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0045-6713/03/0900-0237/0 � 2003 Human Sciences Press, Inc.

Children’s Literature in Education, Vol. 34, No. 3, September 2003 (� 2003)

Sharon BlackSharon Black is a teach-ing professor and writ-ing consultant/editor atthe David O. McKaySchool of Education atBrigham Young Univer-sity in Provo, Utah,U.S.A. Her teaching ex-periences include giftedchildren, in addition toa wide variety of col-lege students—both agegroups included in thisarticle. When notchained to her desk,she can often be foundroaming through suchplaces as Hogwarts orMiddle Earth, often ac-companied by her chil-dren—including“Sandra.”

The Magic of Harry Potter:Symbols and Heroes of Fantasy

This article suggests that the worldwide, multiage appeal of HarryPotter may lie in the way these stories of magic meet the needs ofreaders to find meaning in today’s unmagical contexts. The imag-inative appeal and symbolic efficacy of the books for children areexamined in terms of Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment.The development of Harry Potter as a hero in the mythic/fantasytradition, which allows young adults to grasp a sense of hope formeaning and triumph, are explored in terms of Joseph Campbell’sHero With a Thousand Faces. Case studies are included to illustrate.

KEY WORDS: Harry Potter; fantasy; symbolism; imagination; hero.

“Kallie didn’t really want to read The Sorcerer’s Stone, and now sheJ. K. Rowling, HarryPotter and the Sor-cerer’s Stone (publishedin Great Britain asHarry Potter and thePhilosopher’s Stone

can’t put it down,” my friend, Kallie’s mother, reported with achuckle. First, the Harry Potter books are about a boy, and Kalliedoesn’t care much for boys—not at age 10. And the Harry Potterbooks are trendy; Kallie is one who is proud of having her own tastesand doing things her own way. But once Kallie’s imagination was cap-tured, she read the first four Harry Potter books four times each dur-ing the next 18 months. After seeing the first of the Harry Pottermovies, Kallie rushed home, grabbed The Sorcerer’s Stone, and imme-diately began reading it again. The movie had not come up to thepictures she had created in her mind. To her mother’s puzzled in-quiry, she wailed, “I have to rescue my imagination.”

“How like Sandra,” I thought. My daughter Sandra, a college student,had just returned from 18 months in England. Sandra had heard of theyoung wizard, but she had not had time to seek him out. Missing allthings British, she noticed the copy of The Sorcerer’s Stone that hersister had left visible. A few pages, and Sandra, like Kallie, could notput the book down. She had seen the pre-Hogwarts Harry on thetrains and tubes of London and on the High Streets of English vil-lages—shabbily dressed, indifferently groomed, lonely, obviously ne-

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glected—possibly abused. As she read, she saw him transported to amysterious castle/school where he began to learn of his true heritageand potential, to undertake what Sandra, as a literature student, recog-nized as a classic hero’s journey. Sandra quickly added Harry to thegallery of heroes who, since her early childhood, had reaffirmed herfaith that despite its dark recesses, the world is good, and people canovercome their difficulties and find joy.

These two very different but very enthusiastic readers join manyworldwide who have found needs met and questions at least partiallyanswered in the magical adventures of Harry Potter. The phenomenalsuccess of the series is well known. They were the first children’sbooks to be included on the New York Times bestseller list sinceCharlotte’s Web was published during the 1950s. In 1999, the firstthree were numbers 1, 2, and 3 on the list, causing the newspaper tothink of creating a separate children’s category. Bestseller lists inU.S.A. Today and even the Wall Street Journal included them as well.And children have not been the only readers keeping these books ontop of the charts. Adults worldwide are reading them—some alongwith their children, some completely on their own. In Great Britain,Germany, and Italy, special editions have come out with adult-respect-able covers, so that grown-ups can read them on public transportation

Elizabeth Schafer, Ex-ploring Harry Potter

J. K. Rowling, HarryPotter and the Order ofthe Phoenix

without being embarrassed to be seen with a children’s novel (Schafer,2000). When the publication date for the fifth book in the series,Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was announced in Janu-ary 2003, 5 months in advance, within days the preorders placed ithigh on bestseller lists as well.

Are the Harry Potter books merely a passing fad? Or is their potentialto meet needs and to answer questions for individuals as diverse asKallie and Sandra based on deeper, more universal literary patternsand human characteristics? When examined in terms of the classicworks of psychoanalysts Bruno Bettelheim and Joseph Campbell, theyare.

