Harry Potter

3 articles tagged as Harry Potter

Knightley Academy, by Violet Haberdasher

Rating: 4 out of 5

Henry was just a servant boy, until a twist of fate allowed him to sit an exam that would earn him a spot at Kingsley Academy for knights-in-training and the title of the first commoner to be admitted to the elite academy. When Henry arrives at the school, he quickly learns that making his way to classes and finishing his school work is the least of his worries. Someone wants Henry out of the school, and they are willing to stop at nothing to get rid of him, including attempted murder. While trying to hunt down and stop his saboteurs, Henry stumbles upon a plot for war and realizes that things are bigger than just him, and that more than his possible expulsion is at stake.

I picked up this book because I saw a comparison of it to Harry Potter. Being a huge Harry Potter fan, I decided to give it a shot. And I’m happy I did.

Like Harry Potter, Henry Grim is an orphan. And like Harry, Henry learns that he is going to a special school. Only, Henry does not have magical skills. He merely is a very smart boy. And the school is not a school of witch craft and wizardry. It is a school for future knights.

Although Knightley Academy lacks the magic element from the Harry Potter books, I think it is still magical in it’s own way.

Haberdasher has created a world based off of an alternate history. Alternate histories are always interesting because they make you think about the importance a minor change in the past could have on your current life today. They also open up a world of possibilities, much like the existence of magic opened up possibilities for the world of Harry Potter.

Despite relying on the rags to riches story as the backdrop for Knightley Academy, Haberdasher has looked at this story with fresh eyes. Henry is not instantly given a better life. He still has to fight against the odds, fight against those who don’t want him there, and he has to prove himself every day. He did not wake up to a better world. He has to work every day to make his world better. And I think this provides a good lesson for kids. We make our own luck and our own fortune.

The characters are also well developed and exhibit growth and dimension. Even Valmont, the bully of the story, grows and we learn to understand the reasons behind his behavior. He is humanized and you can’t help but like him just a little.

Although the plot follows twists that seem similar to those in Harry Potter, I still find myself surprised by the outcome of the story. The plot kept me guessing as it opened up an intriguing mystery.

If you are looking for something with a similar feel to the Harry Potter series or just looking for a fun story with a mystery underlying the plot, I recommend giving this book a read.

Is it wrong to make my overweight characters evil and mean? Is this playing into stereotypes? Is this too much of a cliché? Does this teach children to view overweight people negatively? So often with writing it becomes difficult to see past the works of those whose footsteps we walk in so that we can forge our own path. I worry that I will inadvertently play into the stereotypes created by my predecessors, and that my work will suffer as a result.

Kids Come in Every Size

Certainly obesity is something that shouldn’t be encouraged in children, but children who are overweight, or those with body issues, may become more self-conscious about their weight if characters physically similar to them are villanized in stories. Equally, the kids who would pick on overweight children may feel their behavior is justified through the negative portrayal of overweight characters in books.

The Harry Potter series instantly jumps to mind when I think about negative portrayals of overweight people. Dudley is fat, unintelligent, and a bully. Malfoy, on the other hand, while evil, is intelligent and conniving. He is also thin.

Stereotyping Obesity

There are many other children’s books that also portray overweight characters in a negative light. Of course, overweight characters are equally portrayed as jovial, yet simple. Rarely do you see a normal, run-of-the-mill overweight character. Rarely do you see an overweight hero (one of the refreshing things about Disney-Pixar’s UP).

But would we want to write an overweight hero? Aren’t we trying to encourage weight loss and exercise? Do we want children to associate being overweight with being dimwitted and/or mean? Or are we inadvertently excluding an increasing population or readers? According to the CDC, 17% of children in 2006 were obese. This is double the amount found in 1980. With these numbers rising, maybe we should not treat obesity in such a negative way. Certainly we can show an overweight character struggling with their weight, or facing obstacles they would not face were they more fit (again to reference UP : Russell faced obstacles brought on by his lack of fitness), but to make every overweight character less than the fit characters may not be the best message to send children.

When I was in 8th grade, I showed my English teacher some poetry I had written, thinking it was amazing. I was pretty heartbroken when he came back and informed me that it was “adolescent rubbish.” Those words, while hurtful at the time, stuck with me. Although I was an adolescent, I wanted to write like a grownup, like the grownups whose writing I loved and respected.

YA Does Not Equal Sloppy Prose

I think many YA writers miss the mark when they write for the YA audience. Just because someone is a young adult, or an adolescent, it should not be assumed that they are uninterested in reading adult constructed prose. Quite the opposite, unless teenagers are so very different now than they were when I was one. If you look at the hugely successful young adult books, there seems to be some correlation with the quality of writing and the popularity of the books.

Harry Potter

Take, for example, the Harry Potter series. While these books began at a younger reading level, they spanned into the YA realm. One of the greatest things about these books was that they did not dumb down the writing. Even from book one the plot had twists and the characters were engaging. And most importantly, they did not yell all the time or appear to be in a constantly foul mood. Because the writing and plots were constructed in a sophisticated, though age appropriate, way, the books appealed to a much larger audience, contributing to their success.

Twilight

The Twilight series had a similar appeal. Although many would argue that the writing was less than ideal, the characters were constructed more real than what you see in similar YA vampire books. Whereas many YA vampire books are full of characters who hate their parents and stay out until odd hours of the night or run away entirely, characters that my old English teacher would describe as “adolescent rubbish,” Stephanie Meyers constructed characters who grew irritated with their parents, but still loved them, who snuck out, but knew the consequences. These characters were more real and more sophisticated. Because of these, like with Harry Potter, these books were able to reach a larger audience.

Reading to Stay Current

To stay current with the 6-8 and YA trends, I read a lot of books in these areas, and few of them grab me. The stories that really grabbed me as a child and teenager are stories that I still read to this day, and that still capture me. It is not the nostalgia that grabs me. It is the story. It is because the writers, while writing age appropriate, did not dismiss the standards of good writing. Writing for children and YA should not be viewed as easier. The literary elements necessary for all good literature still need to be there, and the stories that will stick with a person throughout their life are going to be the ones that are well written. And after all, isn’t this what every writer strives for?