20 years later, new generation of Harry Potter fans

Published 10:17 am Thursday, June 29, 2017

NEW YORK (AP) — K’lyssa Moore wasn’t that much older than the elementary school students she now teaches when she first fell in love with Harry Potter soon after the books first started coming out.

The 28-year-old reads at least part of the first book to her classes, and isn’t at all surprised when they fall under the spell of the boy wizard, just like she did, and are endlessly curious about what happens next, just like she was. But the similarity ends there, since they have something she didn’t — all seven books at their disposal.

As the 20th anniversary of the initial publishing of the first Harry Potter book is celebrated this week, another generation is being introduced to Harry, Hogwarts and all the rest of the magical world created by author J.K. Rowling.

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For some of their first-generation-fan parents and other adults often doing the introducing, there’s a little bit of wistfulness that their kids won’t get to experience the midnight book release parties and other hoopla that surrounded the Harry Potter publishing phenomenon. For others, though, there’s the slightest bit of (cheerful) envy that their kids won’t have to wait to find out what happens next.

Moore is firmly in the first camp.

“Part of it, the fun of being a fan when the books were coming out, you were living it as Harry and all the characters were living it,” the Lubbock, Texas, resident said. “The wait between books was kind of like the summers they had in-between school when Harry was disconnected from the (magical) world. You do miss out on getting to make up your own theories and getting to guess what you think is going to happen because you can pick up the book and find out right away.”