of readers when he says , the Harry Potter books are like life ,but better .
2让人称奇的是，罗琳让每一册书的情节相互独立，但最后，她却能够巧妙地把它们衔接起来，形成一个意想不到的结局。单从叙述能力而言，《哈利波特与火焰杯》也是《哈利波特》系列丛书中最好的一本。Amazingly ,Rowling keeps her several plotlines clear of each other until the end ,when she deftly brings everything together in a cataclysmic conclusion . For pure narrative power ,this is the best Potter book yet .
3当这本书终于在星期六午夜12：01面市时，在英国和北美，成千上万的孩子争相购买。 When the book finally went on sale at 12:01 a.m. Saturday ,thousands of children in Britain and North America rushed to claim their copies .书店举办了睡衣派对，邀请了一些魔术师表演，并提供曲奇饼和潘趣酒，可是没人需要这些，因为人们个个情绪高涨。Bookstores hosted pajama parties ,hired magicians and served cookies and punch ,but nobody needed to lift the spirits of these crowds . 有一次，顾客们发出了巨大的欢呼声，以致邻居们实在难以忍受而报了警。In one case ,customers made such a big ,happy noise that neighbors called the cops . 在美国北卡罗来纳州的夏洛特市“边界”连锁书店，12岁的艾琳·兰金一拿到书就快速翻到最后一页。“我听说有一个主角死了，我真的很想知道是谁，”她说。但是几分钟后她放弃了。“我做不到，我不能先看书的结尾。”At a borders in Charlotte ,N.C. ,Erin Rankin ,12,quickly thumbed to the back as soon as she got her copy . I heard that a major character dies ,and I really want to find out who ,she said . But minutes later she gave up . I just can’t read the end first.
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4在对“哈利波特”现象的一路欢歌中，出现的唯一一个不和谐音符来自干一些父母和保守的宗教领袖。他们认为罗琳在宣扬巫术。The only sour note in all the songs of joy over this phenomenon has come from some parents and conservative religious leaders who say Rowling advocates witchcraft . 至少在17个州的25所学校校区内，阅读《哈利波特》受到了质疑，而在堪萨斯州和科罗拉多州的学校里，《哈利波特》系列丛书则被明令禁止。Reading of the books has been challenged in 25 school districts in at least 17 states ,and the books have been banned in schools in Kansas and Colorado . 但是作为儿童图书专家和《绿野仙踪》的编辑，迈克尔·帕特里克·赫恩觉得这并不奇怪。“无论何种魔法都会被有些人视为邪恶，”他说，“《绿野仙踪》就曾经在80年代中期遭到正统派基督教徒们的抨击。” But that’s nothing new ,says Michael Patrick Hearn ,a children’s book scholar and editor of The Annotated Wizard of Oz .Any kind of magic is considered evil by some people ,he says. The Wizard of Oz was attacked by fundamentalists in the mid-1980s.
5但是对于“哈利波特”现象最让人感到好奇的事情可能是几乎没有人会花时间去讨论这些书有多好或者多糟，尤其是当这些评论仅仅涉及书本身的时候。 But perhaps the most curious thing about the Potter phenomenon ,especially given that it is all about books ,is that almost no one has taken the time to say how good or bad these books are .有一天，11岁的女儿问我是否认为《哈利波特》是经典之作，我给出了一个恐怕听起来十分成人化的回答，“时间会证明一切的。” The other day my 11-year-old daughter asked me if I thought Harry Potter is a classic .I gave her ,I’m afraid ,one of those very adult-sounding answers when I said ,time will tell .这不能算是一个彻头彻尾的谎言，因为谁也没有办法预测有哪一本书能够代代
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相传。但事实上，我在闪烁其词。我女儿真正想知道的是：与罗伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森和马德琳·英格这一类人相比较，罗琳到底有多棒。 This was not an outright lie .there’s no telling which books will survive from one generation to the next . But the fact is ,I was hedging . What my daughter really wanted to know was how well J.K. Rowling stacks up against the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson or Madeleine L’Engle.
6我本可以告诉她我认为这些书是精心构思的通俗作品，是堪比史蒂文·斯皮尔伯格之电影的文学作品。I could have told her that I thought they were beautifully crafted works entertainment ,the literary equivalent of Steven Spielberg .本来我还可以告诉她我认为《哈利波特》系列丛书没有什么新意，它们与众多儿童经典作品有太多相似之处，所以有时候会给读者一种感觉，仿佛罗琳组装编织了这些故事。 I could also have told her I thought the Potter books were derivative . They share so many elements with so many children’s classic that sometimes it seems as though Rowling had assembled her novels from a kit .但是，这些故事绝对不仅仅是各个部分的简单相加。它们如此受欢迎的关键之处就在于无论是大人还是小孩都能够从阅读中获得乐趣。 However ,these novels amount to much more than just the sum of their parts . The crucial aspect of their appeal is that they can be read by children and adults with equal pleasure .只有最好的作家——他们能够与苏斯博士和菲利普·普尔曼，当然还有罗琳一样与众不同——才能够做到这一点。 Only the best authors ---and they can be as different as Dr.Seuss and Philip Pullman and ,yes ,J.K.Rowling ---can pull that off .
7《欢乐满人间》的作者帕梅拉·林登·特拉弗斯概括得精辟至极。她写到，
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“你不能把你想象的东西砍掉一部分然后写成一本专给孩子看的书，坦白地说，因为事实上你根本无从知道童年究竟是什么时候结束，而成人期又是什么时候开始的。它们相互连接、浑然一体。”在罗琳的书中，从语言开始，就有足够多的让大人和孩子都喜欢的东西。也许她文风朴实，但是她给人和物取名的方式显示了独特的原创才能。P.L.Travers ,the author of the Mary Poppins books ,put it best when she wrote ,You do not chop off a section of your imaginative substance and make a book specifically for children ,for --if you are honest --you have ,in fact ,no idea where childhood ends and maturity begins . It is all endless and all one . There is plenty for children and adults to enjoy in Rowling books ,starting with their language . Her prose may be unadorned ,but her way with naming people and things reveals a quirky and original talent .
8优秀作家关注孩子特点的能力达到惊人的程度。罗琳不只一次地清楚表达出，即便是最勇敢的孩子也经常会表现得那么无助。 The best writers remember what it is like to be a child with astonishing intensity . Time and again ,Rowling articulates just how defenseless even the bravest children often feel . 在《哈利波特》(二)中，当那位智慧的、对学生呵护有加的魔法学校校长邓布利多被驱逐出霍格华兹时，哈利和他的同学们都感到恐惧万分。“邓布利多走了，前所未有的恐惧蔓延开来。”而这也让我很害怕。 Near the end of the second book Dumbledore ,the wise and protective headmaster ,is banished from Hogwarts . This terrifies Harry and his schoolmates --with Dumbledore gone ,fear had spread as never before --and it terrifies me . 在罗琳所有的书中都流淌着一种潜在的伤感与迷失。And in all of Rowling’s books there runs an undercurrent of sadness and loss .在《哈
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