Parents Beware! Reading Harry Potter Can Cause Mental Illness In Children!

      .... Just kidding! However, there are people out there who do indeed believe that popular series such as Harry Potter can cause mental illness in children. One example of an individual who believes such a thing is Graeme Whiting, headmaster of Acorn School in the United Kingdom. Now, you're probably thinking that there is no way that someone actually believes this just like I did. Whiting's blog suggests that he really, truly believes this though. Recently he published a blog post called The Imagination of a Child that talks about the effects Harry Potter and other popular series have on a child's mind. Here is an excerpt of that blog post:

       Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games, and Terry Pratchett, to mention only a few of the modern world's 'must-haves' contain deeply insensitive and addictive material which I am certain encourages difficult behavior in children; yet they can be bought without a special license, and can damage the sensitive subconscious brain of young children, many4 of whom may be added to the current statistics of mentally ill young children.

Harry Potter 

         To me, his opinion is just downright silly. If a child begins to show signs of a mental illness post reading a book (any book for that matter), then that child was already mentally ill. The book had nothing to do with it. Sure, there is subject matter in books that is meant for older audiences but young children reading those books won't become mentally ill because of said book.

      This is not the first or last time that we will hear about people coming forward and condemning popular books. After all, people have been petitioning to remove Harry Potter books from libraries for years.