Family and Friends

Articles about family, friendship, love, and all that good stuff that can make or break you.

Harry Potter Editorials

For anything and everything pertaining to the boy wizard and his magical world! You read correctly, this is the section for Harry Potter editorials. We will be sure to read all entries for quality assurance.

Harry Potter Books Keep Kids Safe

Authored by Amanda Gardner
A drop in ER visits seen on weekends when new installments were released.
In the fight against the Dark Lord Voldemort, innocent children have been killed
and Harry Potter himself has been savagely marked with a lightning bolt scar
on his forehead.
But in the more mundane -- and real -- Muggle world, the raging battle has
produced an opposite effect: empty emergency rooms.
British researchers report that they have found that the number of Muggle
children visiting the emergency room in that country dropped by half on the
summer weekends when new Harry Potter books were released.
"We were surprised at the magnitude of the effect it could have," said
Dr. Stephen Gwilym, lead author of a study appearing in the Dec. 24/31 issue
of the British Medical Journal. "But when you think about the widespread
uptake of the books, perhaps it's not surprising."
In the United States and Britain, the newest Harry Potter book, The Half-Blood
Prince, the sixth in J.K. Rowling's series, sold almost 9 million copies in
the first 24 hours of its release in July, according to news reports. The books
have been translated into more than 60 languages so far.
Somewhat fewer, but still a substantial number, of children go to emergency
departments with traumatic injuries: about 2 million each year in the United
Kingdom. About 300 die as a result of their injuries, according to the Child
Accident Prevention Trust.
The injury traffic tends to increase during the summer months, when long daylight
hours, warm weather and school holidays favor inline skating, tree climbing
and rides on microscooters, the British researchers pointed out.
"We see broken bones, fractures of the forearm and wrist, fractures of
the ankle, head injuries. They tend to be the most common," said Gwilym,
who is specialist registrar with the department of orthopaedic trauma surgery
at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. "From sports, falling off bikes,
falling out of a tree, pushed over by a brother."
However, one summer weekend, Gwilym and study senior author Dr. Keith Willett
noticed a very strange thing: quiet in the emergency room.
"We were working weekend on the trauma unit, and we were twiddling our
thumbs," Gwilym recalled. "There was not work at all, so I suggested
that Dr. Willett could go home and I'd cover the unit. He said there was no
point to that because four of his five children [the fifth couldn't yet read]
were lined up on the sofa reading Harry Potter."
"He'd had to buy four copies of the book, so none of his children got
it before the others," Gwilym continued.
That gave the doctors an idea: Was there a drop in trauma attendances by children
when Harry Potter books were released?
Gwilym himself deemed the Harry Potter books "excellent." (He didn't
buy them, though, but borrowed them from a young relative who had bought and
read them the first weekend they were out.)
This study involved little magic. Gwilym and his colleagues reviewed the files
of all children aged 7 to 15 (good reading ages) who attended their emergency
department with musculoskeletal injuries over the summer months of a three-year
period.
They then compared the number of emergency-room admissions on weekends a Harry
Potter book had been released with admissions on surrounding weekends and on
the same weekend in previous years.
The two most recent Harry Potter books were launched on Saturday, June 21,
2003 (The Order of the Phoenix) and on Saturday, July 16, 2005 (Half-Blood
Prince).
In June and July 2003 through 2005, the mean attendance rate for children
during the control weekends was 67.4.
But on the weekends that these two Harry Potter books were released, it dropped
to 36 and 37. At no other point during the three-year time frame was attendance
that low.
"It means that 30 children didn't break bones or have to get admitted
for surgery," Gwilym said. "Children aren't injuring themselves and
getting surgery on those weekends."
Do these intriguing results indicate a role for Harry Potter (or just reading)
in injury prevention?
"It may . . . be hypothesized that there is a place for a committee of
safety-conscious, talented writers who could produce high quality books for
the purpose of injury prevention," the authors wrote in their study.
But there is a problem with this strategy.
"Obviously, if children are always in reading books and not outside getting
exercise, there is a long-term risk of obesity, rickets and lack of sunlight," Gwilym
noted.
"We certainly would promote children's literacy, and certainly decreasing
traumatic injury is great, but we want kids to be physically active," added
Dr. Danielle Laraque, a professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
in New York City. "We don't decrease injuries by having kids not participate."
At Harry Potter's school, Hogwarts, students have learned to balance the two,
alternating studying for Wizarding exams with a brisk game of Quidditch. The
Quidditch craze, fortunately, has yet to reach Muggledom.
"We haven't seen anybody falling off broomsticks just yet," Gwilym
said. "But it might happen."