This article delves into effects of fantasy in general and Harry Potter inspecific as they may be better understood in terms of Bettelheim’sand Campbell’s ideas. The child Kallie’s ability to explore real lifethrough imaginative interaction with unreal characters and situationscan be better understood in terms of Bettelheim’s explanations of TheBruno Bettelheim, The

Uses of Enchantment Uses of Enchantment (1976). Young adult Sandra’s ability to findmeaning through the unfolding of the hero’s journey is consistentwith the analysis of Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand FacesJoseph Campbell, The

Hero with a ThousandFaces

(1968). Both of the girls are individuals, but their experiences withfantasy and meaning illustrate effects common among those who ben-efit from Harry’s magic. Kallie’s experiences are described according

The Magic of Harry Potter 239

to her mother’s observation. Sandra is both open and articulate insharing her reactions and thoughts directly, and her experiences arerecounted as expressed in personal conversation.

Kallie: Unreality and Truth

Generally, Kallie has little use for repetition. But to reread the HarryPotter books is not necessarily repetitious. Every time she reads thebooks, Kallie can have another series of adventures. When she reads apopular children’s mystery, she visualizes realistic characters goingthrough realistic activities—and she solves a one-time mystery. It issolved, and she does not need to solve it again. But when Harry en-counters his greatest desire in the mirror of Erised or his greatest fearin the Boggart, the reader is invited to draw up her own desires andfears—and these are not neatly “solved” in one session.1 As the mirrorand the Boggart immerse Harry in his longing for family, a child likeJ. K. Rowling, Harry

Potter and the Prisonerof Azkaban

Kallie may reflect on her own family as well. A child’s emotions andinterpretations of such passages change from day to day—as familyfeelings and relationships change—and each time she deals with themthey are invested with new meaning (Bettelheim, 1976, p. 12). Thusthe ever-changing magic of Harry Potter is in the magic of the child’sown experiences, feelings, and imagination.

One of the common complaints against the Harry Potter series is thatthe stories deal with magic: Various churches have denounced thebooks, and their author, J. K. Rowling,2 has been accused of being awitch. Rowling explains that no fan (to her knowledge) has ever ex-pressed a desire to become a witch, and that she herself attends theChurch of Scotland and has no desire to become a witch either. Rowl-ing is confident that children can easily discern where reality endsand fantasy begins (Schafer, 2000). Her affirmation agrees with BrunoBettelheim (1976), who notes that any child familiar with fantasy un-derstands that these stories “speak to him in the language of symbolsand not that of everyday reality” (p. 62).

Bettelheim continues,

The child intuitively comprehends that although these stories are un-real, they are not untrue; that while what these stories tell about doesnot happen in fact, it must happen as inner experience and personaldevelopment; that [fantasy] tales depict in imaginary and symbolic formthe essential steps in growing up and achieving an independent exis-tence. (p. 73)

Harry looks into the Mirror of Erised and sees his dead parents stand-ing beside him—decidedly unreal. Kallie does not expect to look intoa mirror and see anyone who is deceased. She is glad to be able to see

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in a common, unmagical mirror the mother and grandparents wholove and protect her—as Harry longs to be loved and protected. Kal-lie has expressed the nagging awareness that the day will come whenher beloved grandparents will no longer be beside her. The Mirror ofErised is unreal, but the fact that a child longs to be loved and pro-tected by her family is true. The fear children have that somethingmay harm the family is portrayed through the unreal dementors andboggarts who torment Harry with the images and sounds of his par-ents’ deaths. The dementors and boggarts are unreal, but the fact thatchildren fear harm to their parents is true. The child may find it easierto face these fears when the abstract feelings are given form byHarry’s experience.

Bettelheim (1976) explains the importance of “the unrealistic nature”of fantasy: It focuses the child “not [on] useful information about theexternal world, but [on] the inner processes taking place in the indi-vidual” (p. 25). Rowling is not instructing children to obtain a magicmirror from a local coven of witches; she is helping them reflect onhopes and fears, families and relationships.

