The Generation of Harry Potter

I remember when the first harry Potter book came out on June 30^th, 1997 and I had just turned 8 years old a few days earlier. At the time, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone (in some countries known as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone) was a very long book in my 3^rd grade mind. So it took me several months before I actually finished the book but I was hooked on the series and couldn't wait for the next one and the next one and so on. It had become a tradition in my home for my parents to pre-order the books for me for my birthday or Christmas.

So at the amazing age of 8, I became obsessed with Harry Potter but I never knew that 5 years later, Warner Brother's would make a film series out of the books, let alone having a Harry Potter theme park. So when I first heard that Philosopher's Stone/ Sorcerer's stone was going to be made into a film, I had begged my parents to take me the day that it opened. Now, nearly 10 years later, Part one of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released on November 19^th. Since this is the last book of the series, it is bittersweet to see the decade long film journey come to an end.

I believe that it was a great decision to split the final film into 2 parts to celebrate the finale of the last book. The Decision to separate J.K. Rowling's final book into 2 parts came from the initial proposal to split Goblet of Fire back in 2004 but was declined. Deathly Hallows, while in filming was shot back to back and is said that it was treated as if it was one film. Since about 2007, the idea was being bounced back and forth on whether or not it was going to be split in two but was only taken into serious consideration after David Heyman (producer) talked to Steve Kloves (script writer) and had gotten Rowling's Approval and shortly thereafter started working on the script for part two in April 2009.

Like millions of others like myself, growing up with Harry Potter has been incredible. Yes, there have been controversies on weather or not to let your children read the books and watch the movies but it is still a huge part of my generations personal lives. We have grown up alone side Harry Potter and will forever be part of our hearts.