Sir, – I read with horror Ed Power's article on why parents should dissuade their children from the "Harry Potter" series (Arts & Ideas, July 31st). I would like to suggest three reasons why parents should not adopt Mr Power's attitude towards this magical series.
First, in a world where concerts are bombed and negative attitudes are rampant, people between the age of seven and 1,000,000, all of whom are aware of what is going on, need to be able to pick up a book or watch a movie in which there is a measurable level of confidence that good will triumph over evil.
Second, there is a huge problem with people my age (12/13) in that the only thing they read is the title of the YouTube video they’re watching. Do parents really want to take a chance on children’s love of reading by denying their children the one book series that could spark their love of reading?
Finally and probably most poignantly, shouldn’t a child have the free will to choose if they want to read the series of books?
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Through school and friends, children will, most likely, find out what the series is like and might want to read it for themselves. A whole universe of arguments can be avoided if parents just say, “Yes of course you can read it”.
As Ed Power points out, everyone has their flaws. If a child’s only one is that he or she likes Harry Potter books, then parents could do much, much worse. – Yours, etc,
ROISÍN O’NEILL,
(Age 12)
Castleknock, Dublin 15.