Harry the Horcrux

Voldemort’s greatest fear is death.  We know this because Jo Rowling has told us that if Voldemort were to confront a boggart, it would change into his own lifeless corpse.  In order to prevent this from happening, Voldemort created seven horcruxes.  A horcrux is an object in which one places a piece of their soul.  This way even if the body dies, the person survives, as a tiny piece of their soul is remains inside their Horcrux.  In order to create a horcrux, one has to rend their soul asunder.  This can only be accomplished after the soul of the person in question has performed the darkest curse in all magic, Arvada Kedavra.  It is because Voldemort had created several Horcruxes, that he survived the night when his killing curse rebounded due to a force incomprehensible to the Dark Lord.

Towards the end of the fifth instalment in the Harry Potter series, The Order of the Phoenix we learn of a prophecy that states:

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches.  Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… [T]he dark lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies.

Now we know this prophecy refers to Harry Potter as he was born at the end of July to parents “who had thrice” survived Voldemort’s wrath. The lightning bolt scar on Harry Potter forehead is where the dark lord marked him as his equal.  I personally believe that the “power the Dark Lord knows not” refers to the love between parents and their children.  Voldemort’s mother died giving birth to him and his father was a muggle who abandoned her, where as Harry Potter parents gave their lives trying to save Harry Potter on that fateful night.  In essence the prophecy predicts that the only person who can possibly hope to vanquish The Dark Lord is Harry Potter.  Voldemort descried this prophecy thanks to the Death Eater, Severus Snape.  Fortunately, Snape was discovered eaves dropping and was promptly sent on his way, unable to hear the prophecy in its entirety.  Acting in great haste (likely driven by his fear of death) on what little information Snape presented him, Voldemort decides to hunt down Harry Potter and destroy him; before the time comes that “boy who lived” could become a formidable adversary.

No one really knows what happened the night Voldemort tried to kill the baby Potter.  What we do know is that Voldemort showed up at the Potter’s ancestral home after Peter Pettigrew (a childhood friend of James and Lilly Potter) betrayed its location to him. Voldemort enters the house where James Potter confronts him in order to allow Lilly time to save their child and flee.  Voldemort then kills James Potter and gives chase.  It is here where the mystery lies; Voldemort offers to let Lilly Potter leave as he is only after her son.  Lilly Potter refuses to stop shielding her son and so she too is killed, however her sacrifice gives Harry Potter some form of magical protection, so that when Voldemort tries to kill Harry Potter, the curse rebounds back onto him.  It is here that I believe that Voldemort having realised his mistake performs the magic required to make Harry Potter into his seventh and final Horcrux.

Hang on a minute I can hear you cry, “that’s a big assumption, where is the evidence to back this up?”  Stick with me and I will tell you.  In the last chapter of Chamber of Secrets where Harry Potter and the great Albus Dumbledore are discussing Harry Potter’s confrontation with the fearsome Basilisk and Harry Potter unique ability to talk to snakes, making him what is known in the wizarding world a parselmouth:

You can speak Parseltongue, Harry, said Dumbledore calmly, because Lord Voldemort- who is the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin- can speak Parseltongue.   Unless I am much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers into you the night he gave you that scar.

This to me creates an interesting scenario.  Voldemort realized there was something protecting Harry from him, and so after a spurt of fiendish inspiration he rendered Harry Potter a horcrux.  The reason for this being, Harry would be forced to end his own life after finding and destroying the last of the remaining horcruxes to allow for someone else to finally obliterate the once immortal Dark Lord. The fact that Harry has always had the ability to feel when Voldemort is near, or had visions of when Voldemort has been particularly happy, or fiercely angry, is because of the tiny piece of Voldemort soul residing deep within him.

