In Harry Potter’s world, no wizard or witch is truly complete without a wand. Wizards use wands to channel their magic powers so that they can cast spells, although as it happens, some are able to work magic without wands. However, it’s apparently very difficult to do powerful and focused spells without a wand.

While it would seem that a wand increases a person’s magical ability, it is more correct to say that the wand serves as a focus for magic. Think of magic as sunlight and wands as magnifying glasses: Sunlight can burn a leaf when focused through a glass.

Mr. Ollivander is said to be the best wand maker alive, although many favor the European wands made by Gregorovitch. Ollivander comes from a long line of wandmakers who have been working their craft since 382 B.C.

Wands are made of wood, and each one has some item or substance as its magical core. Ollivander typically used one of three items as a magical core: Unicorn hair, dragon heartstring, or a phoenix feather. Other wandmakers might use different materials, such as veela hair.

Wands are peculiar things that seem to have personalities and rules of their own. According to Ollivander, the wand chooses the wizard– not the other way around. A wand remains loyal to its chosen wizard. Although it’s possible for a wizard to use another’s wand, it won’t feel quite natural; the wizard will have the most success with the wand that chose him.

A wand will often reflect the qualities of the wizard. For example, Hagrid’s wand was made from sturdy oak. Dolores Umbridge’s wand is short, just like her.

Often it seems that the wood used to make the wand corresponds with the wizard’s date of birth according to the Celtic calendar; a tree is associated with each month in the Celtic year, and each tree has its own symbolic meaning. It works rather like the zodiac. Harry’s wand is made from holly, which corresponds with his birthday (July 31st). Incidentally, holly symbolizes luck, protection, as well as death and rebirth.

If there isn’t a Hogwarts class on wand lore, there ought to be!

The Boston Globe featured an article that talks about John Williams, composer extraordinaire. Harry Potter fans are well aware of this music genius because he composed the scores of Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. Aside from performing some of his Potter scores in Boston just a week ago, the article also revealed that he currently working hard on several soundtracks for Half-Blood Prince. But it was revealed in November that Nicholas Hooper would be setting score on the sixth film, not Williams. The truth is he is credited for the Harry Potter theme in Half-Blood Prince but it was originally composed for Sorcerer’s Stone and used for every film after that.

It all ends with Harry getting killed by Voldemeort only to come back to life being one of the horcruxes he still has his life thanks to the Stone of Resurrection. He comes back to death and the last horcrux, Nagini Voldemort’s Snake is destroyed of all people by Neville Longbottom who hacks off the head using the Sword of Griffindor. It all ends well and a look at the future shows Harry and Ginny, Hermoine and Ron, and Malfoy with his wife all with children being sent to Hogwarts to continue the legacy of magic their parents have lived through and almost died for.

The objections raised by some fundamentalist Christians to the Harry Potter books continue to make the news.

The Christian attacks on the Potter series aren’t an attack on witchcraft and magic, so much as an attack on the imagination and freedom of expression – and by extension an attack on literature. The Harry Potter books aren’t ‘How To’ manuals on witchcraft, nor is the author, J.K. Rowling, advocating the practice of witchcraft.

The themes in the Harry Potter stories pit the good against the dark side. Magical themes happen to be an effective way to play out the drama in a manner that is engaging, especially for younger readers.

Professor Dumbledore, the Hogwarts headmaster, is clearly the personification of good and urges Harry to use the power of love when dealing with the dark side personified by Lord Voldemart. On one level the Potter books are morality tales that happen to take place in a make-believe world that is magical – but then a lot of literature contains magical themes, including books by famous Christian authors.

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein are examples of Christian authors who created magical worlds with plots that at root are moral and even Christian in philosophical intent. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by Lewis creates an intermediary zone between the real and imaginary worlds using a prop – the magical wardrobe. Enchantment and make-believe allow the ‘other world’ beyond the wardrobe to become a possibility. Similarly Tolkein in Lord of the Rings invokes the powers of wizardry and magic. But it is used as a device to enable characters and events that couldn’t feasibly exist in the ‘ordinary’ world. This doesn’t mean that either Tolkein or Lewis were promoting magic or attempting to ‘corrupt’ the minds of young readers.

The problem with the criticism coming from a section of the evangelical community is that their interpretation of the books is much too literal. They seem to think that young readers are incapable of divining meaning and truth beyond the trappings of the tale. They get hung up on the trappings themselves rather than probe the deeper meaning of the stories. When they do look a little deeper, they often misconstrue the author’s intent and try to spin the plot as evidence of literary evil doing. Fortunately, a few leading voices in the evangelical community have had the good sense to take a more objective view of the content, and have resisted the temptation to try and subvert a fictional fantasy in order to smoke out the devil.

In attempting to ban the Harry books or in other ways suppress them, the detractors ironically succeed in adding to their allure and power. When something is ‘forbidden’ it becomes a lot more tempting. When the D.H. Lawrence novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover was banned, it did more for the sale of the book than any promotional campaign could ever have done. The same went for Ulysses by the great Irish writer James Joyce.

Moreover when you consider the amount of material on magic and witchcraft that is freely available in book stores these days, on the internet, in magazines, via certain video games or just by word-of-mouth – it makes it almost absurd to try and suppress Harry Potter books.

