Harry Potter

Every generation has the stories that they read as a kid.  My mom always talks about reading her Nancy Drew books.  My generation read Harry Potter.

Some elementary school teachers read the first few books out loud in class.

The Harry Potter series is important to me, because of what it did for my sister.  My older sister, Sarah, has multiple learning disabilities including being highly dyslexic.  My parents did everything they could to get Sarah to read books that were beyond the "Bob book" level.  By the time she was in 3nd grade and I was in Kindergarten, I had surpassed Sarah's reading level.  

The titles and pictures for each chapter of The Sorcerer's Stone.

My dad found the first Harry Potter book on an Amazon list of good books for children shortly after it was published.  He decided it sounded like something Sarah would be interested in.  He bribed her, telling her that if she read the seventeen chapter, 309 page book, she would get a prize.  

Harry Potter

Sarah's prize for finishing the first book?

The next Harry Potter book.  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. 

It was in my family.

I started reading the first book within hours of Sarah putting it down.  The two of us fought over who was going to read the books first as each of them was published.  We actually read the seventh book side by side in Florence, Italy.  We were on a family vacation when it came out, and it was an expensive book, so we split the cost and shared it.

 Sarah graduated from The University of Washington in December of 2010 with an English major.  After she figured out how to deal with her dyslexia, she began reading everything she could get her hands on.

13 years between the publication of the fist book and opening day of the last movie.
3407 pages in the 7 books.
17 hours and 48 minutes in 8 movies.