"...reassuring in its analysis of the moral core of the series.
Even parents who do not care to read the Potter books, but would
like to know what they are about, will find that the author's
analysis can help them discuss the book's moral choices and
themes with their children." Since the 1997 release of J. K.
Rowling's first novel - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone -
no series of children's books has been more incredibly popular
or widely influential. How do we explain the enormous appeal of
these stories to children? Should parents welcome this new
interest in reading among their kids or worry, along with the
critics, that the books encourage either moral complacency or a
perverse interest in witchcraft and the occult? In this original
interpretation of the Harry Potter sensation, Edmund M. Kern
argues that the attraction of these stories to children comes
not only from the fantastical elements embedded in the plots,
but also from their underlying moral messages. Children
genuinely desire to follow Har