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I know enough about Tolken to know that he discouraged people from reading too much allegory into his works. He wrote these stories as a way to pursue his love of linguistics. Creating the languages and the imaginary worlds were more fun for him then writing the stories themselves.

As for the Potter books, have you read them yourself or are you just judging them on what others have to say about them? I read all of them, if only to know what my kids were reading. While these are not the literary classics that Tolkien wrote, they are very enjoyable books and a step above most children's fare.

There are good characters in the Potter books as well. In fact, the headmaster (Dumbledore) is loosely modeled on the character of Gandalf. The protagonists in the books (Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione, Hagrid) are good, decent characters who fight the evil in the book much the same way as Frodo, Sam and the rest of the hobbits in LOTR. And I suppose the main villain in the Potter books (Voldemort) can be roughly based on Saruman.

Basically J.K. Rowling has cleverly integrated many of the elements of LOTR into her series. Of course, I'm not saying that Rowling comes close to equaling Tolkien. If you want to criticize the Potter books on their literary value, why that is fair game. But to allege that the Potter books "encourage children to engage in witchcraft" is almost too ludicrous to respond to, and you will realize this if you took the trouble to read just one of the books.

BTW, I know there are quotes from the books circulating around the Internet that make Harry Potter seem ominous and dangerous. But hey, using that same tactic, you could take an Ellsworth Toohey quote from "The Fountainhead" to prove that Ayn Rand is a communist.

I read the first two HP books before allowing my daughter to read them. I don't have a major beef with the HP books, except for their being far less serious and moral than Tolkien. But that applies to almost all books written today.

Which post of mine are you replying to? You may be confusing me with some of the HP bashers around.

I do however understand how some parents may object to their children being force-fed these books by public schools. I can even understand why some feel they are dangerous, even though I don't personally agree with their objections.