An interesting sidenote before we begin. L.M. Montgomery (Lucy Maude Montgomery) wrote her first Anne of Green Gables book in 1908. The publishers at the time would not publish a book authored by a woman, so she used her first two initials to hide her gender.
J.K. Rowling submitted her manuscript under her full name. However, the publishers didn't think that boys would like to read an adventure written by a woman, so they changed to her initials. ---- what a ways we've come this century. In any case J.K. Rowling has become a name to be remembered!

One of my favorite things about this amazing author is what she overcame to bring us Harry in the first place. The following will not be a complete biography of Ms. Rowling. Rather, I'm just pulling some examples from her life, as I think it shows very clearly in her books that she uses her life experiences to help her write, instead of hindering her dreams. To me, that is an example worthy of a hero.

As a young girl, Ms. Rowling dreamed of becoming an author. However, as is the case with most people, she was urged to do something "practical" that would support her in the world. Sound familiar to anyone? While my family has been supportive of me, there are plenty of other people in the world only too willing to tell us what we should be doing. Luckily for us though, she never lost her vision and hope of writing.

Among other things, Ms. Rowling worked in different countries teaching languages and English. She studied languages and Latin plays a big role in her books. She also has a very good grasp on history, myths, and legends. Clearly, she uses education and learning to help her advance in her life. (ok, enough of the stay in school plug hee hee).

When bad things happened to her in her life...depression and despair could've brought her down. In fact she said in an interview I saw on tv that she used these feelings in creating the dementors. They make you relive the worst moments of your life, over, and over again, sucking the happiness out of you. Makes me and other muggles look over our shoulders now and again when we're feeling the blues!!!

So, using things from the real world, Rowling helps us to feel at home in the world she creates. No long explanations are needed since we can readily identify most things in the books. I love that she uses myths and legends without preclude or explanation. These things are out there and the reader is free to find out more about them at their leisure. Incidentally....I've researched several of the ones I was less familiar with and the attention to detail is incredible! Something that seems like a very minor detail to the charector in the book is based on an important part of some myth! It is just this realism that makes the books so special.

Harry is a charector that we can identify with. His feelings and adventures can be so easily related to each of our lives. Sure, we probably won't ever have to worry about how to get onto platform 9 3/4, or fight a basilisk, or ward off a dementor, or get past a dragon, but who hasn't had to worry about going to a new place, or dealing with a bully, or confronting a fear, or accomplishing a seemingly impossible task?
Every one of his adventures can be parallelled to something that we have had to handle, or worry about having to face, or are going through at present. And instead of describing in perfect detail what Harry feels, (which she easily does with all the action around Harry), Rowling has allowed us to fill in the blanks with our own feelings, by using very vague adjectives. This makes Harry special to us, because it feels as if we were him.

Rowling is a master storyteller. Her style is such that we can so easily see the action and people playing out her manuscript in our heads. It's almost as if we were in a theatre instead of reading. She takes you into her world and keeps you there until the last page is turned, and sometimes even beyond.

Also, Rowling has made her stories kid friendly. So, you can get as deep into them as you want. You can enjoy them as a good fantasy, by just skimming the surface of the story, and yet still get good moral lessons, or you can really get into the magical universe and study it's laws, and lessons. The nice thing is that the good always prevails against the evil, yet not without consequence. Like the real world, there are still unpleasant things that happen and that are permenant. Death, predjudice, bullies, and the whole good vs. evil themes are present in each book.

Lastly, the books send out messages and morals without preaching at us. Predjudice is a very strong theme in all the books. We have yet to see how this will turn out as we still await the last three books in the series. We don't even know if it will be resolved. But, it is a subject that we have in the real world, and each of us deal with it and the world has yet to resolve this either. J. K. Rowling has said in several interviews that the good will always prevail against the evil. She has said that Harry will never be tempted to turn to the dark side. The message is that he will always stand for the good, and the right. He cannot be turned by the evil or the adversary. He makes mistakes sometimes, and yes, he sometimes breaks rules, but he's a sympathetic charector that tries to help when he can and stands up for those weaker than he. What better hero for our children today?