Harry Potter

This subject deserves its own post, and Maia would have it no other way were she the author of this blog. Mr. Potter, Hogwarts School, Quidditch, Harry's friends, and a myriad of other people--Muggles, wizards and witches alike--are almost constant topics of conversation around our house these days. Maia is entranced. She and Brian just finished their read-aloud of the second book in the series last night and I believe that the plan is to move on to Book Three, despite its increasingly scary subject matter. We're not pushing her, of course--if she ever asks to stop reading them or if her comprehension clearly isn't there (even with Brian's expert scaffolding), then they'll take a break from the series and go on to something else.

She's so deeply in love with the series right now that she asked me to take a camera phone picture of the movie screen of the final Harry Potter film when I went to see it on Saturday evening. :)

As an enthusiastic and unapologetic book nerd myself, I am thrilled by this recent development in her reading tastes. I'm also deeply grateful to Brian--he's dedicated hours to this, reading to her every night without fail, asking questions, checking for understanding, and sharing her joy. They were so excited to finish Book Two yesterday that Brian brought the book in the car with us on our downtown outing and read while I drove, and then read some more as we sat in the afternoon sun at the Zingerman's patio.

I've never seen Maia have as much sustained enthusiasm for anything as she has for this, and the coolest part is watching her develop as a reader and an artist because of it (in part). She draws these charming pictures of the book's characters; Harry comes complete with now-stylized messy hair, lightning bolt scar, glasses, and a wand in his hand. There are unicorns, giants, depictions of Hogwarts classrooms, wizards with long beards, and versions of baby Harry all swaddled in blankets and laying on the Dursleys' steps.

Above all I love the "push" that this has given her with regards to the content of the books she's reading with Brian. I probably love it in part for selfish reasons--I remember being a young reader and desperately wanting to read books that were well beyond developmental appropriateness. I read them, and often didn't completely understand them, and I know for sure that I missed the meaning of some content, but I kept pushing myself again and again simply because the challenge felt joyful. I was anything but bored with my books. Maia's not reading books independently yet, but she's able to sound-out words and write in her invented "Maia spelling" (which sometimes matches what we call "dictionary spelling," and sometimes doesn't), and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the challenges that the Harry Potter books have given her spill over into a leap in other areas of her literacy.