J. K. Rowling is basically a genius. The fact that she has created an alternate universe is amazing! I have a special place on my bookshelf for these books, well, I would if I owned the books.
The first memory I have of the Harry Potter series was back in 4th grade. My English teacher that year assigned us to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and took it to the next level. She sorted us into the four houses and we were able to design our own shields to represent what house we had been placed in.
In 4th grade I was a couple years short of being 11, and after reading the first book of the series I couldn't help but wish for my letter welcoming me to Hogwarts. After realizing that Hogwarts wasn't an option I continued to read the rest of the series. I grew up with the books and if I can remember correctly each time a book was published I was right around the same age so I felt like I could relate to the feelings that the characters had. I became attached to the characters and cried multiple times when one was killed. The movies were never as good as the books, but they were needed. It's a little sad that the last movie is being released in 10 days. It makes it feel like the series is actually over and coming to a close. It's only sad because there will no longer be any books to anticipate the release of and no mysteries to solve, but there will be other series that I can anticipate releases of. I can also go back and re read the Harry Potter series and relive all of those emotions that my 11-17 year old self experienced.
