Tag Archives: Harry Potter

Book 9-1-1

Homes in Vancouver are small. We don’t have endless space for bookshelves. And my husband doesn’t share my view that books make nice decorations on the kitchen counter, or that stacks of hardcovers can serve as perfectly good side tables.

The kids have shelves in their rooms, where books are stacked in double rows. I have a shelf in the family room similarly crammed, as well as a couple desk drawers, two bedside table drawers, and one stack beside my bedside table (which usually escapes spousal attention unless it teeters too high).

Still not enough. It never feels like enough, and I’m always having to give away books that I love.

Then, last night, a friend called with a book issue. Her son was sick. He’d been sleeping all afternoon but at 8:30 pm, was wide awake and looking for something to read. Unfortunately, he was right in the middle of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and they’d forgotten their copy in Whistler on the weekend. Could I help?

I was so pleased to turn on my flashlight, sneak past my sleeping son, and withdraw the hardcover from the back row of his top shelf.

Even in a space-aware state, I’m still the person to call in a literary emergency.

Potter-mania

My daughter has read one Harry Potter book every six months since she turned seven. Min and I proposed the schedule as a way to space the books apart, because we didn’t think she could or should read the whole series at seven. Now, three years later, it’s turned into a traditional birthday reward.

This year my son decided he, too, should read a Harry Potter book on his sister’s birthday, so he started book one on my Kindle. This morning, he was immersed in Harry’s first trip Diagon Alley.

harry-potter

He couldn’t stop reading. He BEGGED to take my Kindle to school.

That didn’t seem like the best idea, so we trudged across the street early and asked the school librarian for the book, despite the “no new check-outs in June” rule. She signed it out under her own name, and my son headed down the hall with his prize.

Since my daughter carried her book to school, with her finger marking her spot the whole way, she’ll probably spend the day reading as well.

Which is probably not the most convenient thing for their teachers.

But it’s pretty darned adorable.