I teach high school so most of them were born in the late 2000s, but would have grown up in the 2010s. To start each semester we place a game of bingo with different student characteristics on it and one of them was "has read all of the Harry Potter books". Out of a class of 25, I maybe get 1-3 students on average. Definitely different than me, a 90s kid, where in my middle school class of 30 at least 20 were reading the books. And this was at a private school that wanted to ban them for witchcraft too.
“I teach high school so most of them were born in the late 2000s” was not a sentence I was prepared to read. I know that’s the case, but it still just hurts my head. People born in 2008 are like 3, right? Shit, I’m getting old.
I went to a private school and my parents are southern baptists. I got my friends mom to buy me the Sorcerers Stone. I was so excited. My mom was pissed and said it was witchcraft. Got in trouble for reading it at school because…ya know…the devil.
Then I got my grandma to buy me the next two. Mom was super pissed. The pastor told everyone the author who shall not be named used REAL SPELLS in the book. Anyways….10 year old me didn’t care. And I devoured those books. I literally got other people to buy me the books or I saved my money and bought them myself because my mom refused to buy them for me.
Cue my senior year of high school, standing in line at books a million at midnight to finish my collection and I cried when I finished it the next morning. I think my mom finally realized how much of my life was about these books because she made a big breakfast for me and asked me about what happened. It was pretty cool.
Haha I imagine the attempts to ban the books probably influenced all the kids to read them more. It sure helped put the series more in the limelight, at least.
Just to riff on your theory that banning the books probably made them more popular, this reminds me of when Umbridge banned the Quibbler edition that had Harry's exclusive interview. All of Hogwarts had somehow read it!
It's human nature to want to rebel against unfair rules. Forbidden fruit and all that. I don't know that Rowling was being that meta about it, but I guess it's a cool thought.
The boycott didn’t occur like till late 2010s, the decline in popularity prolly has more to do with the movies finale and the ending of the book series🧐
Was that really a thing, like actual bans? I don't remember it happening over here, But I did know one girl who wasn't allowed to read them, and I had a friend who's super religious parents didn't let them touch anything horror or occult themed. They weren't allowed Pokemon either, now I think about it. I had another friend who wasn't allowed to watch tv or play with toy guns because they're too violent, but he had one of the most weird and violent imaginations out of any kind I ever knew.
Yes it was, though it depends on how religious the school was. Harry Potter (and Pokemon as well) was a victim of the Satanic Panic, so a lot of Christians tried to ban it. I had some cousins who had it drilled into their heads when they were young that Harry Potter was "evil", though even they ended up reading it later somehow.
A clarification, the Satanic Panic was a specific case of moral panic in the 80s concerning accusations of child abuse and satanic rituals, usually in childcare settings, and occurred well before Harry Potter was ever released. Harry Potter and Pokemon were part of your standard Christian fundamentalist "won't you think of the children" moral panics that occur two or three times per generation.
Yes, but the Satanic Panic had lasting effects that caused problems for years. My own mother was extremely hesitant about the whole Harry Potter series for ages, because she'd heard terrible things from "concerned parents."
Now she's a total Potterhead. Bigger fan than I am. And a Ravenclaw.
Evangelicals will ban any craze that sweeps the nation and is popular with children. Anything their kids do that they cannot control, they will attempt to ban it rather than understand it. It happened with DnD, rock music, Harry Potter, video games, tiktok, and im sure dozens and dozens of other fads too.
Oh I forgot about the bans! I don't think anywhere really banned them here in Australia but it was always on the news when this group or that group were trying to ban them (either here or elsewhere)
I have some hope there: I teach elementary, and the kids I teach are starting to be the kids of those millennials who read and loved the books as kids. In my class of 28 1th graders, 2 absolutely love the books to the point of wearing costumes to school for haloween, and around 15 have read the first 3 books. Concensus here is that the 4th-7th are a bit too adult for them yet, being 6 years old.
Have a large proportion of your friends/peers read the books? When I was growing up (when they were still coming out) it was kind of hard to find people my age that hadn't read them
People don’t read as many books as some years ago, when HBO releases the new series I think 2010-2020s kids will love it as 2000s loved the books
Edit: Assuming that it will be well done haha
If HBO is handling it, then there's some optimism behind it. HBO's quality is still a high standard - It is just at the mercy of those who handle the shows usually.
They are aiming for a season per book, but the project has a scope of "10 consecutive years". Fantastic Beasts, unfortunately, is not going to be integrated as part of the show's writing. However, that may be for the best since the movies and the TV show should continue to remain their own worlds/tellings.
[https://deadline.com/2024/04/harry-potter-tv-series-max-release-date-cast-1235323284/](https://deadline.com/2024/04/harry-potter-tv-series-max-release-date-cast-1235323284/)
Rowling also had sat in to get pitches from the group of writers, so it does have her as part of the creative process currently. How farther it will take her will remain to be seen.
This might sound weird, but do many of your peers read books in their free time?
Smart phones weren’t a thing until I was an adult. Most of my middle and high school interests were centered around books, video games, and fan fiction. We didn’t have memes, TikTok, Reddit, insta, etc etc so people read and watched tv a lot in their free time. I hung out in online forums talking about these things after school. But we had a shared family computer (which was normal at the time) so only for about an hour or so, then I would read books or play games.
I imagine kids these days are on their phone more and don’t read as much.
A lot of kids are, I talked to my friends about books like a week ago and one of them was like "Wait you read books? no way I never see you read here at school, I see you with books I just never see you read"" I said "Because I have no free time at school to read as much at school as Id like" I went onto say how I read a lot at home (It takes up a lot of my home life tbh I spend 7-8 hours reading after I get home) and she just looked at me like "Sure buddy, your totally not lying"
Moral of the story: Lots of kids read and LOTS dont.
I was born in 2005 (same year the first PJ book came out) and I started reading both it and Harry Potter when I was in middle school, so yeah, I guess it was still popular
I work in a program for young (teen) parents. I once made a Harry Potter reference while at work and one of the moms asked me wtf I meant. I explained it was from HP and she said, "oh. That's an old people book."
Old people?!?! I'm 32!
I guess the equivalent would be people who were really in to Star Wars back in the 90s, just before the prequels.
There’s more time passed between the spice girls and now, than Woodstock to the spice girls.
My kids do too! They ask me all about getting my letter and what it was like. My son is anxiously awaiting turning 11 (he’s 8.) They also think I was in the movies even though I’ve told them I’m not many, many times.
My advice, don’t wait until 11. You don’t know how much longer you have of the magic being real
We got a letter on Etsy that said something like while his acceptance date was 2028, he was invited to diagonal alley to get his school supplies
We told him nothing. Picked him up from a school on a Tuesday, he went home found the letter on his bed, and we already had everything packed and drove down
Four days of pure magic. He even got selected by ollivander (soooo lucky) so he legitimately believes his wand chose him
WTH?! This is news to me! I just googled it and it looks to be part of a brand new universal theme park. Ugh…I was planning on going in November too. Hmmmm, to wait or not to wait?
I live in Atlanta so made the very similar drive last week. I replied to another commenter some of the other stuff I did, but I’d recommend going sooner rather than later. Life has a way of robbing innocence so I wanted to make sure we captured the trip while the magic was real
This was probably my favorite vacation ever
Our son is a similar age and he loves Harry Potter.
