It all started with a Lego Catalog. My son is almost eight, and being a huge Lego fan, wanted this game. But he didn't know very much about Harry Potter. I seized this opportunity to introduce him to the first novel by JK Rowling, as he was not very interested in books and the wonder of reading---so this was an opportune moment! Blowing the dust off the hardcover copy I had, I proceeded to read the first chapter to him. I was hoping this would ignite the passion for reading that was lying dormant in him, just waiting to be awakened.
A few pages in, he was requesting we go straight to the movie, as I found myself having to explain a few things. The library is right across the street so it was a simple request to grant and while I wished we were going for books and not movies, I reconciled it with the thought that with a basic knowledge of the story after seeing the movie, it might be nice to revisit the book again for a more in-depth approach. After all, everyone knows the book is always better.



At the library, I saw there had been a bunch of movies made and I had no idea which one came in what order. I didn't even know if there were more to come. In short, I was clueless, Harry Potter wise. I had all the books from #1 through #5, but I had only read the first two before life interrupted and they were soon forgotten--hence the dust blowing earlier. I had also seen a few of the movies, but in no particular order and honestly, I wasn't in a Harry Potter state of mind, for the last ten years or so. I was too busy living my own adventure, with it's own heroes and villains.



So, the next logical thing was to check my library at home for the titles and then go online to see what movies were made and if there were any more to come in the series. One thing led to the next and a simple inquiry about book/movie order lead me to JK Rowlings's website, more out of curiosity then anything else. Once I started reading her self-written biography, I started to get sucked in. After reading her own description about the main theme of the books being "death", I was completely hooked.
Here was:
A woman. A mother. A children's book author. An epic saga about life and death and love and prejudice. A crappy childhood. Estrangement. Divorce. Death of a parent. Poverty.

hmmmmmm....I could relate.

and the billionaire part doesn't hurt one bit. I'd like to relate to that one day.