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April 30, 2012 by Karen Jensen, MLS

Harry Potter + The Fault in Our Stars = A fantastic Why YA? post by Leah Miller

April 30, 2012 by Karen Jensen, MLS   8 comments

As part of our ongoing Why YA? series, Leah Miller, author of The Summer I Became a Nerd, shares two titles that moved her and why everyone should read them.

Harry Potter is, as we all know, a beautifully written story. It will be with me for the rest of my life (not to mention my kids’ lives, if I have anything to say about it). Sometimes, I’m not sure how I ever lived without it. I know that might sound a bit dramatic, but it’s the truth. Rowling wove a story for us that could never be equaled. All sorts of topics are touched upon in the series; prejudice, love, hate, loyalty, and relationships between friends, family, and enemies, among tons of others. The way her brain works is spelled out on the page in plots, sub-plots, and even ghost plots (all my Pottermore people say, “Holla’!”). I doubt I’ll ever be as in love with a story as I am with Harry Potter and his many adventures.

Rowling’s writing is, well, it’s what I aspire to write. Her turns of phrases to suit the situation,  her characters who rip your heart out and lay them on a silver platter, the twists and turns, the gasps you make after just one sentence.
Harry Potter is one of those series I acknowledge as the reason I started writing in the first place. In my opinion, anything that makes one aspire to be better, to follow one’s dreams, is valid. Also, the fact that she has interwoven so much of herself into the books is wonderful. Who would Hermione be without Rowling’s own know-it-all spirit? As a writer, I pull from my own experiences and ideas about the world. I can only hope that one day I’ll be able to do it as subtly and ingeniously as Rowling.

Harry Potter also holds a place in my heart due a special connection with someone very important to me that was made because of it. I talked my father into reading the Harry Potter series back in 2001. I always knew he loved me and believed I could do anything, but up until that point, I never really knew he trusted my opinion.

Of course, he loved it. Here was this almost sixty-year-old man asking me for the next book only two days after I gave him the first. We even watched the first movie together in the theater. After Dumbledore said, “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live,” Daddy leaned over to me and whispered, “Remember that, Leah.” At the time, I brushed him off, sort of. “Yeah, Dad, watch the movie.” Unfortunately, he never got to finish the series. He died in 2002 from a stupid disease called pancreatic cancer. Which leads me to another book: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

I don’t know about other people, but that book affected me in a very personal way. It made me analyze how I handled the news about my father. It made me remember what is was like to watch him die when I had only just turned twenty, still practically a teenager. TFIOS forced me to think about a part of my life that I considered a black spot, something I very rarely want to think about. I would hazard a guess and say we all have spots like that. But TFIOS also made me think about life and death, in general. And thinking is a good thing no matter what genre is causing you to do it (noticing a trend here?). I learned a lot about myself while reading that book that I don’t think I could have learned from reading anything else.

The fact that Harry Potter and The Fault in Our Stars are forever connected in my mind might seem a little odd, but that’s the thing about YA. Sometimes it can be heart wrenching. Sometimes it can be fun and make you laugh until you cry. Sometimes it can be both. Sometimes it can be all that and then teach you something about yourself you never knew was there. That’s what Harry Potter and TFIOS were for me. And I like to think Daddy would have felt the same way despite him being an almost sixty-year-old man.
Nothing I could ever say to J.K. Rowling could ever encompass my love for her series, but to John Green I’d like to say, “Thank you, Mr. Green, for giving the world that book.” I’m not as poetic as Mr. Green, so I’ll just say that, for me, The Fault in Our Stars was “heavenly in its hurtfulness”.
P.S. I hope John Green doesn’t take offense that I was able to put my feelings into words for his book, but was unable to do so with Harry Potter, but as Hank Green says, “No matter what I read, I think, ‘This is not Harry Potter.’”

P.P.S. I know at some point in this post I was supposed to say why these books appeal to teens. To that I say, “They appeal to teens because they’re really, really good.”
 

Mother, wife, and YA author living on a windy hill in Natchitoches, Louisiana. I love fuzzy socks, comic books, cherry coke, and brand new office supplies. THE SUMMER I BECAME A NERD by me coming Summer 2013 from Entangled Teen.  You can visit Leah Miller’s blog, Living the Dream, or follow her on Twitter (@LeahR_Miller).

You can also read our other Why YA? posts and learn how you can write your own here.

Filed under: Hank Green, Harry Potter, J K Rowling, John Green, The Fault in Our Stars, Why YA?

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About Karen Jensen, MLS

Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Stephanie W says

    April 30, 2012 at 2:47 pm

    I love Cherry Coke too!!! I need to drive over and hang out with you. I'm not even 2 hrs away…

  2. TLT says

    April 30, 2012 at 2:52 pm

    I am a Pepsi girl myself. But we can all 3 hang out! Plus, I love HP and TFIOS. I wonder if John Green would come hang out with us? That would be epic.

  3. Leah Rae Miller says

    April 30, 2012 at 3:53 pm

    Cherry coke, ftw! We should totally all hang out! I'm starved for people to talk books with here. Not to mention, new friends rock 😀

  4. Katherine Ernst says

    April 30, 2012 at 4:19 pm

    Harry Potter is amazing. Non-controversial statement there. 😉

  5. angelafrancis says

    April 30, 2012 at 5:17 pm

    Beautiful, beautiful post.

    I started reading TFIOS and actually had to stop. I lost my dad two years ago to cancer and watched the sickness slowly kill him for 16 months. But I agree, TFIOS is amazing, deep, beauty and I am so happy he wrote it. One day I hope I can finish it, but his death is still so raw and new to me, there is a lot I can't handle. I'm so grateful for YA books, they touch on deep subjects with no barriers.

  6. Rachel Harris says

    April 30, 2012 at 5:23 pm

    Dude this post made me tear up! So beautiful. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself here and making us all think deeper. And you made me laugh, too. Which makes me even MORE eager to read your book. Seriously, 2013? That's sooo long away! lol

  7. Bethany Hagen says

    April 30, 2012 at 7:31 pm

    I love TFIOS!!!!!!!!! It's one of the best books of 2012, if not the best book of 2012. It was so profound and yet so true to the teenage experience…*trundles off to go read it again.*

  8. Natalie J. Damschroder says

    April 30, 2012 at 8:58 pm

    I think the way these two books are connected for you is very beautiful. I'm glad you have something tangible like that to tether you to your father (or vice versa). It's not always necessary, but the symbolism is important.

    I think books like these help prepare teens for real life without having to live it. So much better to be “prepared” to go through a situation because you knew something about it first, even if it's just by reading someone else's experience. Even fiction is based on emotional truth, right? 🙂

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