Tag Archive for 'culture'

27JulIs Harry Potter okay for young kids?

I was doing some surfing last week in advance of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I came upon an interesting detail on Amazon.com. They have several different versions of the book for sale including the standard edition, a deluxe edition, large print, audio book, and a “library binding.” Because I was bored, I clicked on the “library binding” edition to see if there was any difference from the standard book. It didn’t appear to be all that different except it seems to be a little more heavy duty to take the pounding that popular library books often receive. But one thing that caught my eye was that Amazon listed the reading level as 9-12 years old. It got me to thinking about the idea of a 9 year old reading the Harry Potter books.

Then Cassie, Lily, and I went to the bookstore on Wednesday night and I found the whole Harry Potter series for sale in the children’s section near the Sesame Street and Clifford the Big Red Dog books. I found it strange that these books would be for sale in the section devoted to children in elementary school, preschool, or younger.

Cassie and I talked about what age would be appropriate for a child to read the Harry Potter series. The books have grown increasingly darker and more mature dealing with issues like torture and death on an increasingly regular basis. Then there is the fact that magic is used throughout the books, and that a younger child may not be able to understand the difference between magic and wizards & witches in fiction and magic and wizards & witches in real life. Cassie and I agreed that our children should be at least middle school age (sixth grade or older) before they read the books.

I guess I’m looking for some input from other people. Do you feel that Harry Potter is okay for children 10 and under? Are we being too strict or are we not being strict enough? I would appreciate any insights you may have.

Please note, I don’t wish to hear radical responses from my fellow evangelicals that believe Harry Potter is the devil and anyone who reads the books or watches the movies is going straight to hell. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien both used magic in their fiction writing and they both were devout and outspoken Christians. If magic is good enough for C.S. Lewis, it’s good enough for me.

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09JunParis Hilton, the Juice, and the Downfall of Western Civilization

I was walking through the cafeteria at work yesterday afternoon to get some ice for my water bottle when the televisions blew up with the news that Paris Hilton was headed to court in handcuffs. I had to get back to work, but I’m sure there was blanket coverage until the news broke that she was going back to jail to serve the remaining 40 days of her sentence. Now if the television would have been tuned to the E! network or another entertainment station I would have understood, but it was CNN that dropped everything to cover a misdemeanor hearing.

I grew up during the O.J. Simpson trial and I didn’t know what a landmark trial that really was. The trial itself wasn’t as important as the coverage the trial received. It completely saturated our entire culture: news stations covered each day’s events, late night talk shows and SNL made jokes, and Marcia Clark, Johnnie Cochran, Judge Ito, and Mark Fuhrman became household names. This trial was somewhat news, but the extra interest came from the celebrity of the defendant.

Over a decade later, the lives of celebrities have become “news.” If Lindsey Lohan gets in a fender-bender, it gets 4 hours of coverage on all of the major news stations. When Brittney Spears shows off what she should have kept covered, every newspaper and website covers the story. There seems to be a special place for Paris Hilton (who hasn’t really ever done anything in her life that is worth mentioning other than being born) and everything she does seems to be on the evening news.

There is plenty going on in the world that is newsworthy. The U.S. is fighting two wars in two countries and the administration is making noise about starting a third. AIDS and malaria are running rampant in Africa and abject poverty is one of the major causes. Human trafficking and forced slavery is still a major issue in a significant portion of the world. Millions of people have died or been forced from their homes in the Darfur genocide in Sudan. We are facing major crises in America such as health care, taxes, education, social security, and political corruption just to name a few. But who cares about that because Paris Hilton is going back to jail for 40 days. All that other stuff can just wait until she’s free again.

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