Everything About Harry Potter And Other Childhood Classics!

[laPapessaGiovanna]

@louisa05

I am curious, how does that school you work(ed?) for, handle Classics ?

While we are at teachers:

What I personally noticed in a good way is that the Hogwarts teachers are all called "Professor".

I know it´s a very minor detail, but you see, especially our german neighbours like to give us the :wtf:- look because in Austria a middle school/high school teacher could legally demand to be called Professor (there was also a teacher´s union/government legal suit to extend it to elementary school teachers a couple of years ago).

It is just nice to see this tradition embraced by other peopl/countries too in a popular book! :)

Here in Italy too. We have to call them professori from middle school to university and speaking to them we use the courtesy form of the third singular person "il lei" (I don't even know how you can say it in English :embarrassed: ), "the Sie" in german. It is a way to show respect, you should use it with every adult you don't know very well.

[Nomorearrows]

Harry Potter is amazing.

Whenever my 11 year old cousin comes to visit, he wants to have a long discussion about Harry Potter.

[FundieFarmer]

Here in Italy too. We have to call them professori from middle school to university and speaking to them we use the courtesy form of the third singular person "il lei" (I don't even know how you can say it in English :embarrassed: ), "the Sie" in german. It is a way to show respect, you should use it with every adult you don't know very well.

We just say Mr. or Mrs. here, though some of my boarding school friends had different. I'm not a teacher so I can't say from that perspective, but I think it would be a nice show of respect!

[imokit]

Mr or Mrs or Miss in the UK at school age (unless they have a PHD in which case its Dr)

University - Dr if PHD otherwise it depends on the teacher and university.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

I was quite taken about the funny and exciting-to-read Harry Potter discussion, that were sparked on the other threads now.

So let´s have a thread about it!

Talk about why you love it or why you hate it.

What´s the best part, what´s the worst part and what a child (or a teen, or a adult!) could gain from it.

And what else books are dear to you?

What are you reading to your children and at what age? What do you let them read?

In the Nym household, we keep to the classics, mostly. My oldest is going to be a First Grader in September.

That´s our Children´s Book Style:

Grimm´s fairy tales and similar fairy tales, Austrian Folk Tales and similar, Wilhelm Busch´s rhyming picture stories, Mira Lobe ("The little I-am-I"), Else Ury (Short Stories and Nesthäkchen), Paul Biegel ("Tulle Dwarfs"),... you get the picture :).

Waldorf books like a Jahreszeitenbuch/the Year-around-book are also really great!

Would you recommend Harry Potter for a under-10yrs-old?

Valerie loves everything with witches, fairies, ghosts and all the like. We already started "That Lovely Mister Devil" from Christine Nöstlinger

And both my girls adore Bibi Blockberg! :lol:

Mr Nym says, although he isn´t a fan of Harry Potter character, he likes that it seems to create a quite positive image about Boarding Schools, so he is okay with us both reading the first book together with her, if she would like it.

I love how you sound so middle European, usually when I read american-australian "classic" childhood books lists I find that I know none of the listed.

As a child I liked Christine Nöstilinger and Mira Lobe a lot. An illustrated book of german fairy tales (not the usual grimm ones) was the first one that made me love reading, until that moment I had been forced to read some very stupid little books (about dumb little birds always losing themselves far away from the nest) for school and I hated it with my whole little self. And then one of my travelling aunties gave me that fairy tales book, I fell in love and became a bookworm (or a "library rat" as we say in Italy) for the rest of my life.

As a child I liked Astrid Lindgren a lot, funnily her only books I've never read were those on Pippi Longstockings, I preferred the adventures of Martina and Emil was my myth. I also loved all roald dahl's books, I still have them all. Unfortunately here he is known only for his children's books so I found his short stories only studying English in high school (on my own, the only book our incompetent teacher ever asked us to read was an eased version of the dubliners) and I fell in love all over again with his writing and with English as a language (previously I hated it, unfortunately I had a lot of ignorant english teachers and compared to ancient greek, latin, german and italian it felt very plain and quite dumb on the grammatical side).

About HP I can only say read it! It's marvellous, really beautiful and enchanting. It's a sort of modern bildungsroman, so very appropriate for someone who is growing up. I think you can read the first three ones with your child, for the others you can wait not because of the scary parts (that I honestly don't think are truly scary) but because you need some more life experience to really enjoy them.

