One thing I'm not looking forward to this fall is yet one more round of the Harry Potter Wars, undoubtedly on the way as sure as the movie is about a month from release. After three years of this, I find my patience with PotterPhobia just about at its end. No, we don't want kids getting into Wicca or the occult, but Harry Potter is not about that. They are certainly not the greatest children's books written, either (the fourth one, in particular was at least 250 pages too long, in great need of editing), but they're not harmful. Magic in these books is a metaphor. It's a metaphor for personal power and the Potter books are about a group of children's (especially Harry's) discovery of how to use that power - for good or for evil.

I've not a great deal of hope in the film, though considering that it's directed by Chris Columbus, he of Home Alone fame. We'll see.

For a good defense of Harry Potter, especially in these post 9/11 days, see this article in the weekend's National Review Online. For a rather unusual endorsement of the Harry Potter books - from a magazine associated with Opus Dei, go to this article from last year.