I was a very talkative and active child. I enjoyed being outside and playing sports more than anything else. This story outlines the first time that I realized that I could find joy in reading. Before this time I hadn’t ever really found anything that could entertain me like the outdoors did. I realized that my imagination was more powerful than I had ever thought. I found a new hobby and passion that has stuck with me throughout my 25 years. Students may be interested in the fact that my literary beginnings started on paper and progressed from there.
It’s October of 1997, I just finished brushing my teeth vigorously in anticipation. Tonight was the night that my mom was going to start reading us the first Harry Potter book. The rules were clear: teeth had to have been brushed, pajamas had to be on, and no sibling altercations could occur. My mom was sitting in the small chair across from a giant bean bag my brother and I would soon occupy.
This is a mother reading to her two small sons.
The book had arrived less than two days prior from my grandmother in England as it had not been released in the country yet. The sound of the cover cracking as it was opened for the first time is a sound that I’ve remembered until this day, and is also one that holds much influence on my life. After reading the first chapter I was enamored by a source of literacy that had never captivated me in such a profound way. Nothing else in the world seemed to be real aside from the mental images I was experiencing through my mother’s reading. My brother, who had been nudging me to get more than his fair share of room on the chair, wasn’t even phasing me. I was hooked.
For the next hour I sat in silence, which for me, was unheard of. Story time up to that point had always involved a picture book and I was skeptical of how reading one without pictures was going unfurl. Until that night, the illustrator’s ideas of how the scenes were laid out and how the characters looked was all that I had to go on. Little did I know I was in for a great awakening. The images that I was forming in my head were more vivid and poignant than any image that I had ever seen on television. The realization that I could have my very own narrative come to life in my imagination was one that I have never forgotten. Every character had their own face and wardrobe. Every scene laid itself out in front of me as if it were realistically developing with every word. There were a few vocabulary words that I didn’t quite understand at the time, but that’s where having a teacher for a mother came in handy. Any time she would see my face contort in confusion she would pause and define the word that confused me. Seconds later we were back to the story, which was all that I wanted.
As time went on and the series continued to be expanded and published every year the anticipation stayed consistent. Although the first three books were read to me due to my age and lack of literacy based on vocabulary, I continued to expand my understanding. A year after the first night, while I was in the middle of the second installment of the series being, the film of the first book came out and I had never been so excited to see a movie in my life. I was, of course, expecting the movie to look exactly the way it had in my head while having it read to me. Oh, how wrong I was! I remember seeing the movie and immediately being thoroughly disappointed. I had many questions running through my mind; “Why had they skipped over whole chapters? Why were there characters missing from the movie that were in the book? Why do the characters look different than what I had imagined?” It was then that my visual literacy collided with my auditory literacy. I had formed all of these images and characters in my head based off of the words on a page and now it was being shown to me in a whole new perspective. I realized that the power of the words would always outweigh what any movie could possibly create outside of my own head
By the time the third book was being released in the United States, my brother and I, along with an entire community of other youth at the time, were immeasurably hooked on the story we had fallen in love with years ago. The release dates for the books held much more anticipation for both of us than the movies being released. By that time, I was old enough that my mom would let me go with her and my brother to the midnight release at Borders Bookstore. Given that the novels normally came out in the summer school nights were no longer a problem for my mother or I. People were in costumes and had been lining up outside of the store for the entire day in anticipation. Kids were battling sleepiness while sitting on the floor, waiting for what seemed like a lifetime. I had never been allowed to stay up until midnight and it held a special meaning for me to be allowed to do so for something that I so badly anticipated. The look of excitement on the attendees faces that were walking past us in line with their crisp new book made me so jealous because they would get a head start; even if it was a mere ten minutes.
Long line outside of Borders bookstore that shows what bookstores everywhere looked that were having midnight releases for a new Harry Potter book.
As an adolescent, the publishing of the fourth installment of the Harry Potter series secured my investment in novels and a larger interest in literature. Investment in the series allowed me to develop a greater relationship with content distribution through a variety of mediums, including auditory, visual, and text based. I had an extremely profound experience engaging with the plot prior to witnessing it on a larger screen. Engaging with a particular piece of literature can prepare you for additional circumstance and experiences that you would otherwise not be informed of. Novels depict stories, and individuals’ stories educate others.
From the first night I made a running leap into that beanbag chair to the last sentence I read of the series, the Harry Potter series formed who I am as a literate and creative person today. I realized the power words could have when they were strung together eloquently. I appreciated the visual images I was able to form from them, and I learned that no matter how visually appealing a novel-based movie could be that it would never hold the same power for me. I heard the voices of characters that I felt like I knew personally. I experienced an inclusive, expansive, and collective literary beginning.