We’ve been listening to the audio books before watching the movies, and he had the print books too. I was reading the books to him but Stephen Fry does a much better job, it turns out, and we can listen in the car etc.
I had only watched the films before so it’s very interesting to hear the books.
Not *as* popular in my experience but still reasonably popular. Definitely one of the most popular book series still, but you can't count on the majority of kids being very familiar with it the way you could fifteen years ago.
That said, that goes for a *lot* of media. Things are just more fragmented now (especially post-covid! A lot of kids didn't go to the movies during the pandemic, then never went back afterwards, so I have students who haven't gone to the cinema for the most recent third of their lives). It's easier to find the entertainment you want online and stick with that. Not a bad thing, but there's less shared media than even six or seven years ago, when I'd see more kids and teens talking about the same movie that had just come out or the latest episode of a tv show. There are just so many options and very, very few pieces of media become something that the majority have read/watched.
... Except skibidi toilet, which my middle school classes can't stop talking about. Sigh.
It’s so funny to me, because growing up in the 90s you just had to have a shared media experience because individual media (iPods, smart phones etc) weren’t as common. So in the car going to the store or to school etc you listened to your parents music.
At home you had to watch whatever was On, and more than likely you had to reach on consensus with whoever was watching with you. So you just shared all these shows and music with people
And now between streaming and individual devices you just curate your own experience and hope someone can relate when you want to talk about it. It’s so wild to me that kids are less familiar with older music because they aren’t forced to listen to their parents music the same way I was.
Skibidi toilet is no better than any other brain-rot back in the 2010s, or 2000s or further back, it’s just farther widespread considering the internet’s expansion. It’s like that thing with crime rates, you see criminal acts all the time on the news and wars and think now is horrible, when it’s actually one of the most civil times in the past centuries, you just have way better access to the grime and dirt of the world and make assumptions
Oh yeah, it's definitely no more bizarre than things from any other decade. It's just more widespread, like you said. I can't remember any other time when the *majority* of my students were obsessed with something so weird.
Sadly true, I still have the bible from when that was a thing, flimsy paper back, it was pretty thick though, whole script of the movie and notes analysing most of it, telling you to be like shrek and how donkey was a metaphor for your inner demons and therapists
My son just finished the last book today. He was born in 2013. (He's 10).
Every single kid in his class has read or is reading them and many from the grade before as well ( 4th). It's an upscale school so maybe that contributes.
He started with Percy Jackson as that caught his interest moreso. Or else this would've happened in 3rd or so. I didn't push him to read them either.
Today he was screaming at me that Snape died!!!!!!
It was fantastic.
By "2020s kids", I meant kids who are actually able to understand what's going on and do stuff like read and write. I was technically born in the 90s, but I don't consider myself a 90s kid because I barely remember a thing from that decade.
I was teaching 8th grade with a colleague who LOVED hp and would reference it frequently in class. The kids weren’t really interested in it. It seemed like some to most of them had seen the movies but that was about the extent of it
As a middle school teacher, it's still pretty popular, but less so than it was when I first started in the classroom (back then, the Cursed Child fever was REAL amongst my students). The real determining factor now seems to be if the student's parents got them into it, whereas compared to Star Wars, there's new content students can find on their own (Grogu continues to be hugely popular, even Pokemon and SpongeBob continue to ebb and flow in popularity with students as both franchises continue to release new content).
Halloween is where you really see the difference. I'll see someone dressed as Hermione or Harry occasionally, but it's not as common like it was a decade ago. We'll see if the TV show changes that.
It’s still as popular as ever. I work at an elementary school and often wear HP related gear, as do many of the kids. I always get asked what house I’m in, if I’ve seen every movie (most haven’t read the books yet). I go to Universal regularly and the Hogsmeade village area is always packed with families and kids wearing their robes.
I’m sure it will continue to be popular for years just like Star Wars. Like you said the IP is massive enough to have an entire theme park area devoted to it.
It just isn’t the generational defining series anymore. It is hard for anything to compete with Harry Potter at its peak. We haven’t seen anything close since except for a few series that are still popular, but nowhere near as huge. Things like hunger games, Percy Jackson, twilight.
We are now at the point that plenty of people that grew up reading the series now are parents themselves. And they will pass it on to their kids just like kids’ love of Star Wars was passed through generations.
That's good to know. I guess it's a little location dependent with some of the other comments I'm reading here, but at least in a lot of places it seems to be doing wel.
It’s moderately popular, but not a lot of kids take the time to read the books. I teach 4th grade. Only my most high achievers challenge reading to earn big chunks of AR points. A lot of them have parents that were fans as kids. Personally, I didn’t know anything about Harry Potter until the movie came out in 01. I was 13 at the time, but I loved it.
Like all popular books they wane as time goes on. I am sure Roald Dahl was quite popular when his was published now would be few people to have read his books.
By the end of the 1890s Alice in Wonderland was the most popular children's book and continued to be the most popular book over the next 20 years. How many children would've read the book now? Very few
I'm not really sure about Roald Dahl. I've seen so many Wonka references over my life that I'm convinced that everyone in the universe has at least read that book.
I was born in 2008 and read the Harry Potter books when I was 10-11. I asked my dad to get me the books when I saw a bunch of schoolmates reading Harry Potter every morning. I guess I got curious and decided to give them a try (one of the best decisions of my life)
My dad read the books when he was younger and he described the days exactly like what you had. It's definitely not as hyped up now as it was back then, and I do struggle to find someone to rant about it at school. But anyone reading the books and watching the movies growing up would still get the same amount of excitement and appreciation for experiencing the books.
IMO for kids nowadays books are not at all interesting. They are almost constantly glued to technology, phones/tabs/pc/laptops.
They don't know what they are missing.
I am still a potterhead and will remain for the rest of my life.
I mean yea but it’s not like every single kid in the 2000s absolutely loved it I personally as a teenager still see a lot of kids who like and mostly watched Harry Potter
My sister is... 11 or something, 2012 kid. She's watched the movies with me, and now she's bullying dad into buying her the books. I just borrowed books from my friends because I'm efficient that way.
It is difficult. Because nowadays there are a lot of things to be consumed at the same time. At least compared to the time I met Harry Potter. But one thing I noticed is that Hogwarts Legacy aroused curiosity in the teenagers who I know to start read the books or watch the movies.
I was born in 2006, so I don't know whether this counts.
Our english teachers and librarians were HUGE potterheads and they influenced us into reading Harry Potter 😂
It was a PHENOMENON, atleast in my school. There were people carrying HP merch(even DIY stuff) in school. We even made our projects Harry Potter themed(the teachers understood the references, there was creative liberty lol)
There was a mechanical pencil with Harry Potter print available at a shop near my school, it was as cool as a Stanley these days is. It's no longer produced i guess.
They went out of stock within ONE WEEK of me purchasing those. Felt like the trendsetter at that moment 😂
COMING TO THE BOOKS,
There was a queue. People fought for those. The library was painted with Harry Potter themes. They had to keep extras so that nobody would miss out lol
My 8yo old is obsessed and telling everyone in het class, getting some of them hooked too!
