Harry Potter: Literary Tips for Developing/Young Readers & Their Families

Becoming a Reader with the Harry Potter Books

By Dr. James Whitlark and Lynn Whitlark

If your child, grandchild, godchild, stepchild or neighbor child is becoming a reader with the magical adventures of Harry Potter, then you as a parent, relative or friend have a great opportunity to help them make the leap from simply reading the words on the page, to that much more prized ability of thinking, understanding and experiencing what they are reading!

Thanks to J. K. Rowlingís wonderful ability as both a storyteller and a writer, everything a beginning reader needs to become a lifetime reader is packed between the covers of the 7-year adventure of the Harry Potter books.

If youíve spent much time with either school teachers teaching and their students working to do well on the language part of the SAT, or the reading comprehension parts of standardized tests, then you know that just being able to read the words on a page is not the goal -- the goal is and always has been to understand what is being read.

Here are some tips for helping the child / beginning reader in your life start to unscramble the mysteries of language, art, creativity, and story-telling:

1. Read the books -- either out loud with the child, or at the same time your reader is reading. This way, when your readers have questions, or just want to talk about possibilities, then they will have you as a resource. This means, of course, that you have to think about the meaning behind the story as you read -- so you will be helpful when your reader has questions! The pay-off for you is the chance to experience the learning and discovering to be found in art --with your child.
   
   

2. Be prepared to lead children up out of the details of the story so they can begin to find meaning. The old saying, "can't see the forest for the trees" also applies to art and story telling. While you certainly want to enjoy the details of the hat Neville Longbottom's grandmother wears, and what kinds of creatures live in the garden at the Weasleys' house -- you want to make sure that the real understanding about people doesn't get lost in all the colorful details. It becomes more and more important as the very long story develops from book to book, (a single story which takes 7 books to tell!) to be able to zoom into the rich details and enjoy both the humor and absorb all the possible clues -- and then pull up and up until the whole story can be followed.
   
   

   What do we know about Neville's grandmother once we know what kind of clothes and hats she wears? What do we then understand about Neville since we know he was raised by his grandmother? What do we learn about the Weasleys by the description of their house and garden? How is the Weasley house different from the Dursley house where Harry grew up? Why are these differences important to notice? What do these differences tell us about the Dursleys?
   
   

3. Have your resources ready and handy when you need help explaining complicated things. Because of the popularity of the Harry Potter books (what reading or pre-reading child in the world doesn't know about Harry?) there are dozens or even hundreds of sites online to help you connect symbols borrowed from other great works of childrens' literature (such as classical mythology, Peter Pan, Oz, and the "Lord of the Rings" books) and translate J. K. Rowling's corrupted and adjusted Latin spell names. Additionally, there are sites where the history of each character's name is explained by tracing it backwards into literature. Help your readers notice that Ron's father is called "Arthur" and take that opportunity to remind them (or introduce them) to the legends of King Arthur. Ron's mother, Molly, carries a literary name that is usually traced all the way back to Homer, or to as recent a source as "Molly Brown"! (Both stories good for telling, and also good for providing insites into Molly Weasley's character and function in the story.)
   
   

   Just knowing that "Sirius" is the name of the constellation which looks like a dog will let your reader in on the secret that the character whose name is Sirius Black is actually named Black Dog! Likewise, being able to point out that Nimbus is a kind of cloud (what better to call a flying broomstick?) or that the Beauxbatons school name actually means handsome stick (or wand) begins to unravel some of the secrets hidden in the books -- and perhaps send your reader searching for more hidden meanings. Be ready to point out how much Rita Skeeter's name sounds both as buggish as her secret transformation, and as annoying as any skeeter in the summertime -- or that Poppy Pomfrey (the witch in charge of the infirmary) has a first name that is a medicinal plant which gives us powerful pain relievers, and a sir name that sounds like either Comfrey -- another healing plant, or the French pomme frites -- pronounced pom-frey (French Fries!) It is a great discovery for young readers that in literature, what words sound like can be just as important as what they mean in the dictionary! Your reader may already know that someone named Snape belongs at the head of Slytherin House since it sounds so much like snake and snakes tend to slither. They may need help cracking the secret that Prof. Lupin is as lupine (wolf-like) as his name hints!
   
   

   As with many wonderful works of art -- part of the fun of reading is finding the secrets and the hidden codes the writer has buried in the story. In J.K. Rowling's case, the secrets are everywhere -- and tie both to the history and languages of the real world, and the history, characters, and events of found in the centuries of literary and artistic creation.
   
   

4. Help your younger reader look at categories. In writing and story-telling, we usually break all stories into categories called genre -- in movies, we have a genre of Westerns, a genre of Romantic Comedies, a genre of War Movies, a genre of Science Fiction, and so on. Many of these same genre groupings apply to literature: westerns, thrillers, fantasy, science fiction, war stories, spy stories, etc. If you look up and down the fiction aisles at your local bookstore you begin to get a good idea about how stories break down into genre.
   