I also loved a french book by sempé e goscinny about the adventures of a child named nicholas but I don't know the original title, I still reread it when I need a laugh.

About the italians I loved (and still love, I have even started reading one of them to my daughter even if she's only 2.5, but it talks a lot of poo so she finds it amusing) Bianca Pitzorno books. No idea if they are published abroad though.

In my opinion it's important as a parent to remember Pennac's decalogue of the reader's rights and you will not make mistakes. I'll let my daughter read whatever she wants (as I did) but I'll be aware of what she reads (unlike my mother) and ready to talk about it.

[Mandysue]

Phantom Tollbooth is still one of my favorites!

Harry Potter too.

I also enjoyed Sammy Keyes and the Alice Series, along with the classics like Ramona, Babysitters Club, Fudge/Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing, Trixie Beldon, Chaaalie and the Chocolate Factory, Encyclopedia Brown, etc.

I loved Trixie Belen and the series about the nurse...Student Nurse, Visiting Nurse, etc.

I was in my late 20's/ early 30's when Harry's Potter came out. I didn't read the because they were children's books and the magic stuff. The music minister of my former church was reading the 6th one at church camp :pink-shock: and that led into a discussion. So I read the first one and then the second one....

And six weeks later I was waiting for the last one.

My mom read them after she retired. It took her two weeks to finish them. She called me at uugodly to ask me if Harry died. I refused to tell her even after she saids she would ground me. (I live two hours away)

I like them because it has strong female characters, it deals with social issues. And the relationships. OMG it is really about the realtionships. I also like series books.

I have read them four times that I recall. I have the movies but still get excited when ABC Family declares a Harry Potter weekend.

I was encouraged to read. I was encouraged to have an imagination from an early age. (I got my first library card when I was five! Go mom!) if I could get my hands on it I could read it. (I was not allowed to fluff books, like romance novels)

My favorite books are books based on history but they don't slap you with it. Like the Help. I downloaded Go Set A Watchman and will probably read that this weekend.

Sorry this was long. I love books!

[drivingmishcrazy]

I love Harry Potter! I started reading them at age 7, and I honestly feel like the books grew with me. Definitely a huge influence in childhood and young adulthood, even now at the ripe old age of 21 almost 22, it's my constant.

Funny thing about pottermore, my first account, I was sorted into Gryffindor, then when I forgot my account information and made the one I have now at 21, I was sorted into Slytherin :lol:

I don't have kids, but my favorite children's book, or one of them, is Matilda by Roald Dahl. Anything by Dahl, really. Others I really like are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis, and Coralie by Neil Gaiman. I'm working on the LOTR series but I have so many books and not enough time. :lol: I have read The Hobbit, though, and I loved it.

I wish I knew where my Inkworld books went, I never finished the series but I loved Inkheart. There was another book I read that was about the characters of a book and what happens when no one was reading it, I wish I remembered the title because it was one I enjoyed as a kid!

[keen23]

I love Harry Potter! I started reading them at age 7, and I honestly feel like the books grew with me. Definitely a huge influence in childhood and young adulthood, even now at the ripe old age of 21 almost 22, it's my constant.

Funny thing about pottermore, my first account, I was sorted into Gryffindor, then when I forgot my account information and made the one I have now at 21, I was sorted into Slytherin :lol:

I don't have kids, but my favorite children's book, or one of them, is Matilda by Roald Dahl. Anything by Dahl, really. Others I really like are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis, and Coralie by Neil Gaiman. I'm working on the LOTR series but I have so many books and not enough time. :lol: I have read The Hobbit, though, and I loved it.

I wish I knew where my Inkworld books went, I never finished the series but I loved Inkheart. There was another book I read that was about the characters of a book and what happens when no one was reading it, I wish I remembered the title because it was one I enjoyed as a kid!

Jasper Fforde has a whole series, the Thursday Next series, that centers on what happens in books when no one is reading them. It's not a kids series however. But it is delightful.

[FundieFarmer]

It's Harry Potter weekend on abc family, so you can guess where I am! My all-time favorite character is Prof. McGonagall...and my favorite scene was when she called the statues to defend the school. She also told Prof. Flitwick to say Voldemort's name because he was coming for him no matter what he was called-what a good lesson to face fear head on. I love the strong female characters in the series!