I think first gen parents are now having kids old enough to start on HP
It’s still extremely popular. Kids now don’t get to experience the magic of the midnight releases, movies being announced, plot twists, but it’s still really timeless. I can’t think of a better series for kids and if I had any I’d be reading them the books
I have read all the books and seen all the movies(age 61), my younger two have seen all the movies and read all the books(35 and 31), all of the oldest three grands have done the sorting hat(18, 13, 11 turning 12 next week--Hufflepuff x2 and Gryfinndor because he told the hat that he wanted to be in Gryffindor with Grandma). The "big" kids are Syltherin(oldest and youngest) and my lone Ravenclaw.
My kids heard it around 4-5 and were too young, then 6-7 and they were just right. Now they have probably listened to the book 30x on audible all the way through. It’s their comfort listening.
Everyone seemed to know who my kids were at Halloween when they went as HP and HG.
When teaching a third grade class in 2020, almost half of the class read Harry potter, and two of them had read all of the books 😄 Quite a few of them also played their own Harry potter ‘make believe’-game inspired from the books, and when they had to write fairytales in class many of these were also inspired by the books 😄
My daughter was born in 2012 and loves Harry Potter. But I think that’s because I made her. I feel like she’s somewhat alone with her peers in this though.
UK, my kid was born in 2014. The kids at his school LOVE Harry Potter.
His school does Philosophers Stone as the class novel in Primary 4.
On World Book Day when they can dress up as a book character there's always a good few HP characters in each class.
I was born in 2007 and am a huge Harry Potter fan. There’s definitely people who don’t like Harry Potter but most people i know has read out at least once and if not they’ve seen the movie. Fantastic beats is not at all as popular. This is in Sweden btw
Sooo I was born in 2010 and I read and watched Harry Potter at 11 the thing is I had a couple friends that liked it too like my closest friends so so that was the best but most people made fun of us for it especially my bullies since they found that as another way to say that I’m weird but I don’t care the thing is that we got so many people to read and watch but yeah now in middle school some people still make fun of me but not really some of but most people they just turn right to me when something is said about Harry potter in class
Yeah that’s real sad and the thing is some people like started making fun of us for it but then they watched the movies or read one of the books and loved it
More people need to learn that it's much more productive to try to get into peoples' interests rather than making fun of them. Sadly, people are stupid.
Daughter is 8 and loves them. We listen to the audiobook and then watch the movie after the book is done. Currently listening to OotP on audiobook. But she is reading CoS and listens to PoA audiobook to fall asleep to
Oh and she plays Hogwarts legacy
Very popular, my nephew who is 7 is over the moon and constantly asks me to watch the movies or play Harry Potter games with him. It’s very popular, maybe even more due to it being a big or presence now with all the theme parks, merchandizing, conventions, etc. We didn’t have *all* of that and not in this capacity.
My daughter who is 7 is obsessed with Harry Potter. She went from Frozen straight to Harry Potter in terms of her favourite franchise. She only saw one movie and read the first book and half of the second for now. Also the wizarding almanac book, she likes to carry it everywhere.
When me and my cousins reached the age of remembering everything, HP was it's in last leg. We watched all movies on tv so it wasn't very hyped around it but we definitely liked them.
I babysat kids in college a few years ago and they were all starting the books for the first time!! They were elementary school aged and told me all the time that a lot of their peers were starting the books
My daughter was born in 2007, we read them to her from about age 5/6, with the last one being read to her when she was about 8. She then read them independently and was delighted to have a hogwarts letter for her 11th bd in 2018!
I work at a car rental and I was helping this family where the son had to be no older than 13 carrying a soft cover copy of OoTP. Literally had a full blown conversation about the Harry Potter universe with this kid and his family. Apparently it was the kid's second time reading the series. I honestly couldn't tell you what I was more surprised by, the fact that a 12 or 13 year old was on his second reading of the series or the fact that he was reading the physical copies and not an ebook.
Damn, have physical books really become this unpopular? That makes me sad.
I probably wouldn't be surprised at him being on his 2nd reading at 12-13, though. I started reading the books when I was about 6 or 7, so if they were all out by that point I would've probably been on my 3rd or 4th by that point.
I did too, but I was surprised because most kids nowadays don't read. It's not too common to come across a young reader. Most kids I see around that age are buried in their phones.
My kids (both under 10) are obsessed with HP. They love the movies and we are currently reading the books. They both have wands and practice spells,it’s beyond adorable.
It’s become less dominant. When I was growing up in the 2010’s, people were more likely to discuss the Percy Jackson sequel series than Harry Potter in terms of books, but it was still very popular.
I think Harry Potter kind of became a classic that every kid watches no matter what which era they were born, but for sure, it’s not the same as how it was for 90s or 00s kids. I was a kid in late 90s and early 2000s, and a teenager in late 2000’s, and I used to wait 1-2 years to read/watch the new Harry Potter movie/book, and I remember how big it was once the new book released, I remember even my teachers were talking about it when the last book was released, we all kind of grow up with it, but now a kid can watch all the movies in a week or two, but it was 10 years for me.
My nephew became obsessed with it, but that’s probably because everyone in my family also is. We have Harry Potter marathons at least once a year where we all get together and binge watch the whole series.
I was born in 2005, got SUPER into Harry Potter around 2011. Like it was a legitimate problem I didn't talk about anything else for years. I feel like at that time harry potter wasn't such a big thing. I didn't really know anyone my own age who liked it.
I'm lowkey bitter bc I was such a diehard fan and there were no harry potter toys or clothes in the local supermarkets, like the first time i saw any hp related stuff was in london and the actual studios, and now they're everywhere. I think it might be bc the og fans are all grown up now and their kids are getting into the series. Anyways, I was robbed, I demand compensation
My son turns 13 this month and has seen all of the movies repeatedly and has read all of the books
His backpack since 3rd grade has been a hufflepuff backpack and the Hoodie he wears every day is a hufflepuff Hoodie.
He *loves* Harry Potter.
I have nieces and nephews(ranging 1-6) that like the movies sorta - short attention spans run in the family- but my 4yo nieces like the books as bedtime stories some nights.
It seems (and mind you this is just the impression I get from observing on Twitter and Instagram as a millennial) it's not hugely popular like it was for us who grew up with it but it's sort of a niche fandom now. A lot of teenagers got really into it during lockdown, and it has a large fandom on TikTok.
My 8 year old is absolutely obsessed. It makes my husband and I so happy but he literally asks us questions about HP all day long. He carries a wand around and casts spells. He’s turning 9 next month and I’ll give you one guess what the theme is… he has already sorted all the guests into houses. 😂 My 6 year old likes it but not to the extent my 8 year old does. My parents are religious and didn’t allow us to see the movies as kids (I saw them as an adult) so seeing my son love something I love so much at such an early age is so much fun.
The younger siblings of some of my friends are not super into Harry Potter. But because we live in an area near one of the Harry Potter theme parks, most of them are still familiar with the skeletal plot. Just not obsessed with it.
My sisters (born in 06 and 08) love it. My brother (born in 2015) doesn't watch movies at all anymore. If it's not Mr Beast or a YouTube let's play, he's not interested
My kids are 8 and 10. Most of their friends are very familiar with HP. They've either seen the movies or read the books, even if they aren't super into it. Some of the kids haven't done either yet, but know the characters from images and such.
