10.11.2009

Publishing phenomenon

In the 1990’s, one of the themes widely discussed in the world was children’s unwillingness to read books.

When the first Harry Potter book appeared to stunning success, teachers and parents alike began to talk about its role in making children read. It was confirmed with the publication of each new book in the series, with people traveling from far and wide, and standing in lines at midnight to be the first buyers of the next installment in the saga. The language is very good, with its allusions to English literature and history on every page. Many of the words invented by the author are now part and parcel of the language, like “muggles”. If you wish to explore the vocabulary, however, you will find that many of those neologisms have roots in the existing European languages.

The characters and the plot will keep you fascinated, and you will return to the books again and again, to discuss them with your students, and to conduct Web research for various student conferences, your own open lessons, and maybe your methodological essays. The sites are many and various, they are constantly renewed, so there is plenty of data for you to discover and enjoy.

J.K. Rowling’s biography, her “from rags to riches” life, beginning with her divorced mother existence on welfare, and continuing to the top selling author of all time, with about a billion (in dollars) to her name, is an inspiration in itself.

If you have children of your own, buying up all the seven books now may prove to be a good investment. First of all, you will have a series of books which your child will actually love reading in English. Secondly, when the first book was published in a trial run of 1,000 copies, nobody could predict their upcoming popularity. Now a copy of that first edition costs thousands of dollars. Who knows, maybe if you buy the whole set now, it will grow in value in the future. After all, what we see now is the first set ever. Though to be honest, we don’t think that anybody will wish to ever part with Harry Potter!

Yours sincerely, Reader

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