How does this play out in the upcoming seventh and last book? Well, Harry Potter will face Voldemort in an epic drawn out battle, in which the two of them will meet their doom.  Thus concluding the one of the greatest fantasy series of all time. What do you all think?

Copyright

This article is Copyright © 2006 Katane McLeoud.

Morality and Harry Potter

This is for answers to questions that plague many parents concerned about what their children are reading. This web site does not necessarily endorse the views expressed herein nor do we favor Christianity over any other religion just the gist of these articles seem to be from Christian perspectives. Please precede at your own discretion ahd also please take into account that these articles reflect the views of their authors not Wizards.pro or any other site associated with us.

Reviews

For reviews about the Harry Potter books, movies, music, etc.

Writing Made Them Rich #1: JK Rowling

Article by Michael Southon

Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born in Chipping Sodbury,
England in 1965. She began writing at the age of 6 with a
story called 'Rabbit', which she never finished.

In high school her favorite subject was English. From High
School, Rowling went to Exeter University where she earned
a degree in French.

After graduating, she spent a year studying in Paris and
then went back to London where she worked in a number of
jobs, including a year with Amnesty International and a
short time as secretary for a publishing company, where she
was responsible for sending out rejection slips.

In the summer of 1990, on a delayed train from Manchester
to London, she came up with the idea of a boy who discovers
he is a wizard. But it would be 7 years before the idea
became a book.

In that same year her mother died of Multiple Sclerosis and
she left for Portugal to teach English, hoping to find a
way to deal with her grief.

In October 1992 she married a Portuguese television
journalist, Jorge Arantes. But the marriage lasted just
eleven months.

In 1993 she left her husband and returned to England, with
the one legacy of her failed marriage - an infant daughter
named Jessica.

Her life suddenly took a nose-dive. Fighting poverty and
depression, she lived in a mice-infested flat in Edinburgh
and struggled to raise her baby daughter on a welfare check
of 70 pounds ($100) a week.

Unable to heat her flat, she sat in cafés nursing an
espresso for 2 hours at a time and worked feverishly on the
manuscript of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'
while her baby daughter slept in a pram.

The manuscript is said to have been rejected by three
British publishers - Penguin, Transworld and HarperCollins.

But Bloomsbury Children's Books did sign her up, reportedly
paying £10,000 ($14,300) for the rights to 'Harry Potter
and The Philosopher's Stone'.

The Philosopher's Stone was published on 30 June, 1997 and
was an instant success.

The book was published under her initials because her
publisher feared that boys would be less likely to read the
book if they knew it was written by a woman.

At a book fair in Italy later that year, Scholastic Books
bought the American rights for $105,000, an unheard of
figure for a children's writer with only one book to her
name.

It was published in the States in 1998 with the title
'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'.

The sequel - 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' -
was published in June of 1999 and later that same year, the
third book in the series was released, 'Harry Potter and
the Prisoner of Azkaban'.

By the time her fourth book appeared in 2000 - 'Harry
Potter and The Goblet of Fire' - the series had become an
international phenomenon: the initial print run for her 4th
book was 1.5 million copies in the UK and 3.8 million in
the US.

By 2000, JK Rowland had become the highest-earning woman in
Britain, with an income of more than £20.5 million ($29.3m)
in the previous year.

In 2001 her annual earnings were estimated at over £24m,
($34.3m) placing her between Madonna and Paul McCartney in
the ranks of high-earning celebrities.

In October 1998 Warner Brothers bought the rights to 'Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' and its sequel ('Harry
Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets'), for the tidy sum of
$700,000.

With the release of the first Harry Potter film, J.K.
Rowling's total earnings are estimated to have exceeded
$100 million.

In March 2001 she was awarded an OBE (Order of the British
Empire) by the Queen, for services to children's
literature.

About the Author

Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over
3 years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use
this simple technique to get massive free publicity and
dramatically increase traffic and sales. Click here to
find out more: http://www.ezine-writer.com

alivia

brown green eyes,long brown hair,stubby nose,and round face

And this is what i think about Harry Potter

so this is what i heard on the computer,that harry and voldemort are realated,and that harry and ginny have kids and then ginny dies,and ron and hermione have kids.

