The End

By Rick Koster

Harry Potter is either dead or he's not dead, and at one minute after midnight Saturday, millions of people — many of them dressed as wizards or witches or gnomes — will queue up at bookstore cash registers all over the universe for the teary privilege of finding out.
Indeed: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and supposedly final novel of the series, will at that moment go public.

And while late-breaking reports suggest author J.K. Rowling has said she will not rule out revisiting the saga of the boy sorcerer somewhere down the road, the feeling is that, one way or another, this is the end of a very significant era.

Which is not to say future generations of young readers won't discover the seduction of the seven Potter novels — undoubtedly, they will — but at this point the original fans, whether kids who grew up with Harry or people who jumped on the bandwagon as adults, are at that final moment of suspense where there are Questions Still Unanswered.

It's perhaps the literary version of an “I knew Harry Potter when ... ” sort of issue, and it implies a sense of fraternity among loyal readers that can never happen again with this sense of virgin spirit and adventure.

The great triumph of the Potter Phenomenon — aside from Rowling's charming and underdog rise from welfare mom, struggling to scrawl manuscripts in coffee shops, to global financial, publishing and entertainment industry force — is the sheer volume of young persons who've become avid readers. And they've done so in an era of rapid technological advances that many folks suggest would have otherwise rendered the quaint idea of “reading for pleasure” as a bit of an endangered species.

“It has almost become a certain folk wisdom that says a lot of kids have come to reading through Harry Potter,” says Glenn Shea of the Book Barn in Niantic, “and there certainly seems to be a great deal of truth to that. A lot of kids who didn't read or even read for pleasure got started on the Harry Potter books.”

The six previous Potter books have sold more than 300 million copies. In America alone, Nielsen BookScan, the literary arm of the Nielsen Media Research, reports that 28 percent of people over the age of 12 have read one or more of the Potter novels — and 15 percent have read all six.

And, says Nielsen, 51 percent of Americans over 12 are aware that “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” is going to be published this month.

In the context of, well, anything, those are astounding figures. And who can say precisely how that awareness and all those books read extrapolate, in educational and social contexts?

“I don't think it's possible to quantify the Potter rage, but it's certainly significant,” writes Amy Bass, associate professor of history at the College of New Rochelle, who specializes in pop culture, in an e-mail. “And even more interestingly ... is that the kids aren't just reading — they socialize in Potter's world, with costumes and book parties and so on. They see the movies; they discuss the merits of cinema versus the details that only the books can provide. It has given them a whole world to grow with, to discuss the very serious things that Rowling has included in these books: death, life, family, friendship, school, prejudice.”

Of course, the Potter series inspired, for a while, a religious backlash from folks concerned about the occult in the stories.

“There was a backlash, but not so much anymore,” Bass says. “Lots of evangelical groups and people like them screamed about millions of children reading about the occult. I think that sentence should stop with 'millions of children reading.'”

Rowling's professional colleagues are of course aware of the success of the series, and while many, such as Stephen King, are themselves huge fans of the books, even those who haven't read Potter are impressed by the implications.

Bestselling thriller and literary novelist James Lee Burke says he enjoys Rowling's personal triumph as well as the global implications of the series' popularity. “I don't know much about the books because I haven't read them,” Burke says by phone last week, “but one of the maybe overlooked stories is that (Rowling) is one of those writers that worked so hard for so long and finally got the brass ring. And, of course, anything that encourages kids to read is a good thing.” Then, perhaps reflecting on the dark tone of his own novels, Burke laughs and adds, “Unless it's how to make a bomb or clean an AK-47.”

While the Potter novels undoubtedly will remain sought-after classics by an unending tide of future generations, it's legitimate to wonder what and if anything on the publishing horizon will have a similar impact. Or will there be a measurable fall off in young readers without Harry to carry the torch?

Deane Beverly, who taught elementary- and middle-school level reading in the Groton public school system for 32 years, has conducted several Potter discussion groups for the Connecticut Humanities Council, as well as one last week for the Groton Public Library. He acknowledges the unique power and scope of the Potter series — including becoming a fan himself. But he's not worried that an end to the series will disrupt reading trends.

“You always see changes in genre and distractions,” Beverly says. “Rowling's books are an obvious phenomenon; you had kids eagerly reading 700-page books. And they'll go on to something else. Maybe not 'War and Peace,' but you have to remember there have been other phenomena, too. Before Rowling came the R.L. Stine books. Kids who otherwise didn't read picked those books up, too, and then they went on. There will always be something else.”

Bass isn't worried, either. “Americans read. We always have,” she says. “We're an incredibly literate nation, and have been from the beginning. And we have all kinds of reading phenomena: 'The Lovely Bones,' 'The Da Vinci Code,' and so on. Adults and kids alike.”

Shea agrees. “I don't worry that there will be a sudden decline in young readers, despite the temptations of technology. I've worked at bookstores all my life and one thing I staunchly believe is that children of readers will become readers. It you want the kid to read, you read. And, thanks to Harry Potter, we're going to have a lot of adult readers for the next few generations.”