   

   While the Harry Potter books can be made to fit into several categories, they are primarily adventure and fantasy literature. Knowing this helps a young reader distinguish between fantasy literature and the real life adventures found in biography. It may also turn out that the Harry Potter books have some characteristics of a "coming of age" story, where we see the central character go through the ordeals/experiences of life and transform from a child to a young adult; it could also be true that there is some trace of romance in the later books. Still, over all, the stories are adventure/fantasy, because they cannot take place in the "real" world due to human limitations. -- But, Harry's world is a nice place to fantasize.
   
   

   As parents and guardians, it is important to know that there are over the last 150 years, 3 distinct types of adventure/fantasy books emerged:
   
   

   -- Adult fantasy/adventure is often grouped with science fiction on the bookstore shelves and is usually written for readers at least in their teens. These books may contain explicit sexuality, or require a more experienced or sophisticated reader to follow their action. Like genre novels such as westerns and romance novels, this category has a single target audience and rarely crosses over into general literature.
   
   

   -- Childrens' fantasy/adventure is usually found in the juvenal literature section. This may include the Oz books and the Borrowers -- books clearly written for the youngest readers, or for those too young to read for themselves In these books, adults are often replaced by fantasy creatures and all the main characters are children who face a challenge or a difficulty -- or simply solve a puzzle. These books sometimes expose the reader to a new and different version of reality which they can compare and contrast to their own world.
   
   

   -- The third category is newly emerging as a separate category/genre and is made up of adventure/fantasy stories clearly written for readers of all ages -- with details and contemporary mythology sufficient to satisfy both the experienced and the inexperienced reader. Included here would be the Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit -- and likely the Harry Potter books will eventually end up in this category. All these stories include children or child-liike characters who have more room to mature and learn than their counterparts in true "childrens" stories where children may learn a single lesson, but don't actully mature or grow up. The result is the opportunity for the reader to learn and grow along with the characters in this new category. Contemporary mythic fantasy/adventure stories involve psychological development and change, recognition and revelation.
   
   

   Fantasy, in general, opens a door on the mind; looking into dreams, memories and fears, it allows people to know things about themselves and in ways they might not otherwise know. Whatever fantasy books may pretend to be on the surface -- stories about witches, ghosts, other worlds, and magic -- underneath, they are about deep parts of the mind that really need, from time to time, a bit of air let in or a little light so that they don't turn into musty attics or rotting basements. Your children are more likely to take that surface meaning as the only one, while you can, through choice and analysis of fantasy, help to shape your childís development.
   
   

   A separate consideration about fantasy has to do with boundaries. There are times in children's lives when being told to do or not do something by an adult only produces stubbornness, willfulness, and hasty decisions based on inexperience. If, however, the child reads/hears a story about a character (in another time or another world) in a similar circumstance who can (miraculously) see options and possibilities and evaluate them based on long term outcomes -- if a child has these non-parental, non-authoritarian and non-real-world examples to fall back on, then those choices are incorporated into the child's repertoire of life experiences. Many times, a child unable to see options in their own lives can read or hear about a character who discovers options -- and then take that creative, imaginative -- fantastic -- process as his or her own.
   
   

5. Help your reader take scenes, events, or decisions made by characters in the Potter books and weigh those actions and decisions against their own experiences. In book 3 of the series, there is a long and complex scene where Prof. Lupin helps his students learn to face (and defeat) a creature called a Boggart. In Rowling's world, a Boggart is a shape-shifter which magically transforms itself into the shape of whatever most frightens a person. For Ron Weasley, it becomes a giant spider. For the Irish student, Seamus Finnegan, it becomes a Banshee. For Lupin, the werewolf, it becomes the full moon. The only way to defeat this shape-changing monster is through laughter -- the spell to cast is accomplished by concentrating and seeing the giant spider without legs rolling across the floor; or letting an attacking hand be snapped up by a giant mouse-trap. Neville Longbottom only has to dress the Boggart-Prof. Snape (his greatest fear) in his grandmother's hat and handbag, and shout the magic word: "Ridiculous!" and the Boggart (or bogey man) vanishes in his laughter!
   
   

   If your young reader has fears that sneak up in the night as he or she tries to get to sleep, then this could be a good time to remind them of the Boggart! Maybe a lesson in turning a feared teacher's voice into Daffy Duck's voice -- or dressing the monster under the bed in toe shoes and a feather boa -- or transforming the scary dog down the street into a hula dancer is all that your young reader needs to be as successful as Harry's classmates at dissolving the Boggart!
   
   

   J. K. Rowling has packed the Harry Potter books with empowering changes kids can make in their own lives -- maybe with a little help from the grown ups who love them. There are tools in these stories -- like the Ridiculous spell and the Boggart -- to help young readers become braver and more successful than they ever knew they could be.
   