The Print Industry: Is It Doomed?

Article by Viojieley Gurrobat

The print industry has been going through remarkable change in the past decade and up until now it has experienced a decline in sale. The industry has given way to other means of communication - the Web for instance. Many people and businesses now conduct their work or buy their needs through the Internet. Manuals and contracts that used to be printed traditionally can now be produced online. But even though people will continue to be attached to their computer screens for the next decade, the print industry is here to stay for a number of practical reasons.

The movie industry has somehow helped boost the declining printing business. You are perhaps familiar with the movies War of the Worlds, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the Harry Potter series and A Walk to Remember to name a few. All these blockbuster movies were based on a novel written by celebrated writers who have helped changed the way the print industry is seen today. For a number of reasons, sale of this books in hard or paperback copies have rose to an astonishing level. In fact, publishers of the Harry Potter series have to make another re-run just to meet the increasing demand for the book all over the world.

Additionally, although children now are more exposed to computers and the virtual world, they still learn to read and write through books and printed materials. Not until the computer becomes a better way to teach children will printed materials became less useful. This goes to show that printed materials are not going away anytime soon. This is simply for practical reasons: they are handier, they are simpler to use and they offer the best user edge.

Although the idea of having everything done digitally is very promising and encouraging, at the end of the day it all comes back to practically. Consider the packing industry. This is one major part of the printing industry. Can you ever imagine a box of chocolate being packed in a computer screen? Certainly not! Hence, as long as there is no other way to do this digitally, printing will continue to exist. As long as there are people and businesses that sees printing as a better option to Web-based technology, print will continue to be alive and kicking. And as long as people consider print as a better and simpler way of having their information accessible anytime they want it, the print industry is far from dead.

For comments and suggestions kindly visit Printing Press Company

About the Author

Viojieley Gurrobat loves readings books in her spare time. She writes stories and poems about anything under the sun.

A Beautiful View: The Gift of True Sight

This article was written by Unkown

I received this nice story in an email and thought I would share it.

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man
was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help
drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only
window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The
men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families,
their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service,
where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he
would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he
could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where
his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and
color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played
on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers
walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the
city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man
on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the
picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.

Although the other man couldn't hear the band - he could see it. In his
mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive
words.

Days and weeks passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only
to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died
peacefully in his sleep She was saddened and called the hospital
attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be
moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and
after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first
look at the real world outside.

He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.

It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled
his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside
this window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the
wall.

She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you."

Epilogue:

There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own
situations.

Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.

If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money
can't buy.

"Today is a gift, that's why it is called the present."

The origin of this story is unknown, but it brings good luck to
everyone who passes it on.

Do not keep this to yourself.

Just forward it to your friends to whom you wish good luck.

Everyone deserves happiness.

A Lesson from the Eagle

This article was written by Jonathan R Taylor

USA Today had an interesting article on J.K Rowling, who will be publishing the 6th book of her Harry Potter series next week. Last year, Rowling appeared on the Forbes list of the richest people in the world. Her estimated net worth is $1 billion. This puts her in front of the queen of England whose worth was listed at $660 million. What's more interesting is that in less than a decade, she's gone from a struggling single mother to a billionaire who is known all over the world.

Barry Cunningham, her first editor gave her what he now sees as some really terrible advice. When first approached by Rowling about the Harry Potter series, Cunningham told her that there was no money to be made in children's books and suggested that she try to get a day job. Since then, her first five books have sold an estimated 270 million copies world wide.

You can always count on those nay-sayers who tell you why your dreams just aren't realistic. Imagine the results if Thomas Edison had listened to all his critics after his first thousand attempts at the incandescent light bulb.

My wife and I went to see the movie "Cinderella Man" a few weeks ago at the theatre. At one point in Jim Braddock's career there were people telling him that he needed to retire from boxing, that he was all washed up and, of course, the worst insult in those days- that he was a bum.

