Our new obsession...

We are on Book 4 of Harry Potter. I know, shocking, coming from someone who thought only a few years ago that Disney movies had gratuitous scary parts and were entirely inappropriate for4 year olds. At the beginning of Maya's movie watching career she thought things like the ice falling in "Winged Migration" were scary and we had to stop the DVD. Well, now my 4 year old goes around with an English accent and a "wand" (actually a dowel from the craft store) nearly all the time. If you say something he doesn't like, he is likely to wave the wand at you and say "Expelliarmus" or maybe "Wingardium Leviosa". Maybe this will give them a jump start in learning Latin? Also they play "owl post"--a game they made up involving writing each other notes and delivering them by owl. And their Christmas lists include things like "stuffed owl" and "ginger cat" (in Britain "ginger" is apparently a way to describe someone with orange hair). Shhh, don't tell Jonah but Santa has already discovered the first 3 movies on a 1/2 price sale at Borders...and both linger in the FAO Schwartz "Diagon Alley" that includes toys made from nearly every aspect of the movie--collector's figures, the monster book of monsters, scarves and capes for all 4 houses, not to mention chocolate frogs and every flavor beans.
It started out as an experiment one day when we really needed to go to the library but couldn't be bothered with a trip downtown. So we picked up the first book and from the very first page, all of us were hooked. Maya says they are the best books she has ever read. I make sure we don't watch the movies until they have read the book and Jonah has had the opportunity to ask a million questions. Surprisingly, they haven't been scared of the movies. I think it comes from knowing the story so well ahead of time. The stories are along the epic lines of The Lord of the Rings, or the Chronicles of Narnia--it is easy to get sucked in to this whole new world . They are funny and adventurous and well written and best of all are the surprises around every corner--new details of the wizarding world, magical creatures and plot twists. We made it through Lord Voldemort and the Dementors fine, but I am nervous that the appearance of the "Death Eaters" in Book 4 are going to prove to be too much, so this might be our last read until the kids get a little older. Maybe we won't even make it all the way through this volume. I don't know if I am ready to start answering the questions that come up if Harry and Cho Chang start making out between classes either. And already, with Hermione interested in the rights of House Elves, plus the detailed accounts of the Ministry of Magic, certain plot segments are going right over Jonah's head and his questions every three sentences make us long for him to fall asleep so we can read in peace and catch him up with the shortened version the next day.
Fun being in NY when the last book came out--we went to two different release parties--the kids were "sorted" into houses at one of them (Jonah is a Gryffindor and Maya a Ravenclaw), they did lots of craft projects and they even answered enough trivia questions to get awards. And now we even have Brett reading the books--he would get sucked in to our read alouds but missed a bunch if we ever read during the day. He says his subway ride to work feels like it just flies by now.
If you have kids who aren't afraid of the scary parts, I highly recommend the series, at least up through the first few books. Definitely read the books before you watch the movies, and if you are worried about them check out this website for very detailed information for exactly what is in them. It is probably way more appropriate for a 10 year old than a 4 year old, but I will leave that up to you. I am just glad that we have 2,781 more pages to read...