Word: potter
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While Judy Blume has already risen to young Potter's defense, asking, "What's next, the Babysitters Club banned?" there are more practical reasons to prevent the censoring of the Rowling's tales...
First of all, kids are reading them. And we all know what reading leads to...that's right, knowledge and an aptitude for the verbal section on standardized tests. Okay, maybe kids won't find the words poltergeist, Quidditch or transfiguration on the SATs anytime soon, but the Potter books have a larger vocabulary than most of the drivel that is published for children nowadays. Compare the Harry Potter series to the last fad in children's books, that formulaic series called Goosebumps, and you'll see what I mean...
Secondly, J.K. Rowling is practically the embodiment of virtue herself. A single mother on welfare when she wrote the first Potter book, she has rapidly risen to becoming the author of three New York Times bestsellers. And she's accomplished this all through her own persistence and ingenuity. Rowling is the Horatio Alger of our Gilded Age, never mind that she's from Scotland...
Thirdly, one of Potter's best friends is an incredibly smart girl named Hermione--a far better role model than Elle Macpherson for young girls who have previously been reading schlocky teen magazines which encourage rampant self-criticism. Harry is no slouch either--he studies all the time and does well in school, he never uses violence to get back at the bully and is friends with the principal. Finally, even scrawny little Harry is a star at sports. In short, Harry and his friends are every parent's dream kids...
Frankly, I'm a little appalled that the mothers and fathers of America are anti-Potter for religious reasons. There is far less religion apparent in Potters adventures than there ever was in another acclaimed Narnia series, starting with The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. C. S. Lewis' books were a thinly veiled Christian tract where God posed as a lion named Aslan...