Braddock didn't listen to the critics who told him he didn't have a chance against the heavy weight champ Max Baer, a man who had already beaten one previous opponent so bad that he died in the ring. He was told he wouldn't last past the 1st round.

Most successful people are those that don't buy into everything the world tells them. They don't make their decisions based on what everyone else thinks or what the news says.

Have you ever noticed that unlike most birds, eagles don't fly in flocks? You can't find them in clusters because they don't conform to other activities of their own kind. They always fly solo. What about you? Are you going with the flow... buying in to what the majority tells you? Are you listening to all those who tell you that your ideas just won't work, that you need to just get a steady, secure job instead of finding a career you truly love?

"Strength of numbers is the delight of the timid. The valiant in spirit glory in fighting alone." - Mahatma Gandhi

About the Author

Find out why Dave Ramsey recommends the program that we teach. Visit www.careercalling.com!

How to Use Harry Potter to Teach Your Children About Bravery

The following article was written  by Cliff Kuhn, M.D.

Harry Potter provides the perfect antidote to the seriousness that engulfs our children as they become young adults. Whether we are doing it intentionally or not, our children learn to believe what we believe because they watch what we do even more than listen to what we say.In this article, Dr. Kuhn teaches you how to use a lesson his son stumbled upon.

If a child's fun comes naturally why do they quickly learn to be afraid as they grow older? We adults are responsible. We, of course, are merely teaching our children the "rules" as we were taught; passing along our fears to our children comes as naturally for us as being too serious (and being too serious, in turn, comes from our fear).

Watch children. Left to their own devices a child's fun comes naturally, they are not inclined to be afraid. We instill it in them. I'm not referring to being afraid to cross a street, touch a hot iron, or play with matches. Those are good, healthy fears that our children need. The fear I refer to is the illusionary variety; fears like scarcity, failure, and unworthiness only exist in our mind and, therefore, are only real if we decide they are.

Seriousness Holds Us All Back...and Eventually Kills Us

Fear is the root cause of the single greatest debilitating force in our society - seriousness. Seriousness is all about taking yourself too seriously and it is a deadly habit deeply ingrained, unfortunately, in a majority of our society. The major symptom of seriousness is stress and, to be convinced, one only need see that over 80% of all doctor's appointments are now stress related. In fact every major disease plaguing western civilization (depression, heart disease, high blood pressure, chronic pain, obesity, arthritis, cancer, etc.) is directly related to stress.

Fortunately, my decades of research and medical practice have identified the single most effect treatment for seriousness - The Fun Factor. My own experience with The Fun Factor has revealed the deceivingly simple but powerful nature of this lifesaving tool. I have helped patients use The Fun Factor for decades, with results people rave about. I now share The Fun Factor with people all over the world. Its rapid success formula is just what the doctor ordered.

My son, Greg, has become an expert with my unique prescription, The Fun Factor, using it to banish the killer seriousness that fear produces. Free from seriousness, he is employing fun to escape the illusionary fears that have haunted him since young adulthood. Just as it did for me, The Fun Factor has opened doors of opportunity that he never dreamed possible. Primarily the opportunity to live a life of love, hope, and abundance instead of a life of fear and seriousness.

Greg, in turn, wants to pass the gift of The Fun Factor to his three children - my grandchildren. Recently, my grandchildren's love of the Harry Potter book series gave Greg a great idea that his sons have embraced. I hope this report will help you introduce this concept from Harry Potter just as Greg has done. Imagine the successful life that awaits a child who has grown up with the keys to escape having seriousness and fear instilled in them!

How Can Harry Potter Teach Us About The Fun Factor?

In the third Harry Potter book we are introduced to scary creatures called Dementors. Dementors are as frightening as their name implies. Invisible apparitions capable of more than merely haunting you; Dementors will suck out your soul, leaving you worse than dead. Don't Harry Potter's Dementors sound just like our illusionary fears? Our fears haunt us just like Dementors, appearing without invitation and leaving us despondent and immobilized.

Also in the third Potter book, Harry Potter learns a powerful spell called the Patronus, which is capable of chasing away Dementors. When Harry chants the incantation and thinks a positive, happy thought, a beautiful, helpful spirit appears from his magic wand to banish whatever Dementors are bothering him. Harry's ability to conjure powerful Patronus' increases the more he practices this spell.

