Potter Deemed Readable in Georgia

A judge in Georgia will allow the adventures of Harry Potter to be read in Gwinnett County school libraries despite objections from parents who feel the books and character promote witchcraft.  Read on, if you dare.

Laura Mallory, who argued the popular fiction series is an attempt to indoctrinate children in witchcraft, said she still wants the best-selling books removed and may take her case to federal court.

"I maybe need a whole new case from the ground up," Mallory said. The woman, who said two of her four children attend public schools in the county, was not represented by an attorney at the hearing.

The ruling by Superior Judge Ronnie Batchelor upheld a decision by the Georgia Board of Education, which had supported local school officials.

County school board members have said the books are good tools to encourage children to read and to spark creativity and imagination.

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, published by London-based Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, tell stories of children with magic powers. They are the most challenged texts of the 21st century, according to the American Library Association [full text].

This made us curious: have any of John or Brad’s work ever been challenged or banned? I don’t know about any of Brad’s titles (Bellairs-related or otherwise) but John’s The Figure in the Shadows appears on the list of Most Frequently Banned Books in the 1990s (#37), fueled by the novel’s use of magic and some light profanity. Do you think the supernatural plot of Figure (or any of the 1970-era Lewis books) was an issue when it was published, or became a problem 20-odd-years later?