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?

JKR's world building is brilliant & the hope of getting a letter sustains my children often

I also think that the way the books grow older/the audience grows older as the protagonists do is pretty special.

Can't be doing by with the films as the kids make me wince (OTOH Alan Rickman )

The Galbraith books are fantastic- she writes brilliant character's & relationships.

I was 11 when the first one was published, and I was an avid reader already.
I knew they weren’t literary genius, but I was a child 🤷🏻‍♀️, so it didn’t matter. I loved them.
My oldest DD is 8 and has just finished reading them all. She loves them. Now she’s read the books she is going to watch the films.
It really doesn’t matter if adults think they’re rubbish, they’re not aimed at adults.

Ugh Tolkien. I studied Old English for a while and the very worst aspect of it was people's inexplicable love for LOTR.

I'm not a Tolkien fan either! DS loves both though!

@Pyewackect

Read the first one to see what the hype was all about. I’m still trying to understand the attraction. Same with Tolkien.

Fantasy isn't for you. That's fine.

They were loved by children's booksellers and librarians who really got the word out and were extremely popular even before the first film was made. I was a bookseller at the time the first ones were published and there was definitely a buzz about them.

I am now a school librarian and they are still very popular books.

For me it is

1. the amazing characters. They are still so vivid to me as an adult.

2. the escapism

3. the way she somehow combines the joy and surrealism of magic with mundane, normal life. I absolutely love reading about Harry's day to day life including how he hates doing homework, normal teenage angst, bickering, etc.

OP I love a bit of magic!
The only thing missing was some serious time travelling. My favourite children's book is Charlotte Sometimes which combined a boarding school story with time travel!

@ClumpingBambooIsALie

Ugh Tolkien. I studied Old English for a while and the very worst aspect of it was people's inexplicable love for LOTR.

Oh no, if you don't like him then studying him must have been a bit hard going, all the appendices with notes on pronunciation etc.

They are amazing stories and although some of the writing is not so strong, as an overall piece of work they are brilliant. I've listened to the audio books several times and there are parts in them that make me cry every time!
"I open at the close" - when all Harry's lost loved ones come to accompany him to meet voldemort, and his Mum and Dad are there -is an amazing emotional moment.
The books have a strong theme about the love mothers have for their children and an emotional heart. I think that's part of why they are so popular, underneath all the magic and adventure is a very universal message.

The boarding school side of things is interesting. That would definitely be a hook for girls already into Malory Towers etc.

I'm currently posting a marauder's era fanfic where Lily is avidly attempting to turn Hogwarts into Malory Towers. She is very sad that she has no Mamzelle to prank - and very angry when James mucks up her midnight feast. I think a lot of younger or foreign fans don't know/understand the huge influence Enid Blyton had on those books - or how familiar they are to to those of us who grew up reading Malory Towers (as JKR surely must have done).

I love the HP books - I think it is a combination of the characters being so alive and the world being so engaging. I also don't understand the complaints about her writing style. It's hilarious, it's heartbreaking, it's descriptive ... it''s not over flowery and that is a huge plus. I mean - it's putting words together in the correct order - how can a native speaker get that wrong? But the things she does with the words - the places she takes you and the people you meet - that is truly magic.

The stories are very cleverly crafted, and the things that get planted so early on and then come back - it's genius level. Sirius gets mentioned in the very first chapter of book 1! Peeves breaks the vanishing cabinet in book 2 and Draco fixes it in book 6 to get the Death Eaters into school- having heard about Montague being trapped in there in book 5.

Certainly timing and luck played a huge part - but these books are very clever and extremely engaging and they found an audience that appreciated that.

@KindergartenKop

At the time I felt she ripped off The Worst Witch series and I loved those books!

I don't know that not having smart phones is really significant. Other books did exist but didn't become so hyped and popular.

The boarding school side of things is interesting. That would definitely be a hook for girls already into Malory Towers etc. I was put off by all the bloody magic though. I was a realist from a young age

Ha ha, I was a realist from a young age too. I don't really like any kind of fantasy - Tolkein, Game of Thrones, even stuff like the Princess Bride is all a bit boring to me.

