The story behind the stories is a little magical itself: a single mother, getting by on public assistance and living in a small Edinburgh flat spends her days at a cafe nursing a cup of tea and writing about a fantastic world inhabited by all kinds of wonderful wizards and clueless "muggles," humans who are unaware of the mystical world just outside their line of vision.

Her first three Harry Potter books broke publishing records and the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth in the series, set new records. But with the attention comes some scrutiny and criticism, particularly from Christian parents who are concerned about the books' focus on witchcraft and sorcery. Harry Potter was the most challenged book of 1999, according to the American Library Association.

Some of these parents have attempted to get the series banned in schools or to prevent having it read aloud in classrooms by teachers. Although most efforts have been unsuccessful, a few schools have agreed to remove Harry from the shelves. In other schools, parents have been pulling their children out at reading time if one of the books in the series is read to students.

Most children, parents, educators and grown-up Harry Potter fans think that it's absurd to censor a book with typical magical children's-book themes that kids love and one that has made reading popular again. Banning one book leads down a slippery slope to ban others, they argue, depriving children of the privilege to read them and use their imagination.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry is 14 years old and is growing up—he becomes interested in girls and is stalked by death. The remaining three unwritten books in the eventual seven-book series will follow the young wizard through adolescence and his foes are sure to grow more dangerous and threatening. Are his readers' parents among those enemies?

On One Hand...

If parents don't want a child to read certain books, they have the authority as guardian of that child to prevent him or her from reading material they find offensive or counter to their religious beliefs. The Harry Potter books, while clever and imaginative, deal with dark subjects including death and sorcery that are inappropriate topics for younger readers.

On the Other Hand...

There are many reasons for not banning Harry Potter books, but perhaps the most important one is that in an era where children would rather play video games than play outside or watch TV instead of read a book, the young wizard and his friends have magically engaged millions of kids in reading. And the lessons taught in the book—overcoming adversity, good vs. evil, self-sufficiency, courage—are appropriate for all children.

To ban the magical and fantastical is to ban all fairy tales. Children recognize the difference between fantasy and reality. Banning Harry Potter will expose children to something far more harmful than sorcery—ignorance.

• In Zeeland, Michigan Harry Potter books were removed from the shelves of school libraries, banned from being read in the classroom and the purchase of future Potter books was halted.

• Harry Potter books have been challenged 25 times in 17 states since their release in the U.S.

• There were 478 efforts to remove books from library shelves and classrooms in 1998-1999.

• Over the years, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Diary of Anne Frank have been banned in schools and libraries.

• Instead of Harry Potter, the conservative group Families for Friendly Libraries recommends the following books for younger children: Winnie the Pooh, Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Jungle Book, among others.

• The week before the fourth Harry Potter book was released the first three books occupied the numbers three, four and 12 spots on the New York Times fiction hardcover best seller list.

American Library Association, New York Times, Muggles for Harry Potter, Families for Friendly Libraries