Doesn't Harry Potter's spell remind you of how I teach you to use the powerful natural medicine of humor? In The Fun Factor, I reveal not only your power and ability to think positive thoughts, but also your responsibility to do so. As you learn to use your humor nature to develop positive attitudes, you are, literally, conjuring a Patronus to dispel your seriousness and fear. Harry Potter's Patronus is a real thing!

It's Easy to Use Harry Potter's Magic

As adults we can revel in two pieces of great news:

We cannot hold two conflicting thoughts simultaneously.

Since our fears and seriousness are illusions, we can easily replace those thoughts if we choose to.

As a child's fun exemplifies, wouldn't you love to live a life where fear and seriousness didn't dictate your choices and decisions? Learning to use more productive and effective attributes like your sense of humor, self-awareness, and imagination is as simple as using The Fun Factor. As simple as deciding to change what you're thinking about on a moment-to-moment basis. Are you willing to conjure Harry Potter's Patronus today rather than suffer from a haunting, immobilizing, and imaginary fear?

You know from past experience that a Patronus is a real thing, in the sense that a positive attitude dispels a negative outlook. What a gift you can give to supercharge your child's fun by teaching him/her this skill at an early age! And Harry Potter is a great, and easy, way to do it.

The Introduction of the Harry Potter Lesson

According to Greg, his introduction of the Harry Potter concept to my grandsons went like this:

Greg: Hey guys, do you remember the Patronus spell from Harry Potter?

Jordan and William: Yes.

Greg: What does it do?

J & W: The Patronus comes out and chases away the Dementors.

Greg: What is Harry's Patronus?

J & W: The spirit of Harry's dad.

Greg: That's right. Harry's Patronus is a beautiful memory he has of something very important to him.

Greg: Did you know that the Patronus spell is real?

J & W: What?!

Greg: Yes. When you are being bothered by fears or worries of any kind, if you think about something you love, or are excited about, or that makes you happy, your worries or fears will disappear.

Greg: What are some things that you love or that make you happy to think about?

J & W: You and Mommy...Christmas...Halloween...Nanny and Pop Pop, Grandgapop and Baba (Grandparents)...our kitties...Ms. Hardin and Ms. Miller (teachers)...our cousins...our friends...our toys...going to the movies...going on vacation...etc.

Greg: Those are all wonderful thoughts. Anytime you are scared or worried, if you think about things like that - you are actually performing a magic spell! You are conjuring a Patronus! Because your worries and fears are just like Dementors and thinking about Mommy and Daddy will make the Dementors go away.

J & W: You mean, like if we have to go to the bathroom at night and we think there is a monster in the hallway? All we have to do is think about something we really love and we won't be scared anymore?

Greg: Exactly! Or if you're worried about what someone thinks about you or if you're scared that something bad is going to happen to you. Almost all of your worries and fears are of imaginary things. And if you think about something you love, that imaginary thing scaring you will go away.

Greg: And remember how Harry's Patronus got more powerful each time he cast the spell?

J & W: Yes.

Greg: Your Patronus will get more powerful too, each time you do it!

I have had numerous follow-up conversations with my grandsons about this topic and they have really taken the lessons of Harry Potter's Patronus to heart. I hope you can use this powerful lesson with your children and start them on the road to fun, success, health, and vitality.

Not all of us were lucky enough to encounter The Fun Factor at an early age; our fun was, to our detriment, quickly replaced by the seriousness of adulthood! Give the gift of The Fun Factor to your young family members and help them hold onto their sense of fun, avoiding the missteps that spring from our adult fear and seriouness.

About the Author

Discover the secrets of a (formerly) stressed-out physician. A psychiatrist, and a stand-up comedian, Cliff Kuhn, M.D., dispenses his unique prescription for using humor to turbo-charge your health, success, and vitality via his website, http://www.natural-humor-medicine.com. Here you will find tons of fun, free ways for you to maximize your sense of humor and enjoy a life others will admire.

