Harry Potter has over the years developed a complicated legacy. JK Rowling has drawn controversy thanks to her transphobic statements, but the original works...

TW: Harry Potter

Was Harry Potter Ever Good?

No

Video discusses flaws of the Harry Potter works by J.K. Rowling with comparisons to how other fictional YA novels/tv shows handled problematic topics.

  • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
    ·
    7 months ago

    It was a combination of actually being good for the first couple of books, marketing push from Scholastic after it’s breakthrough success in the UK, and being able to connect to kids in ways other books weren’t at the time.

    Harry Potter was never pushed in schools and so we read older classic and Caldecott Medal books. Here comes a story that’s about school, the thing you’re stuck in, but with wizards. Every kid would rather be casting spells than doing regular school work so the concept alone got the kids hooked.

    This was also around the time of the Pokémon craze and I wouldn’t be surprised if Scholastic was hoping for something similar with Harry Potter.

    • keepcarrot [she/her]
      ·
      7 months ago

      I feel like there was also a lot of parental concern (or something) about how kids aren't reading enough and we're becoming more illiterate.

      I don't really remember having a huge amount of control over what books my parents bought me, so idk how much influence kids choices would be until after the first couple of books. After that though, network effect