I'm quite young, so if you want a child's point of view, here you go.<P>Harry Potter was not overrated. Perhaps Rowling did use some of Tolkien's ideas, but I wouldn't say it was plaigarism. The great thing about HP, and why people like it so much, is because <B>a)</B>they are going through the ages the characters are going through or <B>b)</B>they have been through the age that the characters are going through. That's the great thing about HP. You can relate to the characters, and it's also parallel to the real world, so you can relate to the wizarding world. I see the simliarities identified between Rowling's and Tolkien's writings but other than that I don't like to compare them. The good thing about HP is that not only does it enthrall children, but also adults. J.K. Rowling didn't even know she was writing for adults. The HP books are fun, fast-paced, and highly enjoyable. I would definitely recommend reading them and I hope people don't get put off by all the hype surrounding it, nor judge it by the movie adaptation. The ingenuity in Harry Potter is in the absorbing prose, fast-paced reading, and the ability to write realistically in a fantasy setting. It's incredible. <P>On the other hand, I agree that LOTR is more mature than Harry Potter. I will not say that it is flat-out <I>better</I>, for that is unfair. I don't believe that people can exactly compare LOTR and HP. Anyway people may say that HP is a children's book just because a lot of kids like it and have read it and there was such a big controversy about it. The good--and bad--thing about LOTR is that, well, how can I say this?...is that many people give up reading it. I know since this is a forum for LOTR fans, the people here might not see why, but when I first picked up LOTR, I didn't like it as much as I did with HP. I thought the descriptions were too long, the plot was too slow, the book was too big, etc. It took me while to get interested in reading it. I must admit, though, that LOTR is a more profound than Harry Potter at some points.<P>This is unfinished...but I can't think right now. And sorry for the controversial viewpoints, but that's my opinion.
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