Books: The Wizard of Hogwarts

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Rowling found herself in the classic single-mother trap. She could not afford child care, so she could not go to work, and when she tried to put Jessica in state-funded care, she was told she was "coping too well." For almost a year, until she found teaching work, Rowling lived off public assistance. Every day, to escape her damp, unheated flat, she'd take the baby to the nearest cafe and write away, nursing a cup of coffee. In 1995, after she found an agent in a writers' directory, a British publisher offered her a tiny advance of around $4,000. "I'm lucky by anyone's standards, not just single-mother standards," Rowling says. "The crucial thing is, I had a talent you need no money to pursue."

Rowling believes Harry has become a crossover hit because she never wrote with a "target audience" in mind. The books certainly work on several levels. They are filled not only with characters familiar to most kids but also with clever jokes about garden gnomes and wizard chess--played with living pieces ("They kept shouting different bits of advice at him, which was confusing: 'Don't send me there, can't you see his knight? Send him, we can afford to lose him'"). As Rowling puts it, "If it's a good book, anyone will read it. I'm totally unashamed about still reading things I loved in my childhood." The Wizard of Oz just may have to make a little space on the shelf for the wizards of Hogwarts.