[ghost]

I need help on Pottermore anyone willing to friend me send me a PM and I'll give you my info or you can give me yours and I'll send a friend request. Also spell casting advice needed so I can enter the secret hall. I discovered the Harry Potter books as an adult and loved them. As a kid I read The Hardy Boys then moved on to adult mysteries. I loved CS Lewis.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

What an awesome thread and not just because you've confirmed that I'm not the only grown woman to go to pottermore to be sorted. (Another Ravenclaw - I'm seeing s pattern here.)

Have loved HP since my eldest got the first book when it came out. We've been lining up for opening day for new books ever since. Abput once a book JK will put something In their that will move me to tears no matter how many times I read it. In book 1 when Dumbledore tells Harry how his mom's love left the indelible mark on him...I lose it every time.

And of course between Snape and Dumbledore after its shown his patrons us was a doe.."Still, Severus?" "Always!" I kept wishing she'd bring Lily back and let her give him some loves...seriously it's Alan Rickman.

It's probably silly to identify with a fictional kid, but I lost my parents within a few months of each other when I was in my 20s and Harry's grief resonated with me. Yeah, life goes on and you aren't in the fetal position anymore, but there is always something missing...just never the same without them and the loss just becomes part of you.

Did JKR have brothers? She wrote that scene in the woods where Ron comes back and kills the locket really well. Where he's exposed and humiliated in front of Harry for all his insecurities ...a lesser story teller would have made it a Dr. Phil moments but got teenage boys in that scene. Awkward bro support and pretend it never happened.

Other books from childhood were Mrs Pigglewiggle mentioned up thread - yes! My kids never loved them and I am still annoyed about that. Little house, Heidi, Little Women, anything Judy Blume, and Fifteen (years before my time but I still want an id bracelet) and anything I could get my hands on. Oh and Diary of Anne Frank.

My aunt would drag my mom to garage sales and my mom would always bring home books for me. Every so often a huge box of unsorted books which was like buried treasure to me. In one of these random boxes when I was 11 or so there was this book that I've always remembered but not the name. Now I know it was fundy, but I had no name for that at the time. About a girl named Joy who had a twin brother and they called themselves PKs (preachers kids) and they went somewhere with their folks and in parts it was a normal tween book and then other parts she would talk about wanting to so things she wasn't allowed to do and feeling guilty for wanting to when she knew it was wrong, but things I was allowed to do. Go to the movies, maybe? TV? Nail polish? Some normal, typical activity and the essence was that wasn't she lucky and that her parents loved her and her brother so much to protect them from those things.

I can still remember feeling bad, like my parents rules and my life was something good people needed to be protected from.

Now it's going to bother me until I find the name of the book. Does this sound familiar to anyone.

There was another book about chicken spaghetti that had a huge impact on me as well. I don't remember the name but I was early grade school when I read it. Story was a young African American girl who's grandma and mom worked so hard and scrimped so she could have chicken spaghetti and striped ice cream for her birthday dinner. i wept for this fictional girl, because though I had been told that some other people had a lot less materially which is why we give to charity, this was the first time I understood it emotionally.

Yikes - way too ramblely...books and Harry Potter and I do t shut up.

[Janes Heir]

What an awesome thread and not just because you've confirmed that I'm not the only grown woman to go to pottermore to be sorted. (Another Ravenclaw - I'm seeing s pattern here.)

Ravenclaw here, too; just got officially sorted last night, after having read the books for the first time this summer at age 21. It does make sense Ravenclaws would be curious about the minutiae of life in another culture, viz fundamentalism.

I'm a literature student and greatly value ambiguity. However, I must confess I would seriously consider a child's maturity before introducing them to HP at a young age, due to the ambiguity of various character's morality. As someone may have suggested upthread, the fact that readers could grow with the increasing complexity of the books was probably a benefit of the era when the series was a phenomena.

[princessmahina]

I love Harry Potter! I started reading them at age 7, and I honestly feel like the books grew with me. Definitely a huge influence in childhood and young adulthood, even now at the ripe old age of 21 almost 22, it's my constant.

Funny thing about pottermore, my first account, I was sorted into Gryffindor, then when I forgot my account information and made the one I have now at 21, I was sorted into Slytherin :lol:

I don't have kids, but my favorite children's book, or one of them, is Matilda by Roald Dahl. Anything by Dahl, really. Others I really like are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis, and Coralie by Neil Gaiman. I'm working on the LOTR series but I have so many books and not enough time. :lol: I have read The Hobbit, though, and I loved it.

