Okay. I know what you are all thinking. Oh no not another Harry Potter vs. Twilight article but yes I am making one because I can. I just want my opinion to be heard. So first off let me list the reasons why children, teens and adults can love Harry Potter and the good messages that Harry Potter gets across. Harry Potter first of all teaches people about the very special bond between people called friendship. Harry, Hermione and Ron are a perfect example of friendship. They are all with Harry until the very end like they promised. They risk their lives for each other and even though they fight, like true friends they always make up in the end. They are always there for each other and that demonstrates a good strong friendship. Harry Potter also demonstrates that you should be brave and that if you are determined and have the will power you can do anything you set your mind to. Harry Potter shows this bravery through defeating Voldemort. He didn't know if he could do it through out the whole series but he knew he had to and he knew he had to find the strength to do it and in the end he succeeded. Fred and George were determined to start their own joke shop and they succeeded. Ron was determined to get on the quidditch team and help the team win the game and he succeeded in that too. I also think the relationships the teens have with children is important. All of the adults seem to give all of the children good advice and offer words of wisdom to them when they need it the most. In Harry Potter the teens respect the adults the way teens should be doing in real life. Harry Potter also shows the battle between good and evil and goes as far as to showing how the characters became evil, that some strayed from their evil ways to protect their loved ones and that in the end good will always triumph over evil. The Malfoys are evil and everyone will agree to that to some extent. In the end Narcissa Malfoy, worried about her son that she loves so dearly, risks her life by helping Harry Potter fake death just to know that her son is alright. Even Lucius was more worried about his son than helping Voldemort. They turned good in a way to save their son. Harry Potter has many other themes in which you can research if you wish but it teaches people a lot of valuable lessons. The most important lesson of all is love is a powerful emotion and nothing can beat love and that love in a sense is the most powerful weapon you can have.

Twilight. Yes we do love our vampires and werewolves but the setting and the relationships for this story are to me outrageous. I'm not dissing Twilight at all. I find the books quite enjoyable but I would not recommend them to young kids as they do not promote a positive message in my opinion. The first would be the whole vampires and werewolves feud. I know that in the end they all sort of get along but for the longest time they just hold a grudge against each other and want to kill each other when they should be getting along. This teaches poor social habits in ways of making friends and handling your enemies. Kids could get the impression from the book to go threaten people they don't particularly care for and could even end up hurting them from the message the book sends to them. Another is teen pregnancy and teen marriage. Bella Swan gets married before she turns 19 and she's just fresh out of high school when she does get married. This teaches people that it is okay to get married at a young age just because you think you love someone. If you love someone you will be able to wait a few years to see if your relationship will last instead of being reckless and getting married straight out of high school or even younger than that. Bella Swan also gets pregnant when she's still a teenager. Sure she's in love and married but what kind of message is Meyer's sending to teens? Go get married and you can have babies and it will make everything okay? That isn't the case. In the book it's all a fantasy. It doesn't show the difficulties young couples face with teen marriages and pregnancies. The book also shows us unhealthy relationships. Look at how Bella reacted when Edward left her the first time. She moped around forever. She explains that it hurts to be away from him and that is unhealthy. You need time apart in a good relationship. To not want to live and to feel as if you are a robot of some sort is unhealthy. She even ditches all of her friends for Edward and a lot of them don't really care for her anymore by the time she graduates. She spends all of her time with him and cries like a baby when he's gone and he does the same with her. He even wants to be killed because he doesn't want to put her in danger anymore how crazy is that! Then there's the whole love triangle with the main characters. Bella loves both and it kills her to choose just one for the longest time. She plays both of them to her advantage. She even makes out with Jacob when she's with Edward and he doesn't get angry. He should be furious with her for cheating on him! This love triangle goes on for far too long and if she's that sad that she couldn't have them both why is Edward still willing to be with her. Could it be because he's so desperate for a companion that he will accept her loving Jacob too and she loves him almost the same way she loves Edward. Twilight is not a very happy book series. It's very dark and I think that young kids should not be allowed to read it because some of the messages it sends out to them which are not very positive messages at all. Lovesick, obsessed with each other teens that are caught in love triangles and getting married and pregnant when you're still a teen. That's a big red flag in my book.

Sure Twilight has it's delights. Who doesn't love Edward Cullen and Jacob Black and the ever so pessimistic Bella Swan but Harry Potter just sends a clear, positive message to its fans and fans can relate to the relationships and characters in Harry Potter better than the ones in Twilight. You can agree or disagree all you want. As I said this is just my opinion.