Harry Potter is a hit with children
Glen Vienneau
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Nov 10/00) - The book that has spellbound children of all ages also cast its spell at a tribute party last weekend in Yellowknife.
The party coincided with the release of the fourth Harry Potter book called "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". A book in which writer Joanne Kathleen Rowling has again made reading popular with children.
"When you read it, you get lost in it. You don't want to be doing anything else," said Erika Wallbridge, 16, who read her favourite passage to 40 children attending the party at the Yellowknife Public Library. As the event was aimed towards children ages eight to 12, Wallbridge took the opportunity to turn her interest into a school book report project as well.
"Everybody (young children) seems to want to read it and are into it," said Wallbridge, who read the first two of the seven book series within a couple days last summer.
At first, she thought the stories about the orphaned schoolboy with special powers sounded childish, but came to realize that no other children's book compared to Harry Potter.
It's also storytelling that has made reading an everyday habit for children such as Grade 5 student Kimberly Woytuik, 10.
"Because, not very many storybooks have good stuff about witches and lots of stuff that you can learn about," said Woytuik, who now reads about one hour a day.
For Grade 3 Kieran Daly, 8, reading takes up as much as three hours a day, while Grade 5's Dustin Talbot, 9, puts in about forty-five minutes every weeknight.
Again, their favourite book -- Harry Potter.
"You never know what's going to happen next," said Grade 8 student Chantal Dempsey, 13.
"When I started reading these books, I got back into the reading I used to do when I was in Grade 1 and 2," said Dempsey.