The POWER of Reading

This article was written by L.J. Davis

Reading to your child at a young age is one of the most effective tools for expanding his mind and instilling a lifelong love of learning. Reading a good book allows your child to travel to places she has never been, to meet people she has never met, and to develop an understanding of how to deal with a variety of physical and emotional situations.

Reading to your child also helps you develop an emotional connection. Whether you have her cuddle up in your lap, nestle with him while he is winding down for bed, or read to her while waiting for food in a restaurant, you are connecting. Reading to your child from an early age will also help him be successful in school. Reading out loud will help him learn language and become familiar with words. Reading is the foundation for developing an understanding of conceptual information and it sparks imagination!

Your child is never too young to be read to. Frankly, you should begin reading to your child while in the womb. During this time, use reading as a way of familiarizing the baby to your voice. If both parents take turns reading, it is even better. Imagine, before the baby is even born, the act of reading helps you connect and it can help parents reconnect with each other. When your child is born, the adventure begins. During the "easy" phase of infancy when your child is not physically able to explore his/her world, reading to your child helps him feel loved and comforted. Nestled in your arms with a favorite picture book, your baby will, at first, seem unaware of what is going on. But is she?

When my daughters were infants, I would read a series of picture books called the "Find The" board books by Stephen Cartwright. These books have lively illustrations, but no words. Guided by a series of images that included pictures of children and animals, each book asked children to find the piglet, the duck, the teddy, the puppy, the bird, or the kitten. When my daughters were very small, I would hold the book in front of them and while their heads wobbled about, I would ask, "Ceiley, where's the bird." Of course, there was no response, so I would point out where the bird was and, in doing so, I would describe the picture and put it into context. For several months, I would pull out the book and ask, "Where's the piglet!" One day, an interesting thing happened. When I asked the magical question, my daughter lifted a chubby finger and pointed to the piglet. Had she understood what I had been saying all along? I will probably never know but one thing is certain, before the age of one, she knew what a piglet was, what the word "find" meant, and she used her magnificent brain to tell her finger to point to the picture of the pig. All because I read a book. Her mind was indeed a blank slate upon which I could impress ideas and concepts.

Reading to your child should become second nature. Anytime, anywhere is an opportunity to read to your child. During the hectic toddler days, books can be lifesavers in public places. If you have to stand in line at a bank, take a book bag along filled with engaging books that your child enjoys. Before they get fussy, take out a book and start reading. Yes, it is very difficult to read to your child while you are holding him and standing up at the same time! Instead, put her in a stroller and bend down. As you read to your child, you are using your time preciously. By bending down, you are coming down to his level. By reading, you are expanding her knowledge and growing neurons. Make your waiting time, his reading time!

Reading while waiting also works well if you have several children with you. Although my daughters are 11 and 6, my oldest daughter will still lean over and read along to the book I am reading to my youngest, despite carrying along her own stash of Harry Potter and Manga books. The key is that, by making reading part of your child's everyday experiences, she will come to expect that reading is the norm.

If you are not a reader and do not enjoy reading, you have a great obstacle to overcome. If you do not enjoy reading and/or you were not brought up with reading in the home, it will be doubly difficult for you to get in the habit of reading. Please, don't let this stop you! The exciting thing about being human is that you can change anytime. Start slowly. Find a topic that interests you and start reading. Buy a bookcase and make it a goal to slowly fill it up with children's books, classics, or whatever else suits your fancy.

Read to your child. Engage his imagination. Don't assume that children read at a certain age. There are so many things that you can do to prepare them for the day when they start to decipher letters and words on their own. Lay the foundation early in life and your child will reap wonderful rewards.

L.J. Davis is the author of A Simple Brown Leaf, a story for a new generation of children.

"Every child has a purpose. Every child asks the question, 'Who am I going to become.'"

Learn more at ljdavis.com.

©2005 L.J. Davis

About the Author

Born in San Diego, California in the late 60's, L.J. Davis has been writing since she was seven years old. As a writer, her childhood experiences have strengthened her ability to write stories that look at the emotional side of being human. All of her stories explore the connections between self and the environment and self and others. Davis is a graduate from the University of San Diego and holds a B.A. in English and a M.Ed in Counseling.