Why My Family Is Reading Harry Potter This Year

NOTE: This post contains a spoiler about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so if you have not finished the series and are planning to, you may want to skip it.

My last two blog posts have been related to the Harry Potter series, and I know anytime this series is mentioned in Christian circles there’s usually a lot of strong feelings on it. My husband and I both love the series, even though we weren’t allowed to read it as kids,

and enjoyed the series for the first time in college. I’m currently on my third reread of the series in preparation for reading the books with my kids this year for our homeschool (we are actually doing a unit study based around the books, so it will be a large part of our homeschool year). If you have already decided against Harry Potter, I’m not going to try and change your mind. We, as parents, need to each spend time in prayer about what is appropriate for our children, and I believe it’s okay for that to be different from family to family (sometimes even from kid to kid). But I do want to share my heart behind why I love these books, and why I don’t believe it’s sinful to read them. So here’s a few reasons why we are reading Harry Potter:

1. There is a difference between magical story elements based on incantation versus ones based on invocation. Sarah Clarkson in Book Girl does an excellent job describing this: “Incantation involves the saying of spells… This is the presentation of magic as an element in a fantastical other-world (not the real world). Like electricity, magic is a neutral force that can be used for good or ill. Invocational magic is very different; it is a power gained through calling on a person or spiritual power and is the kind of magic we associate with the occult.” Invocational magic never occurs in the Harry Potter books; magic is performed at Hogwarts through a series of spells, charms, and the use of wands. There is no Satan worship in this series. I would also like to point out that if we are going to “ban” Harry Potter because of the use of magic, then we need to carefully consider what we ARE going to read and watch with our children; pretty much every single Disney movie contains magic (and I’m not just talking about today’s films; even the films from my childhood have it, whether it’s the fairy godmother in Cinderella or the talking animals in the Aristocrats). Are we still going to read the Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings? Because those obviously have magic, too.

2. J. K. Rowling herself has stated that her books have religious themes. If you’ve read the Deathly Hallows, you will know that Harry sacrifices himself to Voldemort and then “returns” from what essentially represents Heaven. And the protection Harry has because of his mother’s sacrifice is undeniably a Biblical theme. Even the basic good vs. evil story arc is essentially a Biblical theme. Obviously, Rowling didn’t have a motive of promoting the gospel through her writing. But I believe that God can use the culmination of years filled with being exposed to good, true, and beautiful stories to draw our children to Him; C. S. Lewis himself experienced this. Pardon me while I again quote Sarah Clarkson: “As a young man, Lewis was an atheist, one who totally embraced secular materialism. But like me, he was also a lover of stories– Norse myths and the Wind In the Willows, Arthurian legends and Dickens novels– and he felt that the books he loved communicated something holy, beautiful, and true. They filled him with a knowledge that he called joy, the sense of something eternal and good that simply didn’t fit the narrow box of materialism. Lewis came to faith largely because he grew to understand that what he encountered in those stories was every bit as true as a scientific statement of fact, because there’s more than one way to encounter reality… And here’s the key: the joy and assurance we find in reading a story is an instant when we know truth from the inside. We inhabit it. Lewis loved the myths surrounding the Norse god Balder, who died a sacrificial death, and realized later that what he loved in that tale was its echo of the true God incarnate coming to die in order to save the world.” Let’s teach our children to recognize God’s great storyline in the everyday books they read.

3. The Harry Potter books are arguably some of the greatest children’s literature written in the last century. Now let’s move away from the Spiritual to the academic reasons to read Harry Potter. This series shows all of the marks of great literature: a central theme tied through the whole series, story arcs from great literature that has gone before, a unique world that is really unlike any other ever written, descriptive writing that is precise yet creates a clear picture; the characters are unique and well-rounded and we see character growth throughout the books not just with the central characters (Harry, Ron, and Hermione) but also with the characters we hate (like Malfoy and Dudley). These books are easy for students to make connections to other things they have read and their own life experiences, which is extremely important for young readers. I could go on for another couple pages with everything of great literary merit we see in these books, but you get the point. Often, and this is especially true of homeschool circles, we see a push to ONLY read the classics, and while I understand where it comes from, I think it’s wise to remember that there are many great works of literature that have been written in more recent years, and I do think our children will benefit from studying them.

Again, I want to reiterate that I’m not trying to change your mind about the Harry Potter books if you are already decided against them; that is between you and God, and I do believe that He has equipped each of us to know what is best for our children. But if you are coming away from this considering reading the books with your own family, I do want to offer a few words of caution (as I would with any book that could be deemed questionable, even the Narnia books): 1) My husband and I have personally chosen to read these types of books alongside our kids when they are first exposed to them; the same goes for Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Percy Jackson, Wingfeather Saga, etc. This allows for conversations around magic as needed, as well as the heavier topics in these books like death and the battle against evil. 2) My children are all well aware that magic isn’t real and are operating off that assumption as we read the series; if any of my children were struggling with being “overly” imaginative in this area, I would NOT expose them to these books at this time. And that is obviously something that we will monitor as we read them. 3) While I do believe my kids are developmentally ready to read the first few books, I will still be watching as we read the series and if at any point they become too much, we won’t continue. The same goes for the movies: just because we read the books doesn’t mean we will watch all the movies and will again be based on what our kids can handle.

I will leave you with this reminder: YOU are your child’s parent for a reason and God has equipped you with all you need to raise them according to His Word and by His strength. I hope you’re planning to enjoy some great books with your kids as you prepare for a new school year!