Bettelheim (1976) carries the “reality” of the child’s involvement infantasy a step further as he explains that the images suggested to thechild through fantasy can be used to “structure his daydreams and . . .give better direction to his life” (p. 7). The unreal metaphors andsymbols of the story become the raw materials to experiment withreality. Kallie is not as eager as some children her age to spend mostof her time with her peers. “They don’t always choose the right,” shetells her family. “They play with some and not with others.” No onewould use the word “mudblood” to taunt one of Kallie’s friends,J. K. Rowling, Harry

Potter and the Cham-ber of Secrets

as Draco taunts Hermione. But as she vicariously becomes angry atDraco she can release the anger she feels at injustice in her ownschoolyard.

Susan Cooper (1990), author of the successful fantasy series The DarkSusan Cooper, “Fantasyin the real world” Is Rising, understands this process and notes that the events of fan-

tasy, unlike those of real life, do not have price tags; but “if one of itsadventures does ever happen to overtake you, somewhere in yourunconscious mind you will be equipped to endure or enjoy it” (p.309). Thus through the unreality of Harry’s magical world, childrenlike Kallie learn to deal with the reality of family, friends, and school—and she can definitely distinguish the real/specific from the unreal/true.

Kallie’s mother has read the Harry Potter books (during Kallie’s firsttime through), but she wisely avoids imposing her personal meaningson her daughter. As Bettelheim (1976) advises, adult coaching denies

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the child the opportunity to cope personally with the problems por-trayed in the story. As the child brings imagination, intellect, and emo-tions together in identifying with the characters, “inner resources”develop that enable the child to eventually cope with “the vagaries oflife” (p. 4). The child thus gains “confidence in himself and in hisfuture” (p. 4). After all, a kid who can figure out how Harry ought toovercome a basilisk knows she can cope with a playground bully. Andafter conquering Voldemort, medical school definitely seems doable.

Sandra: The Rise of a Hero

Since she was old enough to swing a plastic lightsaber, Sandra haslived with fantasy and loved its heroes. At the age of three she sawStar Wars and announced that she was going to be Luke Skywalker.George Lucas, Star

Wars: The AnnotatedScreenplays

When her brother patiently pointed out that she could not be Lukebecause Luke was a boy, Sandra declared that at least she was going tobe a Jedi knight; she was going to change the world.

At four Sandra listened eagerly as our family read Greek, Roman, andE. B. White, Charlotte’sWeb

C. S. Lewis, The Lion,the Witch, and theWardrobe

Susan Cooper, TheDark Is Rising

J. R. R. Tolkien, TheLord of the Rings

Norse myths together. At five she read Charlotte’s Web and other“chapter” fantasies. At six, she went to Narnia with Peter, Susan, Ed-mund, and Lucy; at seven she roamed the Welsh countryside with thecast of The Dark Is Rising. Other myths, fantasies, and series of fanta-sies followed. By high school she was deep into Lord of the Rings.3 Asa college student, she has discovered the seemingly unlikely but actu-ally highly congruous combination of Harry Potter and Joseph Camp-bell: the boy who has carried the tradition of the fantasy hero to thechildren of the world, and the man whose writings have helpedSandra to understand the impact of this tradition on her life.

In analyzing common patterns found in the heroes of myths, folk sto-ries, and fairy tales throughout the world, Campbell (1968) explainsthe cycle of the child-hero—the hero who beckoned to Sandrathroughout her childhood: The “child of destiny” begins in obscurity,often in a situation of extreme danger or degradation. He may bedrawn inward “to his own depths” or extended outward to unknownregions. He is in a darkness inhabited by both benign and evil pres-ences. A guide or helper comes to him—often an angel, sometimes ananimal or an old woman (p. 326). The child-hero is taken to a schoolor other special environment where he learns that he has extraordin-ary talents (p. 327) and recognizes what he has the capacity to be-come. Eventually the child-hero returns, acclaimed or at least recog-nized. Sometimes the hero’s accomplishments win him the praise ofhis social group—sometimes.

Reading the pattern as a college student, Sandra acknowledges thatshe has been responding to it for years. Luke Skywalker grew up in

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relative obscurity on the desert-like planet of Tatooine, discovered histrue heritage as a Jedi, underwent an intensive and highly dangerousphysical and mental apprenticeship to fulfill his gifts, and eventuallytook his destined place in the Star Wars hierarchy. His mentors andguides were both human and nonhuman. Wilber, the pig of Char-lotte’s Web, was the runt of the litter; his mentor was a spider whowas both literate and wise. Wilber eventually became famous, farabove the ominous threat of becoming bacon. The children who be-came kings and queens of Narnia were everyday children sent to thecountry to escape the dangers of wartime London; their mentor througha series of challenging adventures was a lion named Aslan, who pre-pared them for their destiny to rule. As each grew up, he or shereturned to remain in everyday England to encounter, recognize, anddeal with the truths that had been taught in the fantasy world. Camp-C. S. Lewis, Voyage of

the Dawn Treader bell did not include these popular children’s fantasies in his analysis;however, Sandra found them.

