I received an email note last week from a 15 year old Harry Potter reader. I have responded already but wondered what you All-Pros would have said if this had landed in your inbox. I promise to pass on your comments if she writes back.

Subject: My parents think Harry Potter is evil! Please help!
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From: Melody
Date: Thursday, Jul 17, 2008 at 2:39 PM
To: john@hogwartsprofessor.com

Mr. Granger,

I am a teenage christian who LOVES Harry Potter! I completely understand the christian values in the books and grow in my faith because of it. I have read your book “Looking for God in Harry Potter” and agreed with you throughout the whole thing. I do have one problem though, my parents who are also christians are convinced that the books are evil and horrible and will refuse to be told otherwise. I don’t know how to start a conversation with them explaining how Harry Potter benifits my walk with God because I know that no matter what I say they won’t listen. Please tell me how I can get my parents to have an open mind so I can convince them Harry Potter is not evil indeed the oposite of evil!

– Melody, 15

No age limits or qualifiers on books, “rival fantasy writers” (?) argue.

Ms. Rowling, of course, is in a better situation because her books are not only on the A-Level exams, they’re also being used in Edinburgh government schools for literature, music, and art classes.

Reporting from Dallas, Toni Gras, longtime friend of HogPro and Harry Potter Fan Zone Reporter. Take it away, Toni!

Portus 2008: Day One and Two
Toni Gras, HPFZ Reporter

Harry Potter Educational Fanon (HPEF) has produced another FAN-tastic conference for Harry Potter adult fans! At the Hilton Anatole which overlooks the commanding Dallas, Texas skyline, Harry Potter fans from both U.S. and foreign destinations have converged for fun, frolic, fantasy and fandom for four days, July 10-13. I was amazed at the organization and the massiveness of the conference – guest speakers, panelists, keynote lecturers, vendor tables, an art gallery, banquets, Quidditch games, Wizard Rock bands, Potter movies, banquets, teas, dessert minglers and even a podcast. [Read more…]

There is the annual HPEF Elvendork Festival, Portus 2008, this year in Dallas, TX, and a summer camp for Potter-philes, too. The Dallas Morning News write-up of Portus begins and ends with quotations from HogPro Friends Travis Prinzi and James Thomas.

What are you doing this summer as a Harry Potter reader? Any Deathly Hallows one year anniversary observances? Harry/Joanne birthday parties?

I’m still not sure if this is a joke or not, but it’s funny even if it is just a test of our gullibility. Which is funnier, the possibility that a man spent the time and treasure to build the Hogwarts Castle pictured in the newspaper article out of a gazillion matchsticks or that I find it credible that a human being would do this (as a warm-up, no less, for his Minis Tirith scale-model)? How about the guy making his living as a “careers advisor at a local community college”? He tells other people how to get a life.

Speaking of Elvendorks, yesterday was the ninth anniversary of the publication of Goblet of Fire. Where were you on July 7, 2000? I was with my Gang of Seven preparing for a party and an all-night out-loud reading of the fourth book. We had just finished the first three books and they all dressed up for their first of four Midnight Madness Potter-parties (this one was at the Border’s Book Store in the renovated art deco movie theatre on Shepherd Street in Houston, TX). Some very happy family memories!