
Ten years ago, J.K. Rowling was a 30-year-old single mom living on welfare in a chilly one-bedroom flat in Edinburgh, and no one had heard of Harry Potter.
Ten years and 325 million copies later, the Harry Potter series is a legend and J.K. Rowling is a billionaire, richer than the Queen of England.
Millions of children and adults worldwide have made a huge home in their hearts for Hogwarts and Polyjuice Potion, for Harry and Hermoine and Ron and wizardry.
This hour On Point: as millions of fans line up for the last book in the series, we ask what has made Harry Potter huge?
Guests:
Lee Siegel, television, book and art critic for publications and author of “Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television”
Julie Just, Children’s Books Editor of the New York Times Book Review.
Laura Greenly, Amazon.com Harry Potter Kids Correspondent.
You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.












We welcome comments from all of our listeners. We ask that you stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
While we encourage a robust, open debate on the topic at hand, these comment threads are moderated by On Point and WBUR, and we may delete comments that we judge to be off-topic, unduly repetitive, or that descend into personal, ad hominem attacks.
You are solely responsible for the content of your comments. On Point and WBUR cannot verify the accuracy of comments posted here.