Many years before the Harry Potter hype, I was strolling in one of those huge supermarkets that sell everything from car-windshield wipers to imported parmesan cheese.I made my way to the book aisles and stood in front of the adult fiction literature section scanning for an interesting title, when my glance paused at a cute book cover with a little boy ("Hm, is that a scar on his forehead?") and a train. I flipped it over to read the summary. Something about a boy named Harry, something about a man with funny clothes. I considered buying it but decided on another book whose author I was familiar with.
On my next visit to this particular supermarket I noticed that the same book had been relocated to the children's books shelves. This would explain why I was baffled with the back-cover summary in the adults' section. My firstborn was (and thankfully still is) a bookworm so I bought it for her.
When she had barely reached page 20 of the first Harry Potter book, she raced into the living room, all flushed, embracing the book: "Mom, you've GOT to read this! This book is a-MAZ-ing!" I'm glad I took my kid's advice.
I discovered some very adorable book heroes and a fictional world that I had secretly hoped could exist. Who in their right mind would NOT want to find out that they are a wizard or a witch when they turn 11??? As a kid my nose ached because of the umpteen times I practiced Samantha's nose twitch from "Bewitched". And then there was Sabrina of "Archie's gang". I finally found out (gee, thanks JK Rowling) that I was muggle-born and Muggle I would remain (*sniff*).
We were one of the few families in Greece that had met Harry by chance and had adopted him before he became "THE" Harry Potter and all the international hoopla set in. I waited in line to get the English version of Book #6 last summer and tomorrow is the Greek premiere of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" movie. Have I got tickets, you ask? Is Ron Weasley's hair red? (For non-HP fans, the answer is yes)..
