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The Mystery of Harry Potter - A Catholic Family Guide

WHAT EVERY FAMILY NEEDS TO KNOW...

The adventures of the boy wizard have provoked a vigorous debate among Christians. Whether your children have read the series or are planning to in the future, The Mystery of Harry Potter: A Catholic Family Guide will help you appreciate and address the series' underlying moral and spiritual themes.

Using her natural teaching skills and parenting experience, author Nancy Brown has created a must-read for every Catholic family as she walks you through her journey of discovery:

• Are the stories compatible with the Catholic faith?
• What moral and spiritual issues are addressed?
• What kind of role model is Harry Potter?
• How can I talk about these issues with my children?
• How are the movies different from the books?

  Here is a special word from the author to our customers.

  Dear Readers,

  I want you to know that I struggled with the Harry Potter issue for years. This book is a result of many months of research and prayer; my attempt to discern the facts and determine if Harry Potter was suitable material for my family. I am quite picky about what books our family reads. I either pre-read books or rely heavily on book reviews from sources I trust, usually in the Catholic homeschooling world. We don't watch TV in our house, and I carefully monitor what books our children bring home from the library.

  I was initially afraid of the Harry Potter books. From what I'd read and heard, the books were to be avoided in the Catholic home. There were dangers and we have many other choices in children's literature, so why choose something dangerous?

  However, with the popularity of the books, it was difficult to avoid the topic. After years of banning the books from our home, and with the help of discussions with a trusted Catholic homeschooling mother of seven, I finally decided that I had to do the work of finding out for myself what was in the Harry Potter books.

  What I found surprised me. I found an epic tale of good vs. evil. In complete keeping with fairy tales of old, the Harry Potter stories, I found, resonate with the human heart not because they are evil, but because they are good. It is good for us to read tales where evil must be overcome through difficult means because our lives are like that every day. I found elements that resonated with me, with my faith, with the spiritual life, and, after much research, prayer and thought, decided that despite all I'd heard to the contrary, the Harry Potter books were, in fact, good reading for our family.

  I wanted each Catholic family to be able to decide for themselves if Harry Potter was right for them. I don't think there can be any blanket statements such as "Harry Potter books are evil"; nor should anyone say, "Harry Potter is fine, just let your kids read them." I suggest in my book that if you do want to read them, or to let your children read them, they should be read together, as a family. The books provoked many discussions in our home, and in order to participate in those discussions, the parents need to know the names of the characters, how they act, who is friends with whom and so forth. In other words, the parent must read Harry Potter in order to discuss Harry Potter.

  So, I hope that this book will help anyone who is in that phase of discernment: wondering about Harry Potter or wondering if the books should come home from the library or not. By reading The Mystery of Harry Potter, I hope to give you the tools to decide what's right for your family.

  Thank you,

  Nancy Carpentier Brown

  Reviews

  "Now comes a fine appreciation of Rowling's achievement from a first rate writer, believer, and (to top it off) Chestertonian Catholic. Thanks, Nancy Brown, for doing justice to the greatest Christian fantasy epic of our generation." -- Mark P. Shea, Senior Content Editor, CatholicExchange.com

  "At last, the voice of Christian common sense is heard! Nancy Brown's careful study will provide reliable guidance to Catholic parents who seek to practice, and impart to their children, an attitude to contemporary fiction that is both open and discerning. I warmly recommend this book." --Father Pierre Ingram, CC, S.T.L.

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What I found surprised me. I found an epic tale of good vs. evil. In complete keeping with fairy tales of old, the Harry Potter stories, I found, resonate with the human heart not because they are evil, but because they are good. It is good for us to read tales where evil must be overcome through difficult means because our lives are like that every day. I found elements that resonated with me, with my faith, with the spiritual life, and, after much research, prayer and thought, decided that despite all I'd heard to the contrary, the Harry Potter books were, in fact, good reading for our family.

Bingo!

I suggest in my book that if you do want to read them, or to let your children read them, they should be read together, as a family. The books provoked many discussions in our home, and in order to participate in those discussions, the parents need to know the names of the characters, how they act, who is friends with whom and so forth.

These books have been the wellspring for many excellent discussions with my children on human nature, politics, bureaucracy, and the importance of making the right decisions when the wrong ones are seductively easy.

I've also found that when we listen to them on tape or CD during long trips makes the long trips into short ones (like magic!)...

[SuziQ]

Ah, so good to see there is a REASONED critique of the Harry Potter books available. I'm glad the author got over her kneejerk acceptance of others' criticisms and read the books for herself.

Our two younger kids and I each have our own sets of the books. We always discuss them when a new one has come out, or when one or the other of us has re-read one we already have. They're fun reads!

For folks looking for a series of books to read to their kids that are like the Potter books in that there is a clear delineation between good and evil, there are the 'Redwall' books. The characters in the books are all animals, and the good ones in several of the books live in Redwall Abbey, but again, as in the Potter books, there is no 'religion', just the struggle between good and evil. I used to read them aloud to our two younger kids, even when they got to the point where they could read on their own, just because I liked giving accents to the different characters, based on the pattern of speech I could detect in the writing. For example, the Moles talked with a distinctly Cockney accent, and the Hares sounded like 19th century British military officers. It was fun, and the kids got a kick out of it.