I knew about the Harry Potter books long before I turned the first page of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (as it is known in the United States).  It seems as if the Harry Potter books have been on the New York Times Book Review's best sellers list forever.  The most recent edition I saw, 7 May 2000, listed the Rowling's books at positions three, four, and seven on the hardback list and at position eight on the paperback list.  The Chronicle of Higher Education reported, on 28 January 2000, that the top three books on college campuses at that time were Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes was number nine.   In its February 2000 issue, Locus: The Newspaper of the Science Fiction Field, reported that Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has won its author a third consecutive Nestle Smarties Prize in the 9-11 age group and "also appeared in the shortlist for the 1999 Whitbread Children's Book of the Year, and [was] the odds-on favorite to win the overall Whitbread Book of the Year prize" (10).  In fact, Rowling did not win the Whitbread prize; that went to Seamus Heany's new translation of Beowulf.  Sales of Rowling's books have been, as it were, through the roof; as of March 2000, Locus reports, 27.5 million copies of Rowling's books have been sold in more than 28 languages world wide.  Hollywood is getting ready to make the first (of many?) Harry Potter movie, and licensing arrangements have been made with Hasbro (for trading cards, card games, role-playing games, and candy) and with Mattel (for action figures, board games, and dolls) (11).  Mattel also owns the Barbie franchise--will Ken be replaced by Harry?  And Mad Magazine, in its March 2000 issue, published a satire entitled "Harry Plotter and the Kidney Stone" (#391, 21-28).

I must admit that the almost-instantaneous popularity of the Harry Potter books made me a bit suspicious.  Those who are scholars and critics in the field of fantasy literature have seen some books of very questionable quality, books such as Terry Brooks' The Sword of Shannara, become quite popular.  In the more tightly defined field of children's literature, the same might be said of everything the R.L. Stine factory has produced.  Perhaps I am just an elitist or a cynic who believes that anything that is popular can not be good.  That attitude was certainly reinforced when colleagues who are not in the fantasy field came up to me in the halls where I teach praising Rowling's books for, in the words of one of them, "pushing all the right buttons."  Hmmm.  Sounds as if we are talking about formulaic fiction here.  Right back to Terry Brooks and R.L. Stine.  And I might as well confess that one of the reasons for presenting this paper might have been--I say might have been--to poke a small hole or two in the Harry Potter balloon. . . .