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A Wizard of Their Age: Critical Essays from the Harry Potter Generation. Edited by Cecilia Konchar Farr. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015.
Reviewed by Joli Barham McClelland
A Wizard of Their Age is an anomaly. Amid the countless critical works that have explored Harry Potter's journey from cupboard under the stairs to wizard extraordinaire, Cecilia Konchar Farr's work stands apart for one simple reason: the essays within are authored by undergraduate students. Emanating from a literature course on J. K. Rowling's series that Konchar Farr taught at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota, the writings within A Wizard of Their Age run the gamut of scholarship, ranging from a postcolonial analysis of social status in the wizarding world to an investigation of magical genetics. Yet, unlike so many scholars who have penned pages about Harry Potter, the authors of these varied essays have grown up with Harry, and this intimacy infuses the conclusions drawn in their pages with a genuine, and remarkably heartfelt, quality that is sure to entice fans and scholars alike.
Part 1, dubbed "Muggle Studies," traverses well-trodden critical ground but also highlights innovative examinations of the ways in which our Muggle world interacts with that of Rowling's fantasy realm. Kate Glassman discusses the overarching phenomenon of Rowling's series against the historical backdrop of bestsellers and literature for children, while Hanna Lamb pens an exploration of postcolonialism and the portrayal of the wizarding "other" as distinct from modern-day British culture and values. Entitled "The Generation(s) of Harry Potter," Treza Rosado's essay concludes the first section with an in-depth look at the skillful ways in which Rowling trusts her readers to understand shades of morality within characters and, in doing so, helps young readers deal with uncertainty and fear in their own lives.