   

6. It would also be useful to keep the "big picture" questions handy to encourage your reader not only to read Harry for the enjoyment, but to see Harry in the context of art/ literature and life. Unlike any previous work of children's literature, the Harry Potter stories take developmental psychology and use it as the framework of growth in the life of a single individual (and a few of his friends.) What's more, Rowling does it in such a way that a beginning reader (or any reader) can follow along and see what at least one example of reasonably healthy development -- even in a child with a terrible, damaging event in his/her past -- looks like. We see the increasingly complex world of one young person -- and we get to see how he reacts, responds, and makes choices in that world. Rowling (and Harry) never dodge the complexities -- but engage them head on. As Harry's world gets more and more complicated -- so do the books that tell his stories. A complicated life takes longer to tell than a very simple one.

Rather than go down the path of looking for a "moral" or some "golden lesson" in any or all the Potter stories, think of it more as a chance to learn those things that Harry and his friends (and the adults of the story) are learning. Look for the lessos that help each of us grow and develop into the people we can be or want to be. Here are some of those "big pictures" of the Harry Potter loosely outlined:

*Here's a hint: Each years' lessons are more complicated than the lessons of the previous year; and, each years' lessons depend on having successfully learned the lessons of the previous book/year. (If Harry didnít manage to learn what he needed to learn in Book 1, he would never be able to hold up under the stress of acquiring the more complex lessons of Book 2.)

a. What big lessons does Harry learn in each book? (or in each year of school.)

For example, in the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry learns an awful lot about having and being a friend. He begins to get an idea of what real family is -- and what it isn't. Up until this year of his life, he has only experienced an unhealthy and closed family with the Dursleys, who not only fail the parent-child relationship with Harry -- they even fail it with their own son, Dudley. Once away from the Dursleys, Harry begins to learn about himself -- what he is and what he's made of, as opposed to what he has been told he is. This lesson of family and friendship develops as Harry interacts with the Dursleys, with Hagrid, with his housemates and the faculty at Hogwarts, and with his closest friends, Hermione and Ron. In the end, Harry has learned the boundaries of family, friendship and trust/trustworthiness, especially that not everyone who looks like part of the tribe really is part of the tribe -- and vice-versa.

In the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry learns a lot about honor, and about winning and losing -- and people who put what they want ahead of everyone else's feelings, safety, needs, or desires. We see that "get what you want no matter what (or who) it costs" is a motto that seems to run in the Malfoy family as well as among dark wizards. We also see the ìmy rules for you -- but no rules for me" philosophy in Tom Riddle, Gilderoy Lockhart, Lucius Malfoy, and even the Dursleys. Draco and his father are willing to buy Draco onto the his house Quidditch team. Tom Riddle is willing to kill just to have a crack at Harry. Harry's lessons in book #2 have to do with selfishness and selflessness, the individual putting what he/she wants above the group, the devaluation of life in the face of lust for power, and ultimately about self sacrifice and daring to help others.

In book #3, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Askaban, Harry learns about the law and the rules of his world. Specifically, he learns where the law exists, why it exists, who makes the laws, and where those laws break down. Whether the rules/laws are the laws of the school, the laws of the wizarding world or the muggle world; the laws of survival; or the "rules of the game" (Quidditch or otherwise) -- every law has at its heart a purpose having to do with right, wrong, and justice -- and when the purpose ceases to be fulfilled by the law, then the law has to be thrown out, rewritten, or adjusted to accommodate the original purpose. Leaving simplified, generalized rules behind in favor of true right and wrong is a complex lesson at any point in life. This book is rich with the idea of justice and honor, and what is deserved as opposed to what is undeserved.

In the opening scenes, Harry arrives at the Leaky Cauldron (delivered by the Knight Bus) and discovers that laws he believed to be absolute are elastic under extreme circumstances. Then, in the final scenes, Harry discovers that even the justice system can be (and has been) fooled by evil and needs some help to become truly just. He also learns what it means to be honorable in the face of injustice. Without these lessons learned, Harry would be ill-equipped to face his later challenges.

In book #4, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry learns about ambition and focus and the ability to not waver from a given path to a goal. As with books 1-3, these lessons come in many forms -- both positive and negative. Lord Voldemort is absolute in his resolve to steal human form and be able to lead his evil followers again. Voldemort's assistants in this quest are likewise unrelenting in their focus. Over months, miles, and obstacles, these villains remain bound to one outcome and they let nothing get in their way.

