little nervous to venture into alone in the real world. And they like seeing children who, like themselves, don't embody only one positive, consistent quality like "good" or "smart" or "nice," but who have a wide array of emotions and impulses, some of them good and smart and nice, yes, and some of them not so good and smart and nice. In short, kids who are perfectly human, rather than perfect.

These qualities are the hallmarks of truly inspired children's writing.

As I moved into adulthood, I continued to re-visit my favorite children's lit; because the most inspired of children's writers really are just as good to read as an adult. There have been moments as an grown writer where I have come back across passages in books like A Cricket in Times Square or The Return of the King and have been left breathless with amazement at how beautifully and perfectly crafted they are.

But at some point in the 80s through the 90s, my interest in finding new children's literature waned. This was primarily because there simply seemed to be nothing good coming out anymore*. I worked in a bookstore in the early 90s and I saw what passed for popular children's literature at the time: the American Girls series, the Goosebumps series, things like that. It wasn't that they were SHEER crap--that kids are into reading at all is always a better thing than nothing. But they lacked the qualities described above. They were lightweight and enjoyable; fast, easy reads designed for mass market distribution, rolled out with assembly-line efficiency. They were like the Harlequins of the kids' world. And basically, they were immaturely written--they lacked that special timeless quality that allowed them to be enjoyed by kids and adults alike.

So by the time the Potter series came out, I was convinced children's lit had passed it's golden age, and had given up paying attention. When I started hearing that Harry Potter had become the latest kid's fad, I rolled my eyes and ignored it. I had already stopped working at the bookstore by that time, so I didn't have the books in front of me to check out, and I felt I had no reason to expect it was any better than what I'd been seeing for the past 10 years or more.

Then, just before the release of the Goblet of Fire and after the raves of many adults I respect, I finally broke my ban of the books and decided to read book one.

It was like coming home. This woman J. K. Rowling knew how to speak the language of the great children's writers. She was smart, funny, complex, compassionate, and odd; and she never condescended to her audience, either child or adult. Reading the first book was like going back to childhood in the best way possible--it called your kid imagination back out to play.

I was hooked. I devoured books 1-3 in just enough time to grab up The Goblet of Fire when it was released. And I've read every new novel that's come out since in the series with great joy and hunger. As the series has progressed, I've watched Rowling's writing grow and become more complex with every novel. It's almost as if she's grown as a writer--and each book has grown in maturity--as her character Harry himself has grown. It's been a delight to watch; almost as delightful as watching a child you love grow and mature into an incredible, strong independent young person.

Like it is with all children that grow up, those of us who love the Potter series have very little time left before our loved one grows up and leaves us behind with fond memories of the time we've spent together. I'm going to savor the final stretch and then when the time comes, let go.

But I'll still invite it back to visit from time to time, and I'll share it with the young people in my life. Because the Potter series, like all the great children's series that came before it, will always be timeless, and will always be like coming back to childhood.

And now, enough with the nostalgia! Potter freaks--what are your predictions for the final book? Myself, I won't presume to guess anything except for one thing: Aunt Petunia WILL come out in the final book as being able to do some magic. I believe she's going to be involved in some pivotal way. How 'bout you?

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*One major exception to this were Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat series of punk fairy tales--but that was a fairly obscure series by comparison to these others.