Correction - in "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone", Harry turns 11 years old. Not 13.

He turns 11 right there in the first chapter.

And right there in your first paragraph you start off down a garden path that makes no sense at all. In fact, the actual age-span between you and Harry is four years. Which at that age is an eternity.

My daughters are exactly his age, and since they've both been in line since 9am this morning to get their copies of the book I think it's fairly safe to say that many of his real peers are happily reading. And they are far, far from alone.

Yes, the world is much more "magical" in those first two books. Harry has yet to meet his real adversary until the end of the second, and the real Deathly Hallows of puberty hadn't reared it's ugly head.

It's no problem if you don't care for the darker books. Book 6 in particular with it's insistent blend of snogging and death mongering can be a hard march.

But don't write off a whole age-group of kids because of your particular preferences.

Correction to the previous correction: The original article states, "I met Harry when he was 13 and I was 15. The third book had been released a few months earlier, and Lindsey, my best friend, had pressed the first one on me, saying I would love it." The way I read this, the author was saying that the fictional Harry was 13 when the third book was released (when she, the author, was 15). This does not conflict with the fact, as you stated, that Harry was 11 in the first book.

I was thrilled to see a huge number of teens, Harry's peers, at the bookstore last night for the midnight release. They were costumed, and they cheered, non-ironically even!, when the crates of books arrived on the shop floor. I can only imagine the vast nationwide shortage of babysitters that parents with small children experienced last night.

I am still twelve on the inside.

But I cheered when the books came out. And I cheered for my favorite in the costume contest. My son is almost done with it now. When he comes up for air and a bite to eat, we discuss it. He doesn't seem to have as much problem with Harry using unforgivable curses as I do. I am protesting that he became what he hated... Just like we did when we started torturing prisoners openly.

The third book's status and Harry's age in it is not relevent.

She was reading the first book. And in that first book, Harry was 11. All the events took place from the context of that 11 year old and all her points are based on her interaction with the events in that book. That's the basis for the entire article's commentary.

The contents of the first book didn't magically age to match the third book when it came out.

I hadn't thought of the babysitting angle. ;)

You'd be right. I think the weirdest people we ran into was my daughter's ex-boyfriend who was there with his grandmother, and my neighbhors who showed up dressed as the Patil twins.