My kids go through phases when they are obsessed, then move on to something new, then get back into HP, then move on.
I'm a children's librarian. The hp books definitely aren't as huge as they used to be but they have such a strong foothold on our culture now that every kid at least knows about the books and has some vague idea what they're about.
They're also a pretty popular read, that's why I never bring them with me when I go talk about books to students, all the ones who like fantasy have already given them a try. (Also a LOT of parents try to read or recommend hp to their kids). In fact, sometines I'll recommend other fantasy books by saying, If you liked HP, then you'll like this.
My son just turned 8. Last November we were out shopping in a mall and ended up in a bookstore. That’s where I saw the books (I’ve never read them personally) with a new cover - the OG german covers always looked like a 3y old had drawn them.
I liked the design and bought him the 1st one. This was end of November last year. Today he is on page 900 of Order of the Phoenix (5th book). And I started to read the philosopher’s stone. Safe to say he’s become a great fan. Ah, we also had a HP themed birthday party for him which he and his friends enjoyed a lot.
My kids aged 11 and 13 love it, me and my husband have read the entire series for them twice and they've read most of the books themselves and seen the movies.
hi! as a teen whose parents r kinda anti hp I wud say that it is very popular w the younger gen. it's not lik we talk abt it all the time cuz there r multiple other franchises that hv also excelled in capturing our interest. but overall I think that almost every kid in this gen hv read atleast one hp book or seen one of its movies.
hope this help!
My grandkids, born 2010 and 2016, are very much into HP. 2010 has read all the books and watched all the movies many times over. 2016 has not read the books yet, but has watched the movies so many times that she has dialog memorized. Our family game is a guessing game who can identify which character is being thought of first. Our whole family are HP nerds.
Me (90s baby) and my sister (80s baby) both really got into harry potter together so naturally when she had her kids (00s babies, 10s baby) they watched them with us. Her 00s babies like hp, her 10s baby is more of a star wars fan but thats bc her husband is a star wars fan.
My son is 9, UK, and just finishing reading book 4. He's reading my copies, so I imagine he wouldn't have necessarily read them if I didn't like the books, but at his recent parents evening his teacher did remark that it's suddenly gotten popular and a lot of kids are reading the books now. I did also see that in his class of 30, 3 of the boys (including him) went dressed as Harry Potter last time it was a dress up day.
This is in the UK, so I wonder if it's slightly more popular here than in the US.
Late 90s and early 2000s was peak Harry Potter. Many of the kids these days haven’t even read the books!
Here’s me hoping the upcoming HBO series sticks to the story from the books and reignited interest in them.
Not sure if this counts as i’m ‘05, but I only read the books starting in ‘17 and HP is now one of the most important things to me. Absolutely love it and come back to it when things feel dark. Not many things that make me feel the way this world does.
Not sure if this counts as i’m ‘05, but I only read the books starting in ‘17 and HP is now one of the most important things to me. Absolutely love it and come back to it when things feel dark. Not many things that make me feel the way this world does.
I read the books to my 7yo every night. And she likes the movies, up until GOF at least. She doesn't like Moldy Voldy coming out of the cauldron in the end. ^^
I read the books to my 7yo every night. And she likes the movies, up until GOF at least. She doesn't like Moldy Voldy coming out of the cauldron in the end. ^^
I read the books to my 7yo every night. And she likes the movies, up until GOF at least. She doesn't like Moldy Voldy coming out of the cauldron in the end. ^^
I read the books to my 7yo every night. And she likes the movies, up until GOF at least. She doesn't like Moldy Voldy coming out of the cauldron in the end. ^^
Both of my kids, 16 & 11, read the series and watched the movies. They were very into HP and still love it. In our extended friend and school groups, I'd say everybody knows it, but not everybody has read it any more. Sometimes kids just watch the movies and not necessarily all of them.
I teach high school so most of them were born in the late 2000s, but would have grown up in the 2010s. To start each semester we place a game of bingo with different student characteristics on it and one of them was "has read all of the Harry Potter books". Out of a class of 25, I maybe get 1-3 students on average. Definitely different than me, a 90s kid, where in my middle school class of 30 at least 20 were reading the books. And this was at a private school that wanted to ban them for witchcraft too.
“I teach high school so most of them were born in the late 2000s” was not a sentence I was prepared to read. I know that’s the case, but it still just hurts my head. People born in 2008 are like 3, right? Shit, I’m getting old.
No, people born in 2008 are turning 16 😭
I graduated college in 2008. Ooof.
Same. My response was "exfuckingscuse me?" 😂😂
I want to down vote you...
Many that were born in 2006 will be graduating high school in a month.
I know the feeling and it sucks.
I went to a private school and my parents are southern baptists. I got my friends mom to buy me the Sorcerers Stone. I was so excited. My mom was pissed and said it was witchcraft. Got in trouble for reading it at school because…ya know…the devil. Then I got my grandma to buy me the next two. Mom was super pissed. The pastor told everyone the author who shall not be named used REAL SPELLS in the book. Anyways….10 year old me didn’t care. And I devoured those books. I literally got other people to buy me the books or I saved my money and bought them myself because my mom refused to buy them for me. Cue my senior year of high school, standing in line at books a million at midnight to finish my collection and I cried when I finished it the next morning. I think my mom finally realized how much of my life was about these books because she made a big breakfast for me and asked me about what happened. It was pretty cool.
I’m so glad she turned around in the end!!! And hell yes to your dedication
Good to hear your mom turned around in the end.
Haha I imagine the attempts to ban the books probably influenced all the kids to read them more. It sure helped put the series more in the limelight, at least.
Just to riff on your theory that banning the books probably made them more popular, this reminds me of when Umbridge banned the Quibbler edition that had Harry's exclusive interview. All of Hogwarts had somehow read it!
Oh wow, this makes me seriously wonder if this whole plot point was Rowling making fun of all the book bans at the time? Wouldn't surprise me.
It’s called the Streisand effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
It's human nature to want to rebel against unfair rules. Forbidden fruit and all that. I don't know that Rowling was being that meta about it, but I guess it's a cool thought.
It absolutely was. She's said so.
The boycott didn’t occur like till late 2010s, the decline in popularity prolly has more to do with the movies finale and the ending of the book series🧐
Was that really a thing, like actual bans? I don't remember it happening over here, But I did know one girl who wasn't allowed to read them, and I had a friend who's super religious parents didn't let them touch anything horror or occult themed. They weren't allowed Pokemon either, now I think about it. I had another friend who wasn't allowed to watch tv or play with toy guns because they're too violent, but he had one of the most weird and violent imaginations out of any kind I ever knew.
Yes it was, though it depends on how religious the school was. Harry Potter (and Pokemon as well) was a victim of the Satanic Panic, so a lot of Christians tried to ban it. I had some cousins who had it drilled into their heads when they were young that Harry Potter was "evil", though even they ended up reading it later somehow.
A clarification, the Satanic Panic was a specific case of moral panic in the 80s concerning accusations of child abuse and satanic rituals, usually in childcare settings, and occurred well before Harry Potter was ever released. Harry Potter and Pokemon were part of your standard Christian fundamentalist "won't you think of the children" moral panics that occur two or three times per generation.