What I liked about Harry Potter was that they were only fantasy up to a point - they're set in our world. The characters are all beautifully drawn and relatable, and seem completely normal, despite being witches and wizards. There's also a lot of humour in the books (not so much the films, which lurched into a tediously emo vein, presumably inspired by Twilight).

I think the setting of the Potter books in a hidden world within our own is a big part of the appeal - all the detail and effort Rowling puts into making it plausible that it could be real. It's a lot of fun.

@FlibbertyGiblets luckily didn't have to study any actual Tolkien (well, other than his actual academic writings on Old English, which were perfectly fine to read) as it was courses purely on actual Anglo-Saxon language and literature — it's more that people who are into Old English tend to be LOTR fans too, which meant listening to a lot of elf/hobbit/other fantasy chat.

I think they simply captured childrens imagination. I'm way too old for them ( I did read one but, yeah, I was too old) but I imagine they have the effect that reading the Narnia books had on me when I was a child. Different world. I actually really miss that as an adult, I don't seem to be capable of completely losing myself in a different world that I used to have.

I agree icantreach her storytelling and the way she draws everything to conclusion is incredible.

[quote ClumpingBambooIsALie]@FlibbertyGiblets luckily didn't have to study any actual Tolkien (well, other than his actual academic writings on Old English, which were perfectly fine to read) as it was courses purely on actual Anglo-Saxon language and literature — it's more that people who are into Old English tend to be LOTR fans too, which meant listening to a lot of elf/hobbit/other fantasy chat.[/quote]
Awfully yawn if you're not interested!

Omg I say "actual" a lot when I'm half asleep, sorry bout that.

Could've been worse. Tolkien fans are better company than the other main group of people who are interested in the Anglo-Saxons i.e. white supremacists.

@KrispyKale

OP I love a bit of magic! The only thing missing was some serious time travelling. My favourite children's book is Charlotte Sometimes which combined a boarding school story with time travel!

Oh I absolutely love that book. Was very fond of a timeslip story. Still am!

Modern equivalent of Mallory Towers but for boys as well.

I don't get this at all. Yes, it's centred around a boarding school. But the thrill of the magic, the fight against evil, the secrets, the mysteries, the rise of a racist dictatorship! The most exciting thing I remember happening at Mallory Towers is the time that girl nearly fell off a cliff, which is OK, but doesn't really hold a candle to battling Voldemort at the Ministry of Magic in terms of keeping you on the edge of your seat.

We didn't have phones, but we did have computer games and consoles. I'd have happily thrown my N64 out the window to get my hands on the latest Harry Potter book early.

They are not just easy comfort reading either (for children). They tackle big, serious themes. Obviously they do that at a kid's level, because they are for kids.

The first one came out when I was 10 so I felt like I was pretty much reading them at the same point in my life as the main characters.

Same here, it really made me feel connected to the characters. I used to wait in line outside our bookshop for the midnight releases then go home and camp in our little garden in a tent to read it cover to cover. Some of my happiest childhood memories and the first time I was totally immersed in a world created by an author.

They made my ds a fan of reading. The pure pleasure i got from watching him happily reading.
Brilliant

I first introduced DH to it in 1999/2000 and went and bought books 1 and 2 together. I think it had been gradually gaining in popularity for a while before then.

It's the genius of being set at boarding school (few adults, friendships being central), plus the magic, plus the danger that is compelling. And what is really clever are the characters who aren't 100% good or bad, and understanding that good people can sometimes do bad things.

They are very complex multilayered stories.

I'm afraid saying the stories are derivative or badly written just come across just comes across as sour grapes.

My SC were the perfect age when the books started being published. They were so so excited when a new one was coming.
They are just brilliant kids books, imaginative, magical, relatable. Kids wanted to go to Hogwarts! My DD read them a few years later and hoped so much to get a letter 😁
I enjoyed them too, it's clever, thoughtful plotting and fab characters. Very little else has come close.
The books were hugely popular way before the films were made. I think it's the other way round, the films were successful because of the loyalty of the readers.