Why J.K. Rowling had me at "The Boy Who Lived"

I recently realized that J.K. Rowling just may be my favorite author ever.

Why?

There's a fairly long list of reasons, but it boils down to this: she gave me my childhood back.

Let me explain.

Growing up, I went everywhere with my nose in a book.  I had to be told not to walk and read at the same time.  (Trust me -- it's sound advice, especially near stairs.)

I never lost that love of reading, but the types of books I read certainly changed.  When I was in middle school, I had three favorite series.  The Nancy Drew books, penned by various authors writing as Carolyn Keene, C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, and Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet.

Nancy Drew was my early favorite.  I loved a good mystery, and the idea that a girl sleuth could solve serious mysteries (all while zipping around in a convertible, no less!), well, does it get any better?  The only aspect of the series that disappointed me -- aside from Ned Nickerson as Nancy's "boyfriend" -- was that Nancy was so darned good at solving those mysteries that no magic remained.  Just once, I wanted the ghost to be real.  I wanted a few things to remain unexplained.  I wanted to believe in a world with more possibilities.

So began my love affair with The Chronicles of Narnia and the Time Quintet.  Fauns!  Ice queens!  Epic battles!  Time travel!  YES!  These were things that captured my imagination and held me in thrall.  And yes, I was that odd kid who played dress-up and had imaginary friends long past the age where such play might be considered normal.

But then something happened.  I "grew up."  My view of the world changed, and my reading material did, too.  I read serious books.  I insisted on a bleaker view of the world, one in which good does not always triumph over evil.  After all, isn't that how life really works?

Still, in my writing, I returned time and again to myth and fantasy, time travel and alternate worlds, heroes and heroines who always prevail.  Clearly something of my childhood self not only remained, but still yearned for magic.

And along came Harry Potter.

My son was six or seven years old when we read Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone (the original British title).  We were both instantly hooked.  The language was beautiful and witty, the characters brilliant, the plot simultaneously dark and hopeful.  Rowling's keen insight into human nature and the state of the world didn't make things less magical, it made them more so.

As the years passed, my son and I devoured the series, waiting for each new book with the anticipation of a child waiting for Christmas morning.  We attended midnight release parties, mingling with muggles dressed as witches and wizards (clearly this is where the other odd kids had ended up), and enjoying the way my son's resemblance to Harry Potter made him a minor celebrity.  My son grew, and we graduated from reading the books aloud.  We each toted our own copy home instead, and curled into comfy chairs to read silently.  We'd punctuate the quiet with exclamations of, "Have you gotten to this part yet?" or, "Can you believe…?"  It was amazing.  Time travel WAS possible.  How else to explain that somehow my son and I were, in those moments, exactly the same age?

My son is 15 now, and I had a moment  the other day when the holiday hustle and bustle made me a bit nostalgic for the days when he was younger.  I realized, however, that I don't just miss him penning letters to Santa, so cleverly explaining why the big guy should overlook one instance of misbehavior or another.  I miss seeing him curled up in the chair opposite mine, riveted by the latest Harry Potter book.

And that is when I realized that J.K. Rowling just may be my favorite author ever.  Time travel is still possible, and she has made it so.

Last night I told my son I'm planning to re-read the entire Harry Potter series.

"Cool," he said.  He shrugged.  "Maybe I will, too."

I tried not to reveal how happy this idea made me.  (Rule Number One for dealing with a teenage son: never show enthusiasm for his planned participation in anything, or his plans will change.)

"If we read them at the same time, maybe we could talk about them," I suggested with careful nonchalance.  "You know, see if we have a different take on things this time around."

"We could," he said, shrugging again.  Then he looked at me with a wicked smile.  "Of course, you're going to have to work to keep up.  I can plow through those books in no time."

I laughed.  

Funny.  In that instant, we were both 10 years old again.  And as I look at the Harry Potter books piled on the table before me, I suspect that trend will continue for at least a little while.

www.ghostgirlsbooks.com

The future of reading?

Just about two years ago, one of my favorite authors, Sherman Alexie, got himself into hot water when he criticized the Amazon Kindle.  More specifically, it may have been HOW he criticized the Kindle, referring to it as "elitist" and saying he wanted to hit a woman he saw using one.  I recognized Alexie's humor, and also recognized that he would have all sorts of 'splaining to do.  But I got it.  I knew just what he meant.  And I felt his pain.

Let's be honest: e-readers ARE elitist.  Their price point is improving, especially with the recent introduction of the new Kindle lineup, but seventy-nine bucks might as well be a million if you're a kid living in poverty.  Reading and education have long been the most effective way out of poverty, and the accessibility of books is key.  If libraries and book stores start vanishing from neighborhoods in need, what will fill that void?

Beyond that, there's the whole experience of reading.  I like going to the library or my favorite book store.  I like taking my time deciding what I'll read next, thumbing through the pages and reading the book jacket.  I like the feel of a book in my hands, and the appearance of the words on a page.  The idea of reading a book on a screen offends my every sensibility as a writer and reader.

I know, however, that I am not representative of everyone.  My husband is an excellent case in point.  He has always enjoyed reading, but he'll generally opt for the easiest form of entertainment available.  Turning on the TV or surfing the internet used to be his primary rainy-day pursuits.  Then he bought a Kindle.  That was well over a year ago, and the darned thing has been a fixture under his nose ever since.  Why?  He can now access books with the same ease he can access TV or the internet, and it turns out, he prefers books.  He estimates he's read four to five times as many titles since buying his Kindle than he would generally read in the same time period.

Which makes me think of the demographic my books are geared toward: adolescents.

My 15 year old goes everywhere with an assortment of electronics: Android phone, iPod, PSP, etc.  He's always been a bookworm, but gone are the days of him spending an entire weekend devouring a novel.  Might an e-reader be just the thing to bring him (and other teens and tweens) back to reading?  I've noticed advertising geared toward getting e-readers and iPads into the hands of kids, and there is discussion among my teacher friends about getting e-readers into the classroom, so I can't be the first person to have thought of this.  Again, elitism looms as a potential problem, but I tend to be in favor of anything that will get more kids reading.    

Still, one thought terrifies me above all else: will e-readers make printed books obsolete?

Only time will tell.  I suspect the world of publishing is headed for a change similar to what the music industry went through with the introduction of MP3 players.  I can't imagine life without my iPod now (going for a run with a CD player?  no, thank you...), but when it comes to artists I really love, I still buy CDs and play them over and over again.  And there's a turntable in my office, so I can still listen to Ziggy Stardust on vinyl, start to finish, with that little break to flip from Side A to Side B (kiddos, ask your parents what I'm talking about).

Yep, I'm old school.  But I can be taught to move with the changing times.

My first two Ghost Girls Books are now available as e-books, and of course, the third one will be as well.  And while I hope y'all will still go to your local book store and pick up a real, honest-to-goodness book now and then, if reading my books on an e-reader makes you happy, I suppose I'm OK with that, too.

I've even decided that, in addition to the book giveaways that usually accompany a release of one of my books, we'll add a Kindle raffle to the mix.  (If you don't have an e-reader but desperately want one, you can check out my Facebook author page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Karen-Chilton/32878684065 

or follow me on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/#!/ghostgirlsbooks 

for details.)

I don't know what the future of publishing will look like, but as a reader and a writer, I know I want to be a part of it.  So I'll keep visiting my local library and book shop, and my hubby will keep curling up with his Kindle, and we'll see where the future takes us.