Having read several negative reviews here and elsewhere, I was prepared for a long, boring saga of Harry Potter sites and frequent quotations from message board postings, liberally laced with minutia only a true insider could love. Instead, I got a history – personalized in the very best way – of a series loved by millions of readers around the world, including me. As a librarian I have been touched by the excitement that the release of the later books brought; I occasionally read some of the more famous Harry Potter sites (including Melissa’s own Leaky Cauldron). I listened to a few podcasts and knew fanfic existed, but after reading Harry, a History, I realize I had seen only the tip of the HP phenomenon iceberg.

First, a caveat: Melissa’s book concentrates on the meaning of Harry Potter to youth. Oh, it isn’t that she doesn’t mention the adult fan, but the theme of this book is Kid Power, and the unique confluence of the series and the rise of the Internet which gave young people an opportunity to create, interact, and have control over their lives in a way that is generally denied the young. I’m sure there’s another book waiting about how Harry brightened the lives of those of us stuck in our adult ruts of commutes, car payments, and families to support, and I hope some day Melissa will write it. But this book is about growing up with Harry, and how he changed lives.

Beyond Kid Power, Melissa gives an in-depth look at many other facets of Harry: the fan sites and the people (in many cases, kids) who ran them; the artistic tributes to Harry in art, (fan)fiction, and music; the anti-Potter movement featuring Laura Mallory who campaigned against the series because she felt it promoted witchcraft; and finally, that rarified world of JK Rowling herself, as Melissa’s interviews (including a famous – or infamous one – with Mugglenet’s owner Emerson Spartz) and interactions with Rowling and her associates gave the reader a glimpse of what was happening to our beloved author.

I had one quibble with the book – one that was minor, but awfully annoying by the end. Melissa has a tendency to re-write phrases almost verbatim, for example, repeating her description of how she squinted to avoid spoilers twice just a few pages apart. If you listened to the audio version as I did, you started to think your player was frequently skipping backwards. This was nothing a good editor couldn’t have fixed, but it was distracting.

Overall, Melissa’s book is charming, moves along well, and is well worth the time of any Harry Potter fan. I’d especially recommend it to those who only read the books, so they can finally be aware of the magical world that existed around them. How could we have missed it? I guess that’s why they call us Muggles. ( )

This isn't really a book about the millions of us who bought the books, stood in line at the releases, went to all the movies and tried to convince everyone we knew to get involved. It's really about Anelli's experience with Harry Potter bands (really, who cares?), one particular website, and every gasp and hug between her and Rowling. She's a very good writer; this just isn't a very good book. ( )

Sadly I bought this book and stuck it on my "Harry Potter" shelf and let it sit there for almost a year before reading it. Once I finally picked it up I was stopping so often to backtrack and share things with my husband that we finally just sat down together and I read it aloud it him. Together we laughed, cried, rejoiced, and groaned while remembering our own HP journey and sharing Melissa's. At the end we just sat on the couch and hugged the book.

Now we are reading it again, each on our own, and telling everyone we know to get a copy ASAP. ( )

This was a fascinating look at how the evolution of the Interent helped expand and enhance the popularity of the Harry Potter book series. Well written, funny, and an excellent look at the world of publishing in our modern society. Monica ( )

This book is a history of the Harry Potter phenomenon, or movement, or fandom, or whatever you want to call it; it's about how and why the Harry Potter books inspired millions of people not just to read them, but to dress up for them, go to parties for them, create rock bands about them, and just generally maintain a ridiculous level of enthusiasm for years on end. It was a great book, but definitely an insider's book. Don't try and read it if you haven't read Harry Potter, definitely. Melissa Anelli was the webmistress for a popular fan website, and gives you the inside view of the whirlwind. My one criticism is that it's pretty heavily autobiographical, and in the early chapters, that dragged a little. I think it was necessary, however, since the true glory of the book is its ability to capture the highly personal excitement both of first reading the books and, most importantly, of the build-up to the release of book 7. I had tears in my eyes for large portions of the book, because it almost, almost, almost recaptured the feeling of being about to finally read Deathly Hallows. The chapter describing the release was very well done. This was a very good book, a chronicle of a movement (although I felt that that was a bit muddled in with the autobiography in places), and a description of a personal journey. It does however, assume some previous familiarity with the Harry Potter scene, I think, so be prepared for that. Overall, I'd highly recommend it for people who remember and are interested in the Harry Potter fervor. ( )