Consider poor Harry Potter. Seven runaway best-selling books, six blockbuster movies, including the recently released “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,” myriad encounters with the wicked Voldemort and still some teachers insist on taking shots at the internationally adored hero. Can’t everyone’s favorite wizard get some respect?

The latest Potter-induced flap is over whether the Harry Potter series can truly be considered serious literature. Widely lauded by critics as an unusually well structured, well-developed storyline with creative use of language, JK Rowland’s epics have been translated into more than sixty languages. But even more important than the overwhelming critical and commercial success of these books have generated is the simple fact that Harry Potter and his crew have turned a whole new generation of children on to the delights of reading. And Harry hasn’t just captivated a young audience; this series has garnered a serious adult fan base and reignited a nascent ‘read it with your kids’ movement.

While some members of the educational community refuse to recognize Harry Potter as either valid literature or a true cultural phenomenon, others use both the books and the films as a basis for curriculum. Recognizing that Rowling’s skillful weaving of phantasmagorical wizardry with the mundane world of muggles allows readers, young and old, to examine issues of character and morality, progressive educators enthusiastically embrace the Potter canon. Scholars and teachers laud Rowling’s inventive use of language, and her carefully woven plots are used as examples of structure and form in creative writing classes.

Harry’s larger-than-life escapades and adventures have made an extremely successful transition to motion pictures. The big-screen versions of the Potter books are considered excellent examples of adaptation and are given serious study in film study programs.

For aspiring filmmakers, the creative intermingling of live action, special effects and computer-generated animation in the six Potter films are worthy of careful study.

Whether the chronicles of Harry Potter will survive as truly great literature, only a genuine wizard has the answer to that question. However, it would be foolhardy to ignore the huge cultural impact of JK Rowling’s creation. It is important to remember that even Shakespeare, Dickens and Mark Twain had their detractors, but their work has survived innumerable literary fads and continues to inform contemporary writing. Rowlings herself has acknowledged her debt to these trail blazing literary lions and it isn’t hard to see their influence in her work. However, Harry Potter is a true original in the literary landscape – a delightful phenomenon who has helped jump-start an appreciation for great story telling.

Now if we could only have one more installment….