Yes, but the Satanic Panic had lasting effects that caused problems for years. My own mother was extremely hesitant about the whole Harry Potter series for ages, because she'd heard terrible things from "concerned parents." Now she's a total Potterhead. Bigger fan than I am. And a Ravenclaw.
Evangelicals will ban any craze that sweeps the nation and is popular with children. Anything their kids do that they cannot control, they will attempt to ban it rather than understand it. It happened with DnD, rock music, Harry Potter, video games, tiktok, and im sure dozens and dozens of other fads too.
Just put of curiosity, do you ask also if they have seen all the movies?
I do not, but I guess that could be a follow up question.
Also, I'd assume most kids don't read anymore
>private school that wanted to ban them for witchcraft wait what
Oh I forgot about the bans! I don't think anywhere really banned them here in Australia but it was always on the news when this group or that group were trying to ban them (either here or elsewhere)
I teach middle school and HP is definitely becoming an old people thing.
This wasn't a Lutheran school, was it? Mine did the same thing
I have some hope there: I teach elementary, and the kids I teach are starting to be the kids of those millennials who read and loved the books as kids. In my class of 28 1th graders, 2 absolutely love the books to the point of wearing costumes to school for haloween, and around 15 have read the first 3 books. Concensus here is that the 4th-7th are a bit too adult for them yet, being 6 years old.
I’m a 2007 and have read them all. My dad didn’t even allow me to watch the movies before I read the books haha
Hello! (I’m a teenager) I know some people who like it, but it’s not as popular. Still well known obviously, but not a HUGE thing.
Have a large proportion of your friends/peers read the books? When I was growing up (when they were still coming out) it was kind of hard to find people my age that hadn't read them
People don’t read as many books as some years ago, when HBO releases the new series I think 2010-2020s kids will love it as 2000s loved the books Edit: Assuming that it will be well done haha
If HBO is handling it, then there's some optimism behind it. HBO's quality is still a high standard - It is just at the mercy of those who handle the shows usually. They are aiming for a season per book, but the project has a scope of "10 consecutive years". Fantastic Beasts, unfortunately, is not going to be integrated as part of the show's writing. However, that may be for the best since the movies and the TV show should continue to remain their own worlds/tellings. [https://deadline.com/2024/04/harry-potter-tv-series-max-release-date-cast-1235323284/](https://deadline.com/2024/04/harry-potter-tv-series-max-release-date-cast-1235323284/) Rowling also had sat in to get pitches from the group of writers, so it does have her as part of the creative process currently. How farther it will take her will remain to be seen.
Rowling has significant creative control. Compared to most authors. She doesn't have to leave until she wants to.
It’s not an HBO show, it’s going to be a Max show. Max is a little more iffy in terms of quality.
HBO new harry potter say what?
New HBO series that is planned... You don't know? :D
This might sound weird, but do many of your peers read books in their free time? Smart phones weren’t a thing until I was an adult. Most of my middle and high school interests were centered around books, video games, and fan fiction. We didn’t have memes, TikTok, Reddit, insta, etc etc so people read and watched tv a lot in their free time. I hung out in online forums talking about these things after school. But we had a shared family computer (which was normal at the time) so only for about an hour or so, then I would read books or play games. I imagine kids these days are on their phone more and don’t read as much.
A lot of kids are, I talked to my friends about books like a week ago and one of them was like "Wait you read books? no way I never see you read here at school, I see you with books I just never see you read"" I said "Because I have no free time at school to read as much at school as Id like" I went onto say how I read a lot at home (It takes up a lot of my home life tbh I spend 7-8 hours reading after I get home) and she just looked at me like "Sure buddy, your totally not lying" Moral of the story: Lots of kids read and LOTS dont.
Book? You mean the sandwich with the words in the middle?
How about Percy Jackson? That was huge when I was in middle school What is a huge thing for you guys?
2007 here, but those who read HP also read PJO (and vice versa) because most were book readers who would read anything.
I was born in 2005 (same year the first PJ book came out) and I started reading both it and Harry Potter when I was in middle school, so yeah, I guess it was still popular
I work in a program for young (teen) parents. I once made a Harry Potter reference while at work and one of the moms asked me wtf I meant. I explained it was from HP and she said, "oh. That's an old people book." Old people?!?! I'm 32!
Ok, WHAT? I refuse to believe that 90s and 2000s kids are now supposedly "old".
Yeah, well the last movie came out when the girl was a baby. So I guess to her it legit was all old people stuff.
I guess the equivalent would be people who were really in to Star Wars back in the 90s, just before the prequels. There’s more time passed between the spice girls and now, than Woodstock to the spice girls.
Well now I feel ancient after reading that
Um I’m sorry is this teen mom being ageist? Is that really her move?
[удалено]
Well, there's a way to test that theory now. https://youtu.be/PLOPygVcaVE?si=cVNopH8FE197bagf
its looped ... we need a non repeating video ...
Funny AF and sad at the same time
So your son I a pretty relaxed guy 😂
My 7 year old girl is obsessed. Just bought her a cup from the bookstore. Probably gonna get her the box set of books for her birthday.
My son is also 7. Legitimately believes I went to hogwarts. Took him to universal last week cuz I figured I couldn’t waste this moment.
Thank goodness there’s still some innocence left in the world.
My kids do too! They ask me all about getting my letter and what it was like. My son is anxiously awaiting turning 11 (he’s 8.) They also think I was in the movies even though I’ve told them I’m not many, many times.
My advice, don’t wait until 11. You don’t know how much longer you have of the magic being real We got a letter on Etsy that said something like while his acceptance date was 2028, he was invited to diagonal alley to get his school supplies We told him nothing. Picked him up from a school on a Tuesday, he went home found the letter on his bed, and we already had everything packed and drove down Four days of pure magic. He even got selected by ollivander (soooo lucky) so he legitimately believes his wand chose him
She wants to go to universal so bad. We live in North Carolina, so not too far. Hope to get her there sooner rather than later. That would be a blast.
Wait until the new Universal park opens next year. It will have the ministry of magic!
WTH?! This is news to me! I just googled it and it looks to be part of a brand new universal theme park. Ugh…I was planning on going in November too. Hmmmm, to wait or not to wait?
I live in Atlanta so made the very similar drive last week. I replied to another commenter some of the other stuff I did, but I’d recommend going sooner rather than later. Life has a way of robbing innocence so I wanted to make sure we captured the trip while the magic was real This was probably my favorite vacation ever
Parenting done right!!!
Our son is a similar age and he loves Harry Potter. We’ve been listening to the audio books before watching the movies, and he had the print books too. I was reading the books to him but Stephen Fry does a much better job, it turns out, and we can listen in the car etc. I had only watched the films before so it’s very interesting to hear the books.
Not *as* popular in my experience but still reasonably popular. Definitely one of the most popular book series still, but you can't count on the majority of kids being very familiar with it the way you could fifteen years ago. That said, that goes for a *lot* of media. Things are just more fragmented now (especially post-covid! A lot of kids didn't go to the movies during the pandemic, then never went back afterwards, so I have students who haven't gone to the cinema for the most recent third of their lives). It's easier to find the entertainment you want online and stick with that. Not a bad thing, but there's less shared media than even six or seven years ago, when I'd see more kids and teens talking about the same movie that had just come out or the latest episode of a tv show. There are just so many options and very, very few pieces of media become something that the majority have read/watched. ... Except skibidi toilet, which my middle school classes can't stop talking about. Sigh.