Harry and his fellow competitors are only beginning their challenges with the TriWizard Tournament -- and Harry starts small by learning enough focus to summon his broomstick for the first contest -- then a little more when he sets about to unscramble the puzzle egg for his second contest. Finally, his fierce focus is able to match even Voldemort's in the last chapters of the book. Setting a goal and sticking to it without being distracted, discouraged or disillusioned is part of a special fearlessness that goes beyond maturity and begins to define character. This is the territory where the "great things" Mr. Ollivander spoke of in Book 1 can begin to happen.

It is important to note that the primary difference between Harry's fearlessness and focus -- and that of Voldemort -- has to do with those lessons Harry learned and Tom Riddle did not. Harry understands trust and trustworthyness (from book 1); winning, losing, and honor (from book 2); and right & wrong, justice, and the rule of law (in book 3.) It is precisely this checklist of life-lessons that Tom Riddle never mastered. He knows how to be untrustworthy and treacherous in order to win -- and that is all. His tribe and family are not part of the equation except as pawns and servants. Honor has been replaced by hatred, and good vs. evil has been replaced by a hunger for power over others as a driving force.

In book #5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry learns about fairness. Because Rowling illustrates all the important lessons in life by both positive and negative examples, this book is full of instances of "good fortune" (which is really just another way of talking about fairness & grace winning the day over unfairness.) and terrible unfairness. Over and over again characters talk about what isn't fair -- Harry, George and Fred being banned from Quidditch for life; Sirius being cooped up with Kreacher; Harry being tried for crimes he hasn't committed; excessive and abusive punishments (in the name of the law -- remember the lessons of book 3....)

When one of the central characters, Dolores Umbridge, devises cruel punishments for Harry,based on her own (and Cornelius Fudge's) misconceptions about Voldemort, there is an echo in the mind of every reader that "this isn't fair!" And clearly, it isn't. And from these words -- in the mind of the reader even more often than they actually occur on the page -- both Harry & company and the readers learn the hard lessons about fairness. That life and people are often not fair. It is only Harry's solidly learned notions of family & tribe that allow him to eventually rise above his anger at the unfairness of his own life during this year of school. It is an unfair position for a 15 year old to be in. And still, it is Harry's position. At the base of all the 900+ pages of book 5 is this lesson: we don't always get to choose what happens to us in life, but we do get to choose how we respond to it. In that context, the lessons of fairness can be seen in their larger context -- in the big picture of Harry's entire life.

Also, a special observation about the unfairness painted in book 5 is that those "false laws" enacted by Cornelius Fudge and the Ministry of Magic which are so unfair -- are unfair because they are not based on right, wrong, and jutice. Instead, those false laws are based on fear and anger -- especially the fear and anger of Fudge and Umbridge. If these characters had a healthy dose of what Harry (and the readers) learned in books #1, #2, #3, and #4 -- those laws and Educational Decrees would never have existed. Ultimately, the fairness of book 5 is dependent on the fearlessness of book 4, which is in turn dependnent on the lessons of justice in book 3; which requires the honor of book 2, which must be preceeded by the trust and trustworthyness of book.1.

If J. K. Rowling follows this pattern -- the next book will be about puzzles and patterns (already hinted at in the Department of Mysteries) -- the very structure of magic and how it works or doesn't work, depending on (can you guess?) the learning or not learning of all those lessons so far. The pattern she is following so far has been documented as part of developmental psychology (the work of Clare Graves) and social/cultural anthropology. An overview of this developmental model can be found at: Human Threshold Systems (see link at the bottom of this page). As far as we know, there are many works of fiction which take this pattern of human development to the complex level Rowling has in book 5 of the Harry Potter series. Most fiction does not go further to incorporate the 2 upper levels of development -- instead, they finish their story based on fairness, or even backtrack to climax in the realm of fearlessness and accomplishment, or back even further to end on the lesson of right, wrong, and justice. Knowing that there are 2 books left in the series indicates at least the possibility that Rowling intends to go further. We suspect that Rowling constructed this 7-book-long story independently of the psychological theories which are woven throughout -- simply based on her extremely high levels of observation and human behavior. If she has never observed the next 2 levels of development, then it would be unlikely that they would show up.

However, since these books seem to be forming a puzzle and a pattern (hallmarks of the next developmental step) and her writing style indicates that she is writig at that level) -- we look forward to seeing if she will do what has not been done before in art --

b. What are the major themes of the Harry Potter story?

For example, George Lucas has said that one of the major themes in his Star Wars series is that one person can change the world ó or the universe in that case. Lucas says that another major theme in his movies has to do with man (or other creatures) vs. machines (as in the man inside Darth Vader vs. the machine he has almost become.)

In the case of Harry Potter, many of the themes your readers may want to find have to do with good vs. evil. You can encourage them to find the black and the white ó and also to identify the gray in the stories and characters. Another major theme has to do with personal choices / responsibility, and how we make/create our selves by the choices we make. Still other themes Rowling wants us to recognize have to do with prejudice and discrimination, violence and despotism, slavery, and social class structure,