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Just For Fun

Everything I Need to Know I Learned From Harry Potter

by Devon A. Corneal

Photo credit: Else10 via Flickr CC

Every so often, a book or series comes along that captures everything you need to know about life. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. The emotional depth, whimsical humor, and deeply human characters engaged children and adults of all ages. Eager crowds awaited the release of each book in the series and packed movie theaters when the next film installment arrived. We learned about Quidditch and Butterbeer and potions, but it was the larger lessons about love and loss and loyalty and friendship that stuck with us. In fact, everything I need to know about life, I’m pretty sure I learned from Harry and his friends.

  • Love & Happiness

    • Dating is awkward for everyone, even the Chosen One.
    • Smart girls are cool.
    • “Happiness can be found in even the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” – Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

  • Growing Up

    • Great mentors can change your life.
    • Children are as important as adults.
    • Our choices matter. They define us. And we can always choose to do the right thing, even when it isn’t easy. In the end, “[i]t is our choices … that show us who we truly are, far more than our abilities.” – Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
    • It doesn’t matter where you go, your parents are always with you.

  • Family & Friends

    • Friends are everything. They are the family that we choose, so we should choose wisely.
    • Celebrate special moments with food and friends and bewitched ceilings if you possibly can.

  • Ambiguity

    • No one is either all good or all bad. People are complicated and sometimes villains aren’t what they seem. Neither are heroes.
    • Speaking of heroes, they come in the unlikeliest of forms. The brave, the smart, the scared, the humble, the awkward, the different – everyone is capable of saving the world in their own way.

  • Loss

    • When you lose something, have some pudding and wait for it to turn up. It usually does.
    • People you love will die. But, “[t]o the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” – Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

  • Fun

    • Mischief and fun are as important as exams. Maybe more so.
    • If you believe in the impossible, you can run through walls, fly on broomsticks, and travel through chimneys.

And perhaps the greatest lesson of all – great authors not only tell incredible stories, they change lives.

 

From wise wizards to brave adventurers, we rounded up The Best Characters in Children’s Literature. See if you agree with who made the cut!