SOURCE: “Harry Banned?” in Publishers Weekly, Vol. 246, No. 40, October 4, 1999, p. 10.

In the following essay, Rosen presents the viewpoints of those who oppose the “Harry Potter” series.

There's something about Harry Potter that has been labeled “anti-Christian.” Although Kris Moran, director of publicity at Scholastic, the series’ U.S. publisher, said, “We're not aware of anything negative,” the rumblings are just starting to be heard elsewhere.

In the past two weeks, Beverley Becker, associate director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, has gotten word of three challenges to the popular J. K. Rowling series, in Michigan, Minnesota and New York. “I've also talked to a couple of librarians,” she said, “who are concerned about the books being challenged because of witchcraft [elements in the plot],’

For Charles Suhor of the National Council of Teachers of English, it comes as no surprise that some parents might want books about...