I wish I knew where my Inkworld books went, I never finished the series but I loved Inkheart. There was another book I read that was about the characters of a book and what happens when no one was reading it, I wish I remembered the title because it was one I enjoyed as a kid!

I'm so happy to see another Slytherin on here! I was really disappointed when I was sorted- was really, really hoping for Ravenclaw- but I've come to terms with it. After all, there were good people in Slytherin- and not everyone bad came from there either.

As a child, I had no interest in reading the series. Honestly, I thought it sounded stupid- Hogwarts? Quidditch? What ludicrous names! I have a fundie-lite aunt who sent my parents an email warning them about the dangers of Harry Potter though, so my mother bought the first one and had me read it. She wanted it on display when we went to visit,because she hated my aunt. Sometimes it's hard to believe I got so into it because of spite :lol:

Sometimes I feel like sending my aunt a thank you card for sending that stupid email. My life is vastly improved by being such a Potter nut. I'm even working through the first one in Latin! It's funny how things work out sometimes :)

[16strong]

Officially sorted in to Ravenclaw on Pottermore over here!

There is too much I love about Harry Potter to even answer all the things OP asked to get conversations going! The books first came out when I was in 3rd/4th grade and obsession just kinda over took me. I've been Hermione for more Halloweens than I can count. The books always provided me with a safe haven to retreat into when I was angry or upset. Harry Potter is just so freaking awesome. And I just love how well planned the entire series is, like in OotP when they were cleaning out Sirius's home JK Rowling briefly mentions there's a locket no one can open and it turns out to be Horcrux. Everything mentioned in the series has a purpose.

Also there was a study that showed kids who grew up reading Harry Potter are more empathetic and don't stereotype as much as other groups: http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... ry-potter/

Another Ravenclaw here. I refused to read Harry Potter because it was so popular and all the kids my age were going gaga over it, talking about nothing else. Well, that year I did something dangerous: I told my mother she could get me anything for my birthday. Big mistake (or so I thought at the time). I got two Harry Potter paperbacks and a movie on VHS. I'm still scratching my head over that one, as it was 1999, and well... we all know about what VHS tapes were doing then. :lol: So I begrudgingly read them. LOVED THEM. Had to get the third, and got all the rest the day they came out, read them all in 24 hours.

[princessmahina]

So, not to brag, but I share a birthday with Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling :) Totally makes up for all those birthdays without parties.

[OkToBeTakei]

Well just to make you all a wee bit envious, I've just booked tickets to take the child to see HP and the Philosopher's Stones at an outdoor night viewing.................at.....Alnwick Castle! (used in the movie.)

:geek:

I'm excited. Also I'm British so worried about the weather :lol:

[Geechee Girl]

At UU church today, the lay minister touched on identity using the Houses in Hogwarts and Divergent classes to illustrate personality traits.

[drivingmishcrazy]

I'm so happy to see another Slytherin on here! I was really disappointed when I was sorted- was really, really hoping for Ravenclaw- but I've come to terms with it. After all, there were good people in Slytherin- and not everyone bad came from there either.

As a child, I had no interest in reading the series. Honestly, I thought it sounded stupid- Hogwarts? Quidditch? What ludicrous names! I have a fundie-lite aunt who sent my parents an email warning them about the dangers of Harry Potter though, so my mother bought the first one and had me read it. She wanted it on display when we went to visit,because she hated my aunt. Sometimes it's hard to believe I got so into it because of spite :lol:

Sometimes I feel like sending my aunt a thank you card for sending that stupid email. My life is vastly improved by being such a Potter nut. I'm even working through the first one in Latin! It's funny how things work out sometimes :)

Slytherins unite! The way I see it, Slytherins aren't necessarily bad or good, they are, however, a little bit morally gray when the situation calls for it. :lol: And I can't remember where I read this, but iirc, there was *some* evidence suggesting that Barty Crouch Jr. may have been a Hufflepuff. Don't quote me on that though, I may just be biased because I RPed him for a few years...

My aunt gave them to me, too. I was a bit young though when I first received them, though, like 6, so it took a year to get me interested in them, though. Something about Aunts, huh?

(As an aside, I'm probably the only one who really cares, but the book I was thinking of previously was called The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley)

[mango_fandango]

Another HP fan here...

I haven't joined Pottermore so don't know what I'd be sorted as. I don't really 'fit' into any of the houses: I'm not particularly cunning, ambitious or hardworking. I think I mostly fit the Gryffindor profile, but IDK. I also have Weasleyish red hair so I might be a little biased...