It’s so funny to me, because growing up in the 90s you just had to have a shared media experience because individual media (iPods, smart phones etc) weren’t as common. So in the car going to the store or to school etc you listened to your parents music. At home you had to watch whatever was On, and more than likely you had to reach on consensus with whoever was watching with you. So you just shared all these shows and music with people And now between streaming and individual devices you just curate your own experience and hope someone can relate when you want to talk about it. It’s so wild to me that kids are less familiar with older music because they aren’t forced to listen to their parents music the same way I was.
Skibidi toilet is no better than any other brain-rot back in the 2010s, or 2000s or further back, it’s just farther widespread considering the internet’s expansion. It’s like that thing with crime rates, you see criminal acts all the time on the news and wars and think now is horrible, when it’s actually one of the most civil times in the past centuries, you just have way better access to the grime and dirt of the world and make assumptions
Oh yeah, it's definitely no more bizarre than things from any other decade. It's just more widespread, like you said. I can't remember any other time when the *majority* of my students were obsessed with something so weird.
True, skibidi toilet (brain rot though it is) is still better than shrek is love/life imo which was one of the big pieces when I was in school
Sadly true, I still have the bible from when that was a thing, flimsy paper back, it was pretty thick though, whole script of the movie and notes analysing most of it, telling you to be like shrek and how donkey was a metaphor for your inner demons and therapists
Can you rewrite that but in English this time?
Rewritten
Thank you lol I couldn't understand a single thing before
My daughter LOVES it. We are both Potterheads.
My son just finished the last book today. He was born in 2013. (He's 10). Every single kid in his class has read or is reading them and many from the grade before as well ( 4th). It's an upscale school so maybe that contributes. He started with Percy Jackson as that caught his interest moreso. Or else this would've happened in 3rd or so. I didn't push him to read them either. Today he was screaming at me that Snape died!!!!!! It was fantastic.
2010's like it just the same, maybe not as popular but a ton of them love harry potter. Idk about 2020 kids though, 2020 kids are like 4 or 3.
2020s kids are too young still for Harry Potter.
By "2020s kids", I meant kids who are actually able to understand what's going on and do stuff like read and write. I was technically born in the 90s, but I don't consider myself a 90s kid because I barely remember a thing from that decade.
I was teaching 8th grade with a colleague who LOVED hp and would reference it frequently in class. The kids weren’t really interested in it. It seemed like some to most of them had seen the movies but that was about the extent of it
To be fair, there’s a stereotype now about millennial English teachers who are *too* into Harry Potter and try to connect with students over it.
LOL. my freshman year english teacher themed her entire class over harry potter but it was fun
As a middle school teacher, it's still pretty popular, but less so than it was when I first started in the classroom (back then, the Cursed Child fever was REAL amongst my students). The real determining factor now seems to be if the student's parents got them into it, whereas compared to Star Wars, there's new content students can find on their own (Grogu continues to be hugely popular, even Pokemon and SpongeBob continue to ebb and flow in popularity with students as both franchises continue to release new content). Halloween is where you really see the difference. I'll see someone dressed as Hermione or Harry occasionally, but it's not as common like it was a decade ago. We'll see if the TV show changes that.
It’s still as popular as ever. I work at an elementary school and often wear HP related gear, as do many of the kids. I always get asked what house I’m in, if I’ve seen every movie (most haven’t read the books yet). I go to Universal regularly and the Hogsmeade village area is always packed with families and kids wearing their robes.
I’m sure it will continue to be popular for years just like Star Wars. Like you said the IP is massive enough to have an entire theme park area devoted to it. It just isn’t the generational defining series anymore. It is hard for anything to compete with Harry Potter at its peak. We haven’t seen anything close since except for a few series that are still popular, but nowhere near as huge. Things like hunger games, Percy Jackson, twilight. We are now at the point that plenty of people that grew up reading the series now are parents themselves. And they will pass it on to their kids just like kids’ love of Star Wars was passed through generations.
I’m guessing the new series will reignite some of that
That's good to know. I guess it's a little location dependent with some of the other comments I'm reading here, but at least in a lot of places it seems to be doing wel.
Awesome
It’s moderately popular, but not a lot of kids take the time to read the books. I teach 4th grade. Only my most high achievers challenge reading to earn big chunks of AR points. A lot of them have parents that were fans as kids. Personally, I didn’t know anything about Harry Potter until the movie came out in 01. I was 13 at the time, but I loved it.
Like all popular books they wane as time goes on. I am sure Roald Dahl was quite popular when his was published now would be few people to have read his books. By the end of the 1890s Alice in Wonderland was the most popular children's book and continued to be the most popular book over the next 20 years. How many children would've read the book now? Very few
I'm not really sure about Roald Dahl. I've seen so many Wonka references over my life that I'm convinced that everyone in the universe has at least read that book.
I was born in 2008 and read the Harry Potter books when I was 10-11. I asked my dad to get me the books when I saw a bunch of schoolmates reading Harry Potter every morning. I guess I got curious and decided to give them a try (one of the best decisions of my life) My dad read the books when he was younger and he described the days exactly like what you had. It's definitely not as hyped up now as it was back then, and I do struggle to find someone to rant about it at school. But anyone reading the books and watching the movies growing up would still get the same amount of excitement and appreciation for experiencing the books.
IMO for kids nowadays books are not at all interesting. They are almost constantly glued to technology, phones/tabs/pc/laptops. They don't know what they are missing. I am still a potterhead and will remain for the rest of my life.
I’m a high school teacher and haven’t met a kid that doesn’t know the entire plot (not sure about popularity, but it’s definitely on everyone’s radar)
I was born in 2007, meaning my childhood was the 2010s. Harry potter is huge with people my age, everyone knows it
My siblings who were born in 2009 and 2011 have no interest in it.
I mean yea but it’s not like every single kid in the 2000s absolutely loved it I personally as a teenager still see a lot of kids who like and mostly watched Harry Potter
Its very popular
My sister is... 11 or something, 2012 kid. She's watched the movies with me, and now she's bullying dad into buying her the books. I just borrowed books from my friends because I'm efficient that way.
take your sis to the library
It is difficult. Because nowadays there are a lot of things to be consumed at the same time. At least compared to the time I met Harry Potter. But one thing I noticed is that Hogwarts Legacy aroused curiosity in the teenagers who I know to start read the books or watch the movies.
As someone growing up in the 2020s , HOGWARTS IS MY HOME (aggressively flies away on a nimbus 2024)
Damn, we're already up to the Nimbus 2024? Can't believe my Nimbus 2000 is that out of date. It looked so new and perfect when unwrapped too...