But a nearsighted, lightning-scarred, twenty-first-century kid who livesin a cupboard under the stairs? That seems quite a stretch of thepattern. But as Sandra and I found, to our delight, Harry Potter doesfollow Campbell’s pattern of the child-hero. When the reader firstencounters him at the home of his Aunt and Uncle Dursley, he isunkempt, unloved, and definitely unrecognized as having any particu-lar talents or destiny. Dressed in ill-fitting cast-off clothes and taped-together glasses, he is the “despised child” that Campbell finds typical(1968, p. 38); his main function in the Dursley household is as atarget for the family’s hostility and scorn. The Dursleys provide all thedegradation and much of the danger that Campbell might have had inmind (p. 326). Harry faces darkness and uncertainty as Vernon Durs-ley’s hostility becomes more intense, and Dursley is irrational and vio-lent (though often amusing) in his attempts to prevent Harry fromreceiving the fateful letter that the Dursleys know will begin to revealwho and what Harry really is. The revelation begins, appropriately, instormy darkness, as Harry’s initial helper appears at the isolated light-house where Dursley is confident no messenger will be able to come.As the supernatural “protective figure” (Campbell, 1968, p. 72), theshaggy, bumbling half-giant Hagrid is no angel, but he is more thanadequate to get Harry started on his hero’s journey into the wizardingworld.

Like Campbell’s mythical child-hero, Harry attends a school: This oneis a school of magic with the wonderful name of Hogwarts. HereHarry learns of what Campbell refers to as “the seed powers, whichreside just beyond the sphere of the measured and the named” (pp.326–327). Campbell says that the powers “are revealed to have beenwithin the heart of the hero all the time. He is ‘the king’s son’ who

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has come to know who he is . . . ‘God’s son,’ who has learned toknow how much that title means” (p. 39). Harry’s powers have beengiven him by his parents, and throughout the currently publishedbooks of the series, Harry comes to know both parents and powersone increment at a time. Harry has an additional source of super-natural power, which is not a welcome one: As he attempted to killthe infant Harry and ended up merely scaring him, the evil lord Vol-demort unwittingly transferred some of his powers to the child.

The adventures Harry Potter faces during his successive years at Hog-warts do require that he be what Campbell (1968) identifies in hishero image as “a personage of exceptional gifts” (p. 37). During thefirst book of the series, Harry faces extraordinary physical obstacles: amonstrous cave troll, a vicious three-headed dog, a scheming pro-fessor who supports and protects the feeble but still powerful Vol-demort, who is intent on Harry’s destruction. Harry survives throughphysical courage, along with a few judicious spells and the support ofhis friends. In the second book, Harry moves through a series of iden-tity crises, which include assuming a false identity (a disliked class-mate), denying an identity he refuses to consider (“heir of Slytherin”),and recognizing aspects of his identity that parallel those of the evilVoldemort,

By the third book Harry is ready to go beyond the physical. He nowmust face his deepest feelings and greatest fears, objectified in thedementors, the boggarts, and the weak but evil wizard whose betrayalbrought about the deaths of his parents; he is eventually able to dealwith these challenges through mental and emotional strength. In thefourth book, Harry has his first face-to-face encounter with death, ashis friend/rival Cedric is murdered by his side, ironically as a result ofJ. K. Rowling, Harry

Potter and the Gobletof Fire

the noble ethic that prevents either Cedric or Harry from edging theother out for the equally achieved tournament prize. Harry faces phys-ical and mental torture by the now-restored Voldemort, but at thistime, as a maturing hero, he is ready to resist it. His return from theencounter with Voldemort is, in words Campbell applies to the hero,“life-enhancing” (1968, p. 35). At the end of each book, Harry, likeCampbell’s hero, returns to his former world. Whether Harry is actu-ally recognized could be debated, and he is not acclaimed—yet—buthe manages to generate at least a little trepidation in the Dursleys.