If Harry Potter gets banned in the bailiwicks of the offended – what’s next on the list? Grimm’s Fairy Tales? Rupert the Bear? Teletubbies? We live in a society in which diversity of opinion is an integral part of our fundamental freedoms. People who for personal or religious reasons attempt to create a chill by pushing for a ban of material as innocuous as Harry Potter, cater to a mean spirited approach that diminishes us all. Objectors can refuse to buy the books or have them in their home, and that’s as far as it should reasonably go.

We are talking about tales for young readers after all – not Anton La Vey’s Satanic Bible.

British examination standards have reached an all time low following confirmation that the book Harry Potter, by J K Rowling is to be included in the A-Level examination syllabus from next year.

Groan. Harry Potter is undeniably an imaginative piece of work; so imaginative it borders on gobbledygook. J K Rowling has managed to corner the children�s literature market admirably with her tales of the boy wizard and his adventures in the land of wherever. Not so admirably, I might add, as her PR machine has managed to corner the product support market, with such items as Harry Potter school bags, dolls, souvenir diaries and so on. It is this marketing machine that is responsible to the greater degree for the incredible success of the book series, not Ms Rowling�s dealthless talent as a writer.

The books were hailed as cult ‘must-have’s’ from their first inception, making J K Rowling deservedly a millionairess overnight, with movie offers coming out of the woodwork. That does not, however, make her books appropriate curriculum material for students striving for university entrance. For some of us, it still did not make her books interesting enough to get past page fifty. In my case, I believe the books good enough to borrow but not to buy; a definite case of one man�s meat, methinks…

Such decisions taken by our boards of examiners might lead one to believe that we are fast running out of contemporary material for A Level study. Certainly we are going down a slippery slope if we are to accept that the standard now aspired to within the terms of literary success may be described at best as entering the realms of fantasy.

The movies may have completed their run but the magic that is Harry potter will live on. Rumors abound on the film when a mysterious web page supposedly by J.K.Rowling springs up on the internet. Speculations start flying all over with die hard fans about Pottermore.com,fabricating their own assumptions. To what effect that very website may hold of significance, only she would know. Should she decide to lengthen the life of our dear wizards who lived in the film and in the hearts of many a people.

The legend has three magical objects that to who ever possesses all of them becomes the most powerful wizard of all time. The objects consists of the Elder Wand, the Cloak of Invisibility and the Ressurection stone, all given by death to three brothers who were contained in a story/legend known as The tales of the Three Brothers. Harry, Hermoine and Rupert all go out after the Horcruxes which was compounded by the legend which they believe is true and may hold the key to ending the rising influence and power of you know who.

With all of the controversy surrounding Harry Potter, including cries to ban the book from schools, the novels have done something that American parents and teachers, as a group, have failed to do. They have made our children read.

A recent study by Scholastic notes some intriguing statistics among the kids of Harry Potter’s world. Parents and kids both credit Potter with getting kids to read for fun; just over half of the kids surveyed said they neglected to do so before latching on to the series. Almost two thirds – 65% – have noted improvements at school since they started Rowling’s works.

More important than grades, however, is the entire shift in attitude towards reading. Previous surveys have found that children’s reading drops after the age of 8. The average Harry Potter reader, however, start the series at 9 and continue to read – and reread – the books as they get older.

Reread the books. This single statement spoke volumes to me. Most people I know read a book once and then never again. Most people, who will watch the same movie over and over, refuse to read a book they have already enjoyed because ‘they know how it ends’. They watch the same television shows with the same expected, overused endings. Yet we have kids now reading and rereading books. The idea boggles the mind.

Speaking of mindboggling, you do realize that most adults read less than five books after they graduate school, be it high school or college. Reading is apparently too difficult for most people. But Rowlings has lured her audience to read not one but six books, and eagerly anticipate the seventh. Not only that, but according to the aforementioned survey, half of Harry Potter readers will seek out a new series to devour. One in three – that is 33% – intend to reread the series. Oddly, only 27% intend to look for a new Rowlings book; perhaps the rest are afraid of being sucked into another ten year series.

You can put me down for all three sections, personally (no word was spoken on overlap, by the way). I will reread the entire series immediately before Book 7 comes out, trying to time it so that I receive my book ‘just in the nick of time’. That’s how I managed the last two books. I will continue to seek out new books and new series to read. And I will eagerly anticipate Rowlings next book – although I might wait until she concludes her next series before I start reading this time around.

The Harry Potter movies have been very successful and have raked in billions of dollars collectively for all the seven movies that have been released. With the second part of The Deathly Hallows to be released worldwide in just a few months the buzz is already going strong. First of all, this being a second part of a two-part movie, moviegoers were faced with a cliffhanger ending and they can’t wait to see what will happen to Harry Potter and his friends as they finally battle Lord Voldemort.

Wouldn’t it be nice to study about your favorite book all college years? That could be quite ideal especially if you are a Harry Potter fanatic because the Columbia College is offering a Harry Potter course for incoming students. If you are going to enrol in that course, they will charge you 600 dollars per hour. The course aims to go through Rowling’s writings that will focus on “reading between the lines” and double meanings, intricate details that is all over Harry Potter books. Example of a question asked to students is Harry’s Muggle residency, Privet Drive. So they have to find out what is a privet and its significance.