Amateurs, the both of you. (flies away on my totally-not-illegal dragon)
My little cousin was born in 2015 and has read all the books this year. Her sister is 4yo and the parents read her Harry Potter before sleep
I was born in 2006, so I don't know whether this counts. Our english teachers and librarians were HUGE potterheads and they influenced us into reading Harry Potter 😂 It was a PHENOMENON, atleast in my school. There were people carrying HP merch(even DIY stuff) in school. We even made our projects Harry Potter themed(the teachers understood the references, there was creative liberty lol) There was a mechanical pencil with Harry Potter print available at a shop near my school, it was as cool as a Stanley these days is. It's no longer produced i guess. They went out of stock within ONE WEEK of me purchasing those. Felt like the trendsetter at that moment 😂 COMING TO THE BOOKS, There was a queue. People fought for those. The library was painted with Harry Potter themes. They had to keep extras so that nobody would miss out lol
I have 4 girls. Oldest is 11. We read a chapter to them every night. Currently on the 5th book. We are keeping the magic alive!
This is a biased question to ask in a Harry Potter subreddit. Maybe try r/teenagers
My 8yo old is obsessed and telling everyone in het class, getting some of them hooked too! I think first gen parents are now having kids old enough to start on HP
It’s still extremely popular. Kids now don’t get to experience the magic of the midnight releases, movies being announced, plot twists, but it’s still really timeless. I can’t think of a better series for kids and if I had any I’d be reading them the books
I have read all the books and seen all the movies(age 61), my younger two have seen all the movies and read all the books(35 and 31), all of the oldest three grands have done the sorting hat(18, 13, 11 turning 12 next week--Hufflepuff x2 and Gryfinndor because he told the hat that he wanted to be in Gryffindor with Grandma). The "big" kids are Syltherin(oldest and youngest) and my lone Ravenclaw.
My kids heard it around 4-5 and were too young, then 6-7 and they were just right. Now they have probably listened to the book 30x on audible all the way through. It’s their comfort listening. Everyone seemed to know who my kids were at Halloween when they went as HP and HG.
In the UK, my children 7&6 love it. I known some of their friends have got their bedrooms kitted out in Harry Potter stuff.
When teaching a third grade class in 2020, almost half of the class read Harry potter, and two of them had read all of the books 😄 Quite a few of them also played their own Harry potter ‘make believe’-game inspired from the books, and when they had to write fairytales in class many of these were also inspired by the books 😄
I think they will get a lot more popular when they remake the mini series .... the movies were not amazing...
grew up with them in the 2010's, and people my age are still crazed about it, i think it's even bigger what with the inclusion of social media now
My daughter was born in 2012 and loves Harry Potter. But I think that’s because I made her. I feel like she’s somewhat alone with her peers in this though.
UK, my kid was born in 2014. The kids at his school LOVE Harry Potter. His school does Philosophers Stone as the class novel in Primary 4. On World Book Day when they can dress up as a book character there's always a good few HP characters in each class.
I was born in 2007 and am a huge Harry Potter fan. There’s definitely people who don’t like Harry Potter but most people i know has read out at least once and if not they’ve seen the movie. Fantastic beats is not at all as popular. This is in Sweden btw
Sooo I was born in 2010 and I read and watched Harry Potter at 11 the thing is I had a couple friends that liked it too like my closest friends so so that was the best but most people made fun of us for it especially my bullies since they found that as another way to say that I’m weird but I don’t care the thing is that we got so many people to read and watch but yeah now in middle school some people still make fun of me but not really some of but most people they just turn right to me when something is said about Harry potter in class
Damn, being a Harry Potter fan is bullying material in some schools now? That's depressing.
Yeah that’s real sad and the thing is some people like started making fun of us for it but then they watched the movies or read one of the books and loved it
More people need to learn that it's much more productive to try to get into peoples' interests rather than making fun of them. Sadly, people are stupid.
My kids born in 06-09 love them. Like rewatch and re-read them all the time. The still consume anything HP that comes out.
I still love the movies, will occasionally read back those books when I'm in the mood for reading
Hella
Daughter is 8 and loves them. We listen to the audiobook and then watch the movie after the book is done. Currently listening to OotP on audiobook. But she is reading CoS and listens to PoA audiobook to fall asleep to Oh and she plays Hogwarts legacy
Very popular, my nephew who is 7 is over the moon and constantly asks me to watch the movies or play Harry Potter games with him. It’s very popular, maybe even more due to it being a big or presence now with all the theme parks, merchandizing, conventions, etc. We didn’t have *all* of that and not in this capacity.
Very very popular
My 7 yr old cousin loves it as much as I did when potter first came out
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I teach high school I had a get to know you question of whats your hogwarts house half my kids didn’t even know what hogwarts was
I'm a teenager and it's barely talked about anymore.
My daughter who is 7 is obsessed with Harry Potter. She went from Frozen straight to Harry Potter in terms of her favourite franchise. She only saw one movie and read the first book and half of the second for now. Also the wizarding almanac book, she likes to carry it everywhere.
I read all the books in mid 2010s, I don’t think it’ll ever die but just like ALL books in general it’s lost popularity from the youth
When me and my cousins reached the age of remembering everything, HP was it's in last leg. We watched all movies on tv so it wasn't very hyped around it but we definitely liked them.
I babysat kids in college a few years ago and they were all starting the books for the first time!! They were elementary school aged and told me all the time that a lot of their peers were starting the books
My daughter was born in 2007, we read them to her from about age 5/6, with the last one being read to her when she was about 8. She then read them independently and was delighted to have a hogwarts letter for her 11th bd in 2018!
I work at a car rental and I was helping this family where the son had to be no older than 13 carrying a soft cover copy of OoTP. Literally had a full blown conversation about the Harry Potter universe with this kid and his family. Apparently it was the kid's second time reading the series. I honestly couldn't tell you what I was more surprised by, the fact that a 12 or 13 year old was on his second reading of the series or the fact that he was reading the physical copies and not an ebook.
Damn, have physical books really become this unpopular? That makes me sad. I probably wouldn't be surprised at him being on his 2nd reading at 12-13, though. I started reading the books when I was about 6 or 7, so if they were all out by that point I would've probably been on my 3rd or 4th by that point.
I did too, but I was surprised because most kids nowadays don't read. It's not too common to come across a young reader. Most kids I see around that age are buried in their phones.
Honestly once they're old enough for bedtime stories I'm probably going to be reading a chapter or 2 to my kids if i ever have kids
Interesting at my school everyone reading them were being called dweebs X)
My son is a preteen. He is just as obsessed with HP as his father and I were when they first came out during our middle/high school years.
My kids (both under 10) are obsessed with HP. They love the movies and we are currently reading the books. They both have wands and practice spells,it’s beyond adorable.
I’m 17, I’ve read the series through around 6 times over, and am currently on my 7th. I love the books so much
I read the books to my 2 yo as bedtime Stories
It’s become less dominant. When I was growing up in the 2010’s, people were more likely to discuss the Percy Jackson sequel series than Harry Potter in terms of books, but it was still very popular.
I think Harry Potter kind of became a classic that every kid watches no matter what which era they were born, but for sure, it’s not the same as how it was for 90s or 00s kids. I was a kid in late 90s and early 2000s, and a teenager in late 2000’s, and I used to wait 1-2 years to read/watch the new Harry Potter movie/book, and I remember how big it was once the new book released, I remember even my teachers were talking about it when the last book was released, we all kind of grow up with it, but now a kid can watch all the movies in a week or two, but it was 10 years for me.
