SOURCE: An essay on the “Harry Potter” books in Tacoma News Tribune, July 10, 2000.

In the following essay, Merryman strongly praises the “Harry Potter” books, and states that a certain amount of fantasy is healthy and enables children to learn important values for life.

Aren't you glad you're not J. K. Rowling?

Imagine the responsibility.

What her stories have built—aside from the most profitable publishing phenomenon in recent memory—is a community of kids.

And their grown-ups.

I'd bet my car that at this very moment, there are children in Bombay, Federal Way, London, Capetown, Mexico City and Hong Kong reading the exact same page of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

It's Book Four in the series, and it's a sure thing that here in the South Sound, children who stood in line to get it at 12:01 Saturday morning fell asleep over it that night, woke...