How the series we all grew up with still manages to be a part of our ever-changing lives.
Every winter I crave to read something familiar, so naturally I pick up the two book series that defined my childhood: Harry Potter and Little House on the Prairie. The amount of times I have read (and re-read) these books has broken the spines, softened the edges, and dog-eared the pages. This year, like every other, I picked up Harry Potter and the books have resonated with me as they never had before.
When I was seven, I wrote J.K. Rowling a letter thanking her for writing these books, at this time it felt, for me. I still have her response and I fully intend to write her another. These books, which mean the absolute world to me, deal with issues in our daily lives such as the impact of media, common core, death, prejudices, love. The list just goes on and on.
The amount of times that this series has brought tears to my eyes has been insane. I will simply be reading what’s going on in Hogwarts in class, then all of the sudden I have to hide my eyes. I have been eating, brushing my teeth, “trying” to do homework while rifling through the pages. I even considered driving and reading since every second I am not devoted to the series is a moment wasted. These characters became my family in only seven short books, everything that happens to them, happens to me.
I could write this review forever. It’s honestly a beautiful series and it brought tears to my eyes as I was nearing the last chapter of The Deathly Hollows. As a senior, reading it for (what it felt like) one last time, I realized that this book symbolized so much of my childhood. There was a feeling inside me that I can’t quite place but, it made me so nostalgic. Reading the last one, it felt like the last time I would be able to heroically defeat Voldemort alongside Harry, even if I knew it wasn’t true. J. K. Rowling has such a way of writing that these books don’t just feel like a part of a made-up story, instead, they are a part of our life. They shape how we think. They shape what we do. They shape who we are. I have never been able to find another book or series like it. I now need to go write her a long thank you note.
I obviously cannot rate this series, so I won’t. But I strongly urge every one of you to read it if you haven’t, and obviously, re-read it if you have before!
