Harry Potter Books

* Re “Harry Potter’s Ventura County Adventure,” Ventura County Life column, Oct. 15.

It would be interesting if writer Steve Chawkins had even a passing knowledge of the exhaustive, extensive research on the influence of similar material on susceptible youth. Without such information, his article seems extremely sophomoric, hypocritical and riddled with ridiculous, specious arguments like, “I’ll trust America’s children to realize dragons don’t exist.”

Perhaps reading “Catcher in the Rye” did ruin Mr. Chawkins for life, as he writes in this article. Even so, the essence of this issue involves the religious beliefs of the parents who object. The Hebrew Bible clearly condemns anyone who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)

If Mr. Chawkins objects to the position of these parents, then he also should lobby the public schools to allow teachers and students to read not just Harry Potter books in class, but also Christian novels and books, including the biblical passages regarding the Ten Commandments and witchcraft, best-selling author Stephen R. Lawhead’s “Dragon King” series or “Arthurian” series, or “Mere Christianity,” “Miracles” and “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis.

Apparently, the Hebrew Bible’s list of the Ten Commandments and its depiction of witchcraft and sorcery are among the few ideas that the public schools and people like Mr. Chawkins believe in banning.

TED BAEHR

Camarillo

* In the Oct. 15 paper I saw an article that really disturbed me because about a week earlier there was another article that was almost exactly the same thing. If you haven’t already guessed, I’m talking about the Steve Chawkins article on Harry Potter books.

Teresa and Dominic Schmidt, who complained about the Harry Potter books being read in their child’s classroom, fuss over nothing. They’re just finding a perfectly innocent book and are complaining that it encourages violence at home. This is probably, make that definitely, not true, but that is what it seems to be. Why can’t they read it for the enjoyment, instead of reading it just to say mean things about it?

In the article “Parents Scorn Book, Pupil Transferred” (Oct. 7), Mr. Schmidt was saying how a mean child was in the first book, and the word “kill” appears far too many times. This family is probably very kind to their child, but why can’t they let him have a little fun in his life?

JULIA BOSSON

Age 10 1/2, 5th grade

Topa Topa Elementary School

Ojai