The Harry Potter Dilemma

What is the Harry Potter Dilemma? Well it something I think about each time I see people reading and scrambling to get themselves anything Harry Potter, I wonder to myself “Does Harry Potter really help bring reading back into the mainstream?” Sure it has made reading interesting again for young people, but is it the type of reading we want them to be exposed to? I would put Harry Potter on the level of romance novel for the depth and deeper meaning that each book has, they are all surface story and no substance. To really be engaged with reading the audience needs to have a deeper meaning to tease out of the work in conversation with others or essays they write. Maybe I am being too hard on Harry Potter, I know that there are some serious themes, but it doesn’t explore them deeply, the books only briefly touch on them and then let the plot continue to drive the story. My hope is that all those children that started reading Harry Potter will move up to better novels that make them think just a bit more. I guess these next couple of years will be the deciding time for this generations’ interest with books.