Wednesday, January 14, 2009

because I can't resist a shout out to J.K. Rowling...



Says Lisa Belkin on The Motherlode  -  

I admit to writer-envy - not just of Rowling having created a world so spectacular as that of Harry Potter and his wizarding cohorts - but of how many kids she has inspired to read.  My mom instilled the reading bug in me I think, but then again maybe it's just part of the genetic make-up. My mom went back to school to teach kids with reading disabilities and I think she chose that path because of what reading did for her, how much she enjoyed words.  She was a daily crossword puzzle do-er, always had books on the night table,  and introduced me to everything and everyone from Dr. Seuss to Anna Quindlen (I have a book she had signed to me by AQ "from one writer to another" that chokes me up because it means my mom told her I was a writer.)  She died in June 1998 so I don't know that HP ever crossed her path since it was released in the UK in 1997.  I think she would have been thrilled and moved deeply by what Rowling's Harry Potter has done for young (and not young) readers everywhere -  I know for sure she would have read it just to know what her two granddaughters were so obsessed with...

No comments: