Blogger Travis Prinzi asks, "Is Harry Potter worth the effort?"

Travis does a great job explaining why he believes reading and discussing the Harry Potter books is a worthy investment . He writes:

[A]s far as the Christian meaning goes, yes, Harry Potter is worth the effort. If indeed Harry Potter contains explicit and implicit Christian themes, is it not our duty to engage the culture with the gospel? And isn’t Harry Potter a widespread cultural phenomenon? Then by all means, let us expound on the meaning of the phoenix, the sacrifice of Harry’s mother, Harry’s figurative dying-and-rising in each book, and the many other great themes of the novels.

I wholeheartedly agree. Ever since I read all six books this summer, I find myself becoming more intrigued not only by the Christian themes, but also by J.K. Rowling's skill at weaving an intricate and engaging plot. This is coming from someone who's read each book only once!

Imagine what I'll uncover after second and third readings. Wow.

I saw "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" as a child, and I'm pretty sure I'd read the book before that. I'm slowly making my way through all seven books in The Chronicles of Narnia for three reasons: 1) A producer at BBC radio has asked to interview me about the books after I wrote this post; 2) This blog purports to be a source for Christian themes and symbolism in fantasy literature, so the blog hostess must read all the books; and 3) I know I'll love all seven.

"The Magician's Nephew" was a charming tale written after "The Lion" but placed ahead of it in the line-up. It explains how Narnia came to be and features a familiar scene were Aslan the Lion sings Narnia into being.

According to Kyrie O'Connor of the IndyStar, the fifth book, "The Horse and His Boy," contains a few politically incorrect elements:

The book, first published in 1954, may never get to the screen, at least not in anything resembling its literary form. It's just too dreadful. While the book's storytelling virtues are enormous, you don't have to be a bluestocking of political correctness to find some of this fantasy anti-Arab, or anti-Eastern, or anti-Ottoman. With all its stereotypes, mostly played for belly laughs, there are moments you'd like to stuff this story back into its closet….

[T]he Calormen is not simply a bad place to be from. Worse, the people are bad — or most of them, anyway — and they're bad in pretty predictable ways. Calormen is ruled by a despotic Tisroc and a band of swarthy lords with pointy beards, turbaned heads, long robes and nasty dispositions. Calormen is dirty, hot, dull, superstitious. In truth, it's pretty unsettling. (Source)

As a product of his times and environment, C.S. Lewis wrote his books the way he saw fit, and the historical context must be taken into account. That's the purview of literary criticism.

I'm sure some people object to writers injecting the Gospel into stories or Christian bloggers (like moi!) hunting for it. After I've read "The Horse and His Boy," I'll review it and come to my own conclusion.