By Michelle Martin
Staff writer

When Harry Potter flew onto the American scene three years ago, his magical broomstick swept up a flurry of critical acclaim and the kind of devotion from young readers that most authors can only fantasize about.

Now, with the Warner Bros. film based on the first book, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” set for release Nov. 16 and Harry Potter licensing deals and tie-ins everywhere, Harry-mania is running wild once again.

But the young wizard and his creator, Scottish author J.K. Rowling, kicked up something besides praise: warnings from some Christian critics, including Catholics, that the series of books at best would confuse children about the nature of God and the world, and at worst would lead legions of young people into a life of witchcraft and the occult.

The books begin with Harry, orphaned as a baby, discovering he has magical powers when he receives an invitation to attend a school for wizards. At the same time, he learns that a powerful dark wizard murdered his parents. The dark wizard tried to kill him, too, but left him with only a scar.

For some critics, the whole world of Harry is like the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft: off-limits to students and rumored to be the home of werewolves and other dangerous creatures.

Arlene Sawicki of South Barrington said she won’t buy any Harry Potter books or paraphernalia for her grandchildren. What’s more, she has encouraged all Catholic and Christian parents to avoid the books, and, now, the movie.

After dabbling in New Age spiritualism and the occult nearly 30 years ago, she said, she recognizes a danger that others might not see.

“Many fear, including myself, that the Harry Potter craze is so seductive to our children that it will open forbidden doors to the occult,” she said. “Is it really just innocent story telling with creative imagery, interesting characters and plots, capturing the attention of children who need to practice their reading skills (just like so many fairy tales of old and the occult offerings on children’s bookshelves), or are we as Christian parents being lulled to sleep?”

Joan Zabelka of Hickory Hills heard the warnings, and wasn’t sure whether to buy the books. But after the librarian at Bridgeview School read them herself and shared them with sons Tim, 12, and Andrew, 16, she agreed with many educators—including many Catholic school teachers—that the real magic is in the way the books fly off the shelves (more than 100 million have been sold worldwide) and into youngsters’ hands.

Far from the biblical conception of witchcraft, or calling on the devil for dark powers, Zabelka found the kind of magic, fantasy and conflict between good and evil that have entranced children for generations.

“These are things people have been reading about for ages,” Zabelka said.

Tim Zabelka described the four books as “very exciting” and “surprising.” Reading along with a taped version of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” the student at Wilkins School in Justice finished the 734-page tome in a week and a half—and his mother describes him as a “reluctant reader.”

Andrew Zabelka, a student at St. Laurence High School, said he enjoys fantasy literature, and has recommended Harry Potter books to his friends. When his mother brought “Sorcerer’s Stone” home, he got into a race with Tim to finish it.

Dorothy Szczepanik, sixth-grade teacher at Resurrection Catholic Academy on the North Side, estimates that three quarters of the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at the school have read at least one Harry Potter book, and about a third have read all four. The books pop up on many desks during the school’s “Drop Everything and Read” sessions, and students have called them “thrilling,” “adventurous” and “mind-absorbing.”

“If a book could do that for a student, it’s wonderful,” Szczepanik said. “It gives them a chance to explore their imaginations.”

And with the movie coming years after the book, she sees an opportunity for students to read first, see the movies later, and compare the two.

Michael Burda, 14, intends to see the movie. The eighth-grader at St. Mary School in Buffalo Grove drew a mural of Harry—based on the cover of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” the fourth book in the series—on the wall of his school library.

Burda said he read all four books, even though he doesn’t like to read much, and found nothing that he thinks most adults would find objectionable.

“Harry’s really a good person,” he said. “His character is really a good friend.”

St. Mary Principal Gary Campione agreed with that assessment, and the school uses Harry Potter in its Battle of the Books and Accelerated Reader programs.

But books that can enchant young readers to that extent scare some critics. After all, things children like—from too many sweets to violent TV shows—often pose dangers.

As far as Sawicki is concerned, Harry Potter provides wonderful advertising for the occult, and she points to publishers jumping on the witchcraft bandwagon as evidence. Scholastic, the U.S. publisher of the Harry Potter books, also put out the “T*witches” series, about twin teenage witches. Puffin offers the “Sweeps” series, beginning with “The Book of Shadows,” which has been characterized as “a Cinderella-story of a shy, Catholic, high school girl who transforms into a confident young woman and catches the man of her dreams through Wicca.”

Wicca is related to the old English term for “witchcraft.” Modern Wiccans have said that they enjoy seeing witches cast as the heroes of books, but that Harry Potter-type witchcraft bears no resemblance to their nature-worshiping practices.

But Wiccans, or pagans, can use Harry Potter to recruit young people, Sawicki said.

“Harry Potter teaches children it is acceptable, even clever, to practice witchcraft, the occult, look into crystal balls, join a coven, cast spells, chant, make potions, fly on broomsticks, turn yourself into an object, talk with spirits of the dead, practice transfiguration and work with dark forces,” Sawicki said, noting that the Bible has more than 400 admonitions against such practices.

In fairness, while dark forces exist in Rowling’s books, Harry and his friends work staunchly against them. And nobody joins a coven.

As for whether children think the books would make anyone believe they could cast a spell or fly on a broomstick, the Zabelka brothers scoff.

Do the Harry Potter books make kids want to try witchcraft for themselves?

“No,” Tim said. “They’re just fictional books for kids.”

“I’m into the whole idea of magic,” Andrew said. “It’s cool because it’s a reality you can’t have, but you can experience it through imagination. It’s clearly marked fantasy.”

“Anyone who reads anything into these books is doing just that: reading into them,” said Holy Family Sister Alice Feather, assistant principal at Holy Angels School on the South Side and a Harry fan.

Feather found the two Harry Potter books she read “delightful.” She and other Catholic educators say the lessons the book teaches are more helpful than harmful.

“There’s more evil in the real world that they’re exposed to than the evil in Harry Potter,” Resurrection’s Szczepanik said. “I think this is good for taking kids out of the real world and giving them a chance to explore with adventure.”

Besides that, the books show children who might feel like outsiders that they might have unrecognized talents, that a “nobody” can become a “somebody,” she said.

Mary Margaret Keaton, a Virginia mother and catechist who is writing a book for Pauline Books & Media on the Harry Potter phenomenon, admitted to being worried when her oldest son fell in love with “Sorcerer’s Stone.” Reading the books changed her mind.

“I have not yet been convinced by anyone that these books will hurt a child’s spiritual growth and development,” said Keaton. “In fact, if parents will read the books, I believe they can use them to teach children certain spiritual themes, such as redemption, salvation, responding to God’s call to develop our gifts for a future we cannot even imagine.

“The books challenge the readers to become virtuous. Harry and his friends are making mistakes, but they are learning to accept responsibility for those mistakes and are moving toward heroic virtue. And isn’t that what every parent would hope for a child?”