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Book Reviews |
A Reliable Guide
The Mystery of Harry Potter
A Catholic Family Guide
By Nancy Carpentier Brown
Huntington, Ind.: Our Sunday Visitor
Publishing, 2007
175 pages, softcover; $12.95
Reviewed by Sean P. Dailey
Nancy Carpentier Brown is a powerhouse. She is a home-schooling mother. She blogs. And she writes books—three in 2007 alone: a study guide to G.K. Chesterton's St. Francis of Assisi, a collection of Father Brown stories specially edited for children and, dipping a toe into the raging waters of controversy, The Mystery of Harry Potter: A Catholic Family Guide.
Nancy could not have anticipated the firestorm that has greeted this book, particularly from home-schoolers. It was almost as if they were incensed that one of their own should have published a guide for families wondering if J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books are suitable for their children. She was attacked on home-schooling blogs, her commitment to the Catholic faith and her abilities as a mother questioned. Not surprisingly, few of Nancy's detractors had read her book; even fewer of these have read the Harry Potter books. Why go to the source material when it is easier to skewer a literary critic? G.K. Chesterton noted this tendency: "We all have a dark feeling of resistance towards people we have never met, and a profound and manly dislike of the authors we have never read."
I wrote extensively of my high regard for Harry Potter in the previous issue of Gilbert Magazine; should any readers still have doubts I highly recommend that you give Nancy's book a try. A former Harry-hater herself, Mrs. Brown recounts in The Mystery of Harry Potter a conversation she had with another home-schooling mother and being shocked at the other's admission of enjoying the books.
"My first reaction was to think, now I can't let my children play with her children." However, Nancy continues, "After the shock wore off, I hesitated. Wait a minute, I said to myself. Either my friend—whom I've always trusted—is way off base, or the Harry Potter books aren't what I've believed they are. I decided it was time to find out for myself" (italics in the original).
What's that—finding out for yourself instead of relying on others to do your thinking for you? What a novel idea. It was Nancy's primary motive for writing this excellent book: by relying on misinformed literary critics to guide them in regard to Harry Potter, Catholic parents are surrendering their God-given authority to be the first educators of their children. Now it's time to read an informed critic. The Mystery of Harry Potter: A Catholic Family Guide is organized for use in a family setting, with chapter reviews and study questions ("dinner table questions," Nancy calls them).
The twelve chapters cover all the major issues that have arisen around these controversial books: whether the Harry Potter books are Catholic novels; the choice between good and evil; the use of "magic" in the books; the importance of friendships; and so on. Nancy cites with interest parallels between Harry Potter and Chesterton's poem Lepanto; each chapter of The Mystery of Harry Potter contains an excerpt from each, side-by-side, with commentary by Nancy.
Also very helpful are two appendices, one containing interviews of Dale Ahlquist and Regina Doman, two well-informed Harry Potter critics, and a second with resources for teachers, catechists, and parents, including discussion questions and suggested reading.
By all means, read Harry Potter. And if you are looking for a reliable guide, I can think of none better than Nancy Brown.