SOURCE: “Not for Muggles,” in New York Review of Books, Vol. 46, No. 20, December 16, 1999, pp. 6–8.

In the following review, Lurie summarizes the story of Harry Potter and describes the similarities between the lives of Harry and friends and that of American and British students.

Why are so many of the best-known children's books British or American? Other countries have produced a single brilliant classic or series: Denmark, for instance, has Andersen's fairy tales, Italy has Pinocchio, France has Babar, Finland has Moomintroll. A list of famous children's books in English, however, could easily take up the rest of this column.

One explanation may be that in Britain and America more people never quite grow up. They may sometimes put on a good show of maturity, but secretly they remain children, longing for the pleasures and privileges of childhood that once were, or were said to be, theirs. And there...