Daemon’s Books is sponsoring a 2011 Harry Potter challenge, where everyone is challenged to read the Harry Potter series each month. Its sister site, Daemon’s Movies, is sponsoring a parallel challenge to watch all of the Harry Potter movies. This seemed perfect for our Harry Potter loving family. I first picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone when my oldest child was three years old. Until that point, I really hadn’t had any dying need to read the book or the series. I was looking for a new chapter book to read to my children, or rather to read to my three year old while I nursed my one year old, and decided to give Harry Potter a try. After all, any series which had children reading while having scores of people trying to get it banned showed promise.
That first book started it all. My son loved it. I enjoyed reading it to the kids. Before long, we purchased our own copy so that my husband could read it, too (for those of you who know him, you’ll realize that library books are contaminated). We’ve read the series every year since then, or at least every book that was out at the time.
So, our family is reading and watching the wonderful Harry Potter stories once again. However, instead of writing yet another review or opinion piece from an adult about a juvenile fiction piece, I thought I would ask my children their opinions.
For this first month, I asked my children what their favorite thing about Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was. The unanimous answer was the flying. Apparently there is a shared desire to rush through the air on a broom. They also saw the moment that Harry Potter sat on his broom for the first time to rescue the rememberall as a pivotal moment in his status as a member of Griffindor house. While he had previously stood up to Draco verbally prior to being sorted, his first flight marked his action to stand up for others and do what was right regardless of arbitrary rules.
living peacefully with children 
Well said! I never really thought of that (and have only seen the movies).