I think I just love HP because the characters are pretty relatable. I also really admire how huge and detailed JK Rowling made the Potter world- the spells, the creatures, and all those characters amongst other things. You can really get into the whole world and just 'slip away' for hours. I love it.

[Nomorearrows]

Ravenclaw here as well.

*whispers* I joined Pottermore when I was 20 years old.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

Gryffindor here :)

I thought I would be a Ravenclaw 'cause I'm a big bookworm but...

[VelociRapture]

Slytherins unite! The way I see it, Slytherins aren't necessarily bad or good, they are, however, a little bit morally gray when the situation calls for it. :lol: And I can't remember where I read this, but iirc, there was *some* evidence suggesting that Barty Crouch Jr. may have been a Hufflepuff. Don't quote me on that though, I may just be biased because I RPed him for a few years...

My aunt gave them to me, too. I was a bit young though when I first received them, though, like 6, so it took a year to get me interested in them, though. Something about Aunts, huh?

(As an aside, I'm probably the only one who really cares, but the book I was thinking of previously was called The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley)

Hello Fellow Slytherins! :dance:

Fun story, my sister and I joined Pottermore at the same time - she got sorted into Hufflepuff and I got Slytherin. . . which is pretty much the exact opposite of what we expected (she always insisted she was a Slytherin, while I could have been Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff). Mom told us she was no longer going to acknowledge us as her kids because of this - she was ashamed to have a Slytherin and Hufflepuff in the family. :lol:

I honestly don't remember who gave me the first book. I remember we read a chapter in 6th grade Language Arts (about a year after the first book came out) - I wasn't really interested in it at that point. Now I'm a rabid fan and our love for the books has forged a really strong friendship between my sister and I.

Ravenclaw here, too; just got officially sorted last night, after having read the books for the first time this summer at age 21. It does make sense Ravenclaws would be curious about the minutiae of life in another culture, viz fundamentalism.

I'm a literature student and greatly value ambiguity. However, I must confess I would seriously consider a child's maturity before introducing them to HP at a young age, due to the ambiguity of various character's morality. As someone may have suggested upthread, the fact that readers could grow with the increasing complexity of the books was probably a benefit of the era when the series was a phenomena.

I babysat a family of three girls for years starting when I was 16. Around the time the youngest was five (and I was 21) their parents started reading the first book to them at bedtime. They loved when I read to them because I did all sorts of voices for the characters. :lol:

I think its fine to introduce books with ambiguous characters to young kids as long as the parent or a trusted adult is there to give some guidance and explain things as needed. The girls I watched had questions I was able to help answer and they always wanted to read more than one chapter. It thrilled me to see them so invested in the books and characters!

[Exposedknees]

I am a 50 year old Harry Potter fan. I loved reading the books, and the overall HP phenomenon. I was lucky that my kids born in 92, and 95 were the perfect age to experience the whirlwind..... book release parties and midnight movie premieres in costumes. I encouraged it- it was excitement about a BOOK! My now adult kids emerged unscathed from their early exposure to wizardry. We continue to enjoy other young adult series and discuss them, even though one is in graduate school and the other college. It's really hard for me to wrap my head around vilifying HP and banning it in schools, especially because the core message is friendship. :geek:

[ADoyle90815]

Gryffindor here, at least that's where I usually get sorted in, including at a themed party I went to. I was surprised I didn't get into Ravenclaw because I was always a bookworm starting as a child as my parents encouraged reading. I was in college when the first book came out, but I eventually got into them because of the movies. I think one of the reasons I started reading the books was that so many people wanted them banned. To me, if a story about child wizards and their friendship got children into reading, I was in favor of those books.

[Fundie Bunny]

Proud hufflepuff over here. I was 4 or 5 when the first movie came out. I was amazed about it. Then, when I was 8, my older cousin lent me her book, the 4th. I got books number 1 2 and 3 over the next few months. I grew with harry Potter. One of the best memorias of my childhood is the moment I saw my harry potter and the deathly hallows for the first time. Three days before its expected release in spain. I'lk never forget how i open ed it for the first time or how afected I was over mad eye death.

Harry potter was a big part of my life, and I would like to bring attention to the issue of how some people thought it was witchcraft. Has anyone read that fanfiction in wich dumbledore was a southern baptist priest and instead of mágico they prayed? That was a fucking travesty and someone should be fined for having written that shit