Literary scholars and English teachers have traditionally enjoyed trac-ing heroes’ journeys, but do such journeys affect children like Kallieor young adults like Sandra who are seeking to understand their ownexistence? Campbell (1968) affirms that they do. His work in compar-ing the journeys of heroes in world mythology, folklore, and fairy taleswas undertaken “to uncover some of the truths disguised for us under

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the figures of religion and mythology” (p. vii). He explains that “theparallels . . . will develop a vast and amazingly constant statement ofthe basic truths by which man has lived throughout the millenniumsof his residence on the planet” (p. vii). Similar to Bettelheim (1976),Campbell emphasizes what he refers to as the “grammar of symbols”in leading the reader toward understanding those truths. He uses thesame key word—unreal—noting that the “fantastic and ‘unreal’ ” (p.29) incidents represent triumphs of a psychological rather than physi-cal nature. There is additional challenge in creating such triumphs inthe modern world, for the challenge of hero-creation is “nothing ifnot that of rendering the modern world spiritually significant . . .nothing if not that of making it possible for men and women to cometo full human maturity through the conditions of contemporary life”(p. 388).

Harry Potter, then, is a set of modern symbols for the processes andtruths that have been represented by hero and journey symbols throughthe ages. Young children like Kallie are caught up imaginatively in theexciting details of Harry’s world; they experience Harry’s journeythrough “seeing” things with their imaginations, largely unaware ofthe symbolic process that brings them “real world” understandingthrough Harry’s “unreal” solutions. Older “children” like Sandra knowwhat symbols are and understand how various forms of fantasy revealsymbolically what Campbell calls “the same redemption” (1968, p.289) that brought their predecessors comfort and closure.

It has been affirmed that the “magic” of the Harry Potter books lies inthe parallel worlds (Scholastic, 2001, p. 1). Harry is able to leave theScholastic Books, Harry

Potter: DiscussionGuide

“muggle” world that rejects and abuses him, run through Platform9 3/4 (or step into a flying car or take a little magic flue powder) andenter the wizarding world where he can learn the lessons and de-velop the strengths that allow him to mature. Similarly, Peter, Susan,Edmund, and Lucy step through a wardrobe (or into a painting orother magic gateway) to enter the parallel world of Narnia, wherethey are instructed by Aslan, the Savior figure, who tells them that hewill always be with them when they grow up and return to the worldoutside: They must simply learn to recognize him (Lewis, 1952). Sig-nificantly, Tolkien’s other world is “Middle Earth.” Campbell (1968)helps us understand that the two worlds, which he designates as “thedivine and the human” (p. 217), seem at first to be distinct and verydifferent. “Nevertheless—and here is a great key to the understandingof myth and symbol—the two kingdoms are actually one. The realmof the gods is a forgotten dimension of the world we know” (p. 217).As the reader makes the connection, it is the function of the myth orfantasy “to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward”(p. 11). Life never becomes unrealistically easy for Harry, even in a

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world where he carries a phoenix-feather wand and wears an invisi-bility cloak. Like generations of mythical heroes, Harry’s growth anddevelopment come at a price. The reader is left to understand thatshe, like Harry, will have to strive and struggle, but she can overcomechallenges—even without classes in potions and spells.

Sandra has experienced the muggle world, and she often affirms herdrive to make Campbell’s connection to the divine. She has knelt be-side children from broken, negligent, and abusive homes—children indanger of being molested in their muggle schoolyards. When theirparents would not allow her to tell them Bible stories, she sang tothem and with them: “I am a child of God.” She has held in her armsteenagers who were victims of varied abuse, including incest—lettingthem cry over their flashbacks, affirming that they too are God’s sonsand daughters. She sang her song to a woman in the housing projectswho could not decide to leave her alcoholic boyfriend. She sang to anelderly woman in the marketplace who had determined to go homeand take her own life.

