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It's high time that today's kids are introduced to the conventions of the English-style fantasy story, which is a legitimate sub-genre, and which has been under-rated and under-represented in Australian libraries in the last decade. The sheer thickness of the books astonished me when I bought my copies. The sight of children with their noses buried in such substantial volumes of printed text is a most welcome one. Moreover, the humanitarian messages delivered and the family and peer relationships re-discovered through the shared interest in the books should be reason enough for teachers to embrace this literary phenomenon.

Recent statistical research suggests that children and adolescents are not enjoying the reading they conduct at school (Australia Council for the Arts, 2006). Nor are they choosing to read for leisure. As a child, I found it virtually impossible to stop reading for fun. I also enjoyed the benefits of increased language proficiency, better powers of retention, recall and comprehension, improved concentration span, imaginative development, improved capacity and confidence in writing, tolerance for a wide range of new ideas and an optimistic belief that life is full of strange and wonderful possibilities. However, the virtually limitless sources of stimuli available to today's kids compete for their attention, often at the expense of the humble storybook.

Narrative fiction tends towards unity and continuity in its outcomes, a feature which poses a stark contrast to the world of reality. It can become very personally involving, and offers the reader a significant role in constructing the meaning of the text, through exercising the power of interpretation. The value of the Harry Potter series lies in Rowling's careful portrayal of evil. In televised interviews (60 Minutes) she has indicated her sense of responsibility to ensure that evil appears wrong to children, that it is not glorified, and that it is sufficiently scary to bring about a recognition in readers that they should not have to live with fear and should resist evil, in the form of individuals and their actions.

The universal appeal of the sharing of stories springing from the imagination and influenced by the experiences of the story-teller can be explained in part by the force of curiosity. A story presents to the listener or reader a world of deliberately limited design. It is a generator of curiosity, being unfamiliar, unpredictable (at least initially) and independent of the reader's

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