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Harry Potter Banned

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Back in 1990, JK Rowling was inspired to write the Harry Potter series while on a delayed train ride to London’s King Cross (Bloomsbury). She began writing the first notes for the future series, amassing thousands of paper notes about the possible story. Finally, in 1997 Ms. Rowling released the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone through Bloomsbury Publishers (Bloomsbury). The book soon became a bestseller and “the Harry Potter series is now published in 78 languages, with over 450 million copies sold across the world” (Bloomsbury). This popular series has also inspired eight movies, a play, and a themed amusement park.
While the series has had major success, there have still been many negative attitudes and …show more content…

Concerned parents have also started many different campaigns to ban the series from schools and libraries. Laura Mallory is one such crusader who maintains that the series is promoting evil and causing school shootings. Mallory stated, "They're not educationally suitable and have been shown to be harmful to some kids" ("Ban Harry Potter or Face More School Shootings"). She had been working to ban the books from her son’s school and lost her case against the Gwinnett County Board of Education in Georgia (“Ban”). The attorney representing the school board stated that the case was not a matter of whether or not Harry Potter is suitable for children, instead it is a matter of freedom of speech in schools and separation of church and …show more content…

The series has been an international bestseller for many years now and has encouraged million of children to love reading, including one little girl from Minnesota...me. The first years of my elementary school experience were difficult for me, mainly because I hated reading. No matter how hard my parents and teachers tried to encourage me to read more, I refused, annoyed by the mere idea. Finally, in second grade my teacher showed me a colorful hardcover book titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Although I was incredibly skeptical, I very soon changed my mind. From the first sentence of “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much” (Rowling, Joanne K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 7) to the very last line of “All was well” (Rowling, Joanne K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 759) the Harry Potter series captured my attention and imagination. Soon I became an avid reader, devouring each Harry Potter book, as well as any other book I could get my hands on, which caused my test scores in reading and vocabulary to skyrocket, putting me near the 90th percentile for reading for the rest of my elementary school career. By sixth grade, I was reading at a 12th grade level and loving every minute of

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