Why did Harry Potter become so popular?

[KindergartenKop]

I'm not a huge fan personally, but I think they're quite well written. I'm not sure they deserve all the hype though. So why did they become so popular?

For me it was growing up with him, in a world where it could have been happening alongside. Just real enough. It has all the classic good story lines of friendship, love, humour, bravery so fits the usual good children's book brief...but as he got older and his audience got older, the stories also got older and darker.

She basically brought in a fresh boarding school story that was equally popular with boys and girls when there hadn’t been a new boarding school series for ages.
I don’t think they are very well written, and they are very derivative, but being so derivative is part of their appeal since they feel so familiar yet also new.

Because they got picked up and turned into a movie. The books were low key before the movie. Movie one dropped and boom suddenly everyone wanted to read the books.

There was a long long gap between book 4 and 5, and then subsequent ones. This also creates a hype.

I think probably marketing. I enjoyed them.

Think it was a mix. Good timing in the market. It created a 'new genre' in marketing as 'kidult' so appealing to children and adults rather than being marketed purely as a kids book. People engaged in it 'live' as in the big wait on the next one coming out drove the hype.
It didn't really matter what the story was if you see what I mean. Now people have bought into it, movies, merch, memories it continues.

Fabulous stories. Not very well written books though.

I think the films were amazing. So often films from books are disappointing. I'd say the films were a lot better than the books. But the great actors and big budgets did help a lot.

They're just easily digestible stories that caught on and became a bit of a fad / craze amongst kids, in my day it was Yo-Yos with pop logos on them...

Plus, parents didn't mind Harry potter, it got kids reading and a lot of parents seemed to like the books too.

@DressedUpAtAnIvy

She basically brought in a fresh boarding school story that was equally popular with boys and girls when there hadn’t been a new boarding school series for ages. I don’t think they are very well written, and they are very derivative, but being so derivative is part of their appeal since they feel so familiar yet also new.

This.

Plus the genius of having different covers for children and adults. Adults started reading them, and it caught on as sort of a viral thing.

The books were low key before the movie. that wasn't my experience at all but then I was the target audience and the books were absolutely huge amongst my peer group even before there was even talk of movies.

They were definitely incredibly popular before they became movies.

The books were hugely successful long before the films.

I loved the stories and am really looking forward to introducing my daughters to them. I like the films too, but love the books.

I was 7 or so when the moves first came out and the books really were a phenomenon.

It really was like this secret magic world in real life. I genuinely believed there was magic and wizards in plain sight. It’s a great storyline about friendship. Great blend of magic and also the darkness that came with it. Still love it to this day!

I don't think there's many kids series with a story arc like that or deals with such big themes whilst also having all the fun light hearted friendship boarding school bits and appeals equally to boys and girls.

'Im not sure they deserve all the hype'

lol

The books were selling out on release way before the movies were made. The stories are incredible - easy to read for kids and adults. They are genius

I was 11 when the first one came out and I devoured it. I was a voracious reader and read 'up' a lot, but the world-building and escapism of Harry Potter was beyond anything I had read before. I was actually reluctant to read it at first as it didn't sound like the kind of thing I enjoyed, but a neighbour bought it for me as a gift and my mum said I should give it a whirl. She regretted that when I was haranguing her to pre-order the new releases I remember meeting JK Rowling twice at successive Edinburgh Book Fairs to have my book signed, and there were so many excited kids there.

I still read them from time to time now - now they are comfortable and familiar. Looking forward to introducing them to DD when she is old enough.

I was a teenager when they came out and read a copy of one that belonged to a younger relative. I thought it read like a pale imitation of an Enid blyton book. I could never understand why they blew up either, they weren’t very original or anything special.

The storytelling is outstanding. It’s all very well to say they’re not ‘well written’ but that can mean a number of things. They aren’t elegant prose certainly but they hook the readers.

J K Rowling may not write the best prose, but she is absolutely brilliant at telling thrilling, page turning stories. She also writes characters extremely well. You can instantly see and hear everyone, they leap off the page and you end up really caring what happens to them. She also expresses emotions in a really truthful, relatable way.

Many people can write "better" than she can, in one sense, but few have the gifts she has that make people want to keep reading.

With the 1st two they were books which I could read with both mum & dad, and all
Parties enjoying the story and I was able to read along with. They were simply magical and very much popular before the movies

Some very good ideas ( I was not enjoying reading the first aloud at all until I reached the sorting hat and then I finally understood the appeal.) The later books developed into good adolescent friendship stories.

The books were a big hit before the film franchise.

I think it was lucky timing in a lot of ways. There was a gap in the market and JKR came along.

The movies are good, the adult actors are amazing. If you want to see the best British actors in one place then watch Harry Potter. The children, they're OK.

The books are a million times better though. 99% of the 'plot holes' people come up with are covered in the books. JKR is very clever with her words and names.

@CareerConcerns1999

Because they got picked up and turned into a movie. The books were low key before the movie. Movie one dropped and boom suddenly everyone wanted to read the books.

There was a long long gap between book 4 and 5, and then subsequent ones. This also creates a hype.

They took off well before the first film came out, just by word of mouth iirc.

We had a family holiday in August 2000, just as Goblet of Fire had come out; my kids had read the first 3 so enthusiastically that I did too, and we had to draw lots for who read the new book when.

I didn’t enjoy it much though - way too bulky and long. I thought Prisoner of Azkaban was easily the best book of the first 4 and rather lost interest after that.