Adults struggle with that magical leap of faith

J.K. wrote the Harry Potter series for kids. One of the major triumphs of the seven novels is the way the writing in each successive book matures with its intended audience.

For example, the first novel, The Philosopher's Stone, is aimed at the eight-to-ten-year-old group while the fourth book, The Goblet of Fire, caters to the early teen audience. By the time you get to the final novel, The Deathly Hallows, Rowling is writing for a nearly adult group in their late teens. And she does it well.

What I don't think she or her publishers expected, at least in the early going, was the huge following the books would earn from adults. My impression is that it started with the parents and teachers who read the first couple of books to their kids. These people became fans in their own right, then told other adults about the series and so on and so on.

The problem, of course, is that much of the ground work for the Rowling world, as I call it, was laid in those early novels, the ones J.K. wrote specifically for kids, never thinking that adults might pick them up and enjoy them on their own.

So she required leaps of faith so to speak that children are much more willing to take. Like the International Statute of Secrecy that requires wizards and witches to keep their powers secret from Muggles.

Rowling wanted to allow a child reader to believe that maybe, just maybe, the magical world does truly exist: it's just purposely hidden from the rest of us Muggles. It's a wonderful ploy and it obviously worked. Children have gobbled up these novels and dreamt of discovering that they, like Harry, have hidden magical powers that will get them invited to Hogwarts.

But adults have more trouble accepting it. We pick at it, like a scab. If there is a Statute of Secrecy, and a Department in the Ministry of Magic dedicated to preserving that secrecy, we wonder, why do they keep inviting the children of Muggles to Hogwarts? Why do they tell each new British Prime Minister of the existence of this wonderful world?

How do you keep a secret, in other words, if you keep telling people?

You would think that, by the 21st Century, every Muggle in England would know at least one person who had a family member, a friend, a friend-of-a-friend, a distant pen pal, who knows someone who went to Hogwarts.

So everyone would know and the Statute would be useless.

I actually had a fellow fan raise this concern with me the other day. She was seriously troubled by this logical inconsistency in the books.

My answer: take the leap of faith; accept the implausable; suspend your disbelief.

After all, the Harry Potter novels are children's books, first and foremost, and a wonderful, exciting, exhilirating ride as well.

Be a child again and accept the unlikely. After all, you're buying the existence of an all-powerful evil wizard who can split his soul into eight pieces and hide them in cups, snakes and bits of jewellery. Why not buy this little lie too? Just for the fun of it.