Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard

Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The series follows the adventures of Harry Potter, who is 11 when the series begins. Harry is shocked to learn on his 11th birthday that he is a wizard, meaning that he is imbued with magical powers. He later learns that both his parents were wizards and were killed by the powerful dark wizard Lord Voldemort, information which his Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Cousin Dudley kept from him. Harry is invited to the wizarding school Hogwarts; he is thrilled to leave the home of his aunt and uncle, who are cruel and neglectful to Harry, for the duration of the school year. Harry attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he meets his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Together, the three have many different adventures over the next seven years as they engage in their wizarding studies and attempt to overcome the various dark forces wielded by Lord Voldemort, a villainous wizard who killed Harry’s parents years ago and now wishes to subjugate the entire wizarding population. Within the context of their school activities, they also deal with a barrage of unpleasant encounters with their fellow student and declared nemesis, Draco Malfoy: the character that Tom Felton portrays in the films. While Malfoy’s antics provide the early novels with a ready-made antagonist, the character gains considerable complexity and nuance as the series progresses, and in the climactic novel, his unwitting complicity in Lord Voldemort’s machinations reflects the author’s attempt to demonstrate the logical extremes to which the underlying attitudes of bullying and hatred can lead.

While the main plot of the series focuses on the standard conflict of “good versus evil,” the Harry Potter series also stands as a classic example of a bildungsroman, in which a central character learns valuable life lessons in the process of becoming an adult. Accordingly, each novel in the series gains complexity and length, tackling ever more serious issues that remain relevant to young readers across multiple generations. Although the author herself has since come under considerable public criticism for her highly controversial stance on transgender issues, her series continues to retain a central place in YA literature. The seven books in the Harry Potter series are as follows: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (first published in 1997 and later Americanized to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for U.S. publications), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007).