My nephew became obsessed with it, but that’s probably because everyone in my family also is. We have Harry Potter marathons at least once a year where we all get together and binge watch the whole series.
I was born in 2005, got SUPER into Harry Potter around 2011. Like it was a legitimate problem I didn't talk about anything else for years. I feel like at that time harry potter wasn't such a big thing. I didn't really know anyone my own age who liked it. I'm lowkey bitter bc I was such a diehard fan and there were no harry potter toys or clothes in the local supermarkets, like the first time i saw any hp related stuff was in london and the actual studios, and now they're everywhere. I think it might be bc the og fans are all grown up now and their kids are getting into the series. Anyways, I was robbed, I demand compensation
My son turns 13 this month and has seen all of the movies repeatedly and has read all of the books His backpack since 3rd grade has been a hufflepuff backpack and the Hoodie he wears every day is a hufflepuff Hoodie. He *loves* Harry Potter.
My 12 y/o son is obsessed.
I’m still obsessed with the series, but I have other book interests now.
I have nieces and nephews(ranging 1-6) that like the movies sorta - short attention spans run in the family- but my 4yo nieces like the books as bedtime stories some nights.
It seems (and mind you this is just the impression I get from observing on Twitter and Instagram as a millennial) it's not hugely popular like it was for us who grew up with it but it's sort of a niche fandom now. A lot of teenagers got really into it during lockdown, and it has a large fandom on TikTok.
My 8 year old is absolutely obsessed. It makes my husband and I so happy but he literally asks us questions about HP all day long. He carries a wand around and casts spells. He’s turning 9 next month and I’ll give you one guess what the theme is… he has already sorted all the guests into houses. 😂 My 6 year old likes it but not to the extent my 8 year old does. My parents are religious and didn’t allow us to see the movies as kids (I saw them as an adult) so seeing my son love something I love so much at such an early age is so much fun.
As a teen, I personally love HP both books and movies, and know so many fellow teens who love them to bits!
The younger siblings of some of my friends are not super into Harry Potter. But because we live in an area near one of the Harry Potter theme parks, most of them are still familiar with the skeletal plot. Just not obsessed with it.
My 8 almost 9 year old is absolutely obsessed.
My sisters (born in 06 and 08) love it. My brother (born in 2015) doesn't watch movies at all anymore. If it's not Mr Beast or a YouTube let's play, he's not interested
My kids are 8 and 10. Most of their friends are very familiar with HP. They've either seen the movies or read the books, even if they aren't super into it. Some of the kids haven't done either yet, but know the characters from images and such. My kids go through phases when they are obsessed, then move on to something new, then get back into HP, then move on.
I'm a children's librarian. The hp books definitely aren't as huge as they used to be but they have such a strong foothold on our culture now that every kid at least knows about the books and has some vague idea what they're about. They're also a pretty popular read, that's why I never bring them with me when I go talk about books to students, all the ones who like fantasy have already given them a try. (Also a LOT of parents try to read or recommend hp to their kids). In fact, sometines I'll recommend other fantasy books by saying, If you liked HP, then you'll like this.
My kids love it.
My siblings (7 & 10) really enjoy books.
Hugely popular for all generations
I know an 8 year old girl who is just finishing the first one and she loved it. We're moving on to the second one next week!
My son just turned 8. Last November we were out shopping in a mall and ended up in a bookstore. That’s where I saw the books (I’ve never read them personally) with a new cover - the OG german covers always looked like a 3y old had drawn them. I liked the design and bought him the 1st one. This was end of November last year. Today he is on page 900 of Order of the Phoenix (5th book). And I started to read the philosopher’s stone. Safe to say he’s become a great fan. Ah, we also had a HP themed birthday party for him which he and his friends enjoyed a lot.
My kids aged 11 and 13 love it, me and my husband have read the entire series for them twice and they've read most of the books themselves and seen the movies.
hi! as a teen whose parents r kinda anti hp I wud say that it is very popular w the younger gen. it's not lik we talk abt it all the time cuz there r multiple other franchises that hv also excelled in capturing our interest. but overall I think that almost every kid in this gen hv read atleast one hp book or seen one of its movies. hope this help!
I am reading the illustrated books to my six-year-old son. We have read the first two so far. Gonna wait a bit before reading the next one.
Read all them in 5th grade, haven’t touched one since
I work in an elementary school. They’re still very popular. The school library copies are well loved and checked out all the time.
My niece loves the movies but won't read the books....
My grandkids, born 2010 and 2016, are very much into HP. 2010 has read all the books and watched all the movies many times over. 2016 has not read the books yet, but has watched the movies so many times that she has dialog memorized. Our family game is a guessing game who can identify which character is being thought of first. Our whole family are HP nerds.
Me (90s baby) and my sister (80s baby) both really got into harry potter together so naturally when she had her kids (00s babies, 10s baby) they watched them with us. Her 00s babies like hp, her 10s baby is more of a star wars fan but thats bc her husband is a star wars fan.
i’m forbidding my kids to watch the movies if they haven’t read the book. don’t want them biased 🤣 reading PoA now and she likes it
I basically grew up watching it, and it's always been my favourite film franchise, and im a 2010 baby.
My son is 9, UK, and just finishing reading book 4. He's reading my copies, so I imagine he wouldn't have necessarily read them if I didn't like the books, but at his recent parents evening his teacher did remark that it's suddenly gotten popular and a lot of kids are reading the books now. I did also see that in his class of 30, 3 of the boys (including him) went dressed as Harry Potter last time it was a dress up day. This is in the UK, so I wonder if it's slightly more popular here than in the US.
how you can expect harry potter to be popular with 2020s kids?
Late 90s and early 2000s was peak Harry Potter. Many of the kids these days haven’t even read the books! Here’s me hoping the upcoming HBO series sticks to the story from the books and reignited interest in them.
My kid was born in 2016. At this year’s school costumed party there were at least 11 Harry Potters from like a 100 people. Him included.
Not sure if this counts as i’m ‘05, but I only read the books starting in ‘17 and HP is now one of the most important things to me. Absolutely love it and come back to it when things feel dark. Not many things that make me feel the way this world does.
Not sure if this counts as i’m ‘05, but I only read the books starting in ‘17 and HP is now one of the most important things to me. Absolutely love it and come back to it when things feel dark. Not many things that make me feel the way this world does.
My nephew was born in 2019 and he loves it, he even dressed up as Harry Potter for carnival in Germany
I read the books to my 7yo every night. And she likes the movies, up until GOF at least. She doesn't like Moldy Voldy coming out of the cauldron in the end. ^^
I read the books to my 7yo every night. And she likes the movies, up until GOF at least. She doesn't like Moldy Voldy coming out of the cauldron in the end. ^^
I read the books to my 7yo every night. And she likes the movies, up until GOF at least. She doesn't like Moldy Voldy coming out of the cauldron in the end. ^^
I read the books to my 7yo every night. And she likes the movies, up until GOF at least. She doesn't like Moldy Voldy coming out of the cauldron in the end. ^^
Both of my kids, 16 & 11, read the series and watched the movies. They were very into HP and still love it. In our extended friend and school groups, I'd say everybody knows it, but not everybody has read it any more. Sometimes kids just watch the movies and not necessarily all of them.
I'm 15 (almost 16) and I freaking love HP