Potter fans start young

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” opens Wednesday and my daughter, Amber, will be one of the throngs of Muggles rushing theaters at midnight. She is truly a member of Generation Harry who grew up reading Harry Potter.

Amber was only 3 when the first book, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” released. She was an avid reader in first and second grade but she was too busy reading “Junie B. Jones” books to care about Harry Potter. That changed when she hit third grade.

Since then, we’ve celebrated Harry Potter book releases and movie openings with almost as much fervor as some people celebrate Hanukkah or Christmas. Amber got more excited about a new Harry Potter book than she ever did about her birthday.

When she was 10, she saved birthday money and paid $60 on Ebay for a “real” hand-carved mahogany magic wand. She also bought a velvet cape, framed Harry Potter art for her room and collected all kinds of Harry Potter loot.

When the final book released, Amber was forlorn. It was the end of an era for her. Luckily, the Twilight series came along.

Truthfully, I never got into the Harry Potter craze too much. I love to read but I’m more of a historical romance and comedy memoir kind of gal. But I do find the phenomenon intriguing.

For my upcoming story in Thursday’s you! section about Generation Harry, I interviewed a child psychologist and Harry Potter expert, Lisa Damour. She had fascinating insight about how the trials and tribulations Harry and the gang experience relate to the real-life psychological development of teens.

Something I found especially interesting is that even though the books are great for getting kids on track to become lifelong readers, she often hears parents bragging about how their child read all the Harry Potter books when they were only 7 or 8.

She doesn’t think parents should let their kids start the series until they’re about 8 and that they should pace their progress through the series. Even the first book has some scary parts that are not appropriate for a young child. As the series progresses, the content becomes darker and less appropriate for young children.

Read Thursday’s you! section for more insights from Damour and visit blog.newsok.com/ofinterest to let me know what you thought of the new movie.