As we talk about our heroes, Sandra explains that she needs LukeSkywalker, Frodo Baggins, and Harry Potter because she needs to be-lieve and to share her belief that the hero can emerge victorious, nomatter how oppressive the uncharted darkness may be. She needsJoseph Campbell to tell her that the hero is indeed “God’s son” (1968,p. 19) and that the hero’s victory is “a transcendence of the universaltragedy of man” (p. 28). Bettelheim (1976) affirms:

[Fantasy intimates] that a rewarding, good life is within one’s reachdespite adversity—but only if one does not shy away from the haz-ardous struggles without which one can never achieve true identity.These stories promise that if a child [or adult] dares to engage in thisfearsome and taxing search, benevolent powers will come to his aid,and he will succeed. (p. 24)

Tamora Pierce (1993), author of a successful fantasy series, experi-Tamora Pierce, “Fan-tasy: why kids read it,why kids need it”

enced this comfort during an agonizing childhood in a dysfunctionalfamily, not unlike some of the trials experienced by Sandra’s friends.Pierce recalls,

I visited Tolkien’s Mordor often for years, not because I liked whatwent on there, but because on that dead horizon and then throughoutthe sky overhead, I could see the interplay and the lasting power oflight and hope. It got me through. (p. 51)

Conclusion: Kallie and Sandra, “Joy Beyond the Walls of the World”

Kallie has not yet been to Mordor. But she has spent a good deal oftime at Hogwarts. She has seen the interplay of light and dark, of good

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and evil. She has seen good people, including Harry, Ron, and Her-mione, make mistakes and suffer for those mistakes. She has seenintentions, and she has seen forgiveness. Though her friends mightnot always “choose the right,” Kallie, according to her family, feels astrong imperative to choose the right herself. She has seen the effectsof both right and wrong choices on Harry Potter and his schoolmates.On a visit to the Island of Fiji, Kallie saw firsthand the effects of revo-lution, and she was able deal with them.

Sandra has been to Mordor, and to Hogwarts, and to Narnia. Herheroes have carried a ring to the brink of Mount Doom; cracked theface of evil through the power of love; become kings and queens,despite their faults, through the teaching and intervention of a lovingmentor who has promised to be with them in any world. Sandra willcontinue to sing with children, to hold distressed teens, to reach outto the frightened elderly—to attempt to change the world one indi-vidual at a time. To some she gives a copy of Harry Potter and theSorcerer’s Stone or The Fellowship of the Ring. To others she givesonly the wisdom she has found in them.

Fantasy empowers its readers (Pierce, 1993) through the unreal truthsand the mythical heroes that it shares. As one of the greatest of fan-tasy writers, J. R. R. Tolkien (1989), has expressed, fantasy “denies . . .J. R. R. Tolkien, Tree

and Leaf universal final defeat . . . , giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyondthe walls of the world, poignant as grief” (p. 62).

References

Bettelheim, Bruno, The Uses of Enchantment. Toronto: Random House ofCanada Ltd., 1976. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976.

Campbell, Joseph, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (2nd ed.). Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press, 1968. London: Paladin Grafton, 1988.

Cooper, Susan, The Dark Is Rising. New York: Atheneum, 1973. London:Puffin Books Ltd., 1984.

Cooper, Susan, “Fantasy in the real world,” The Horn Book, 1990, 66, 304–314.

Lewis, C. S., The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Great Britain: GeoffreyBles, 1950. New York: Macmillan, 1950.

Lewis, C. S., Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Great Britain: Geoffrey Bles, 1952.New York: Macmillan, 1952.

Lucas, George, Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays. New York: BallantyneBooks, 1997.

Pierce, Tamora, “Fantasy: why kids read it, why kids need it,” School LibraryJournal, 1993, 39, 50–51.

Rowling, J. K., Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. London: Blooms-bury Publishing, 1997. Published in the United States as Harry Potter andthe Sorcerer’s Stone. New York: Scholastic, 1998.

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Rowling, J. K., Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. London: Blooms-bury Publishing, 1998. New York: Scholastic, 1999.

Rowling, J. K., Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. London: Blooms-bury Publishing, 1999. New York: Scholastic, 1999.

Rowling, J. K., Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: BloomsburyPublishing, 2000. New York: Scholastic, 2000.

Rowling, J. K., Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. London: Blooms-bury Publishing, in press. New York: Scholastic, in press.

Schafer, Elizabeth D., Exploring Harry Potter. Osprey, FL: Beacham Pub-lishers, 2000.

Scholastic Books, Harry Potter: Discussion Guide, Retrieved April 17, 2001.Tolkien, J. R. R., Tree and Leaf. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1964.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.Tolkien, J. R. R., The Lord of the Rings. London: HarperCollins, 1991. Boston:

Houghton Mifflin, 1991.White, E. B., Charlotte’s Web. New York: Harper and Row, 1952.