When she’s not lamenting over NIU’s severe lack of fireplaces, Karley Adney teaches several beginner English courses, one of which centers around the popular Harry Potter series.

“It’s hard for us magic folk to travel around without a good floo network,” said Adney, an English graduate student.

For non-Harry Potter fans, the floo network mentioned in the series is a way for wizards to travel through fireplaces.

“I teach a class on Harry Potter and I’m teaching it again in the spring,” Adney said. “It’s just English 104 but we read some of the Harry Potter books. We also use a reader of critical essays about Harry Potter. It was my idea.”

Adney got into the series about two years ago after the fifth book, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” was released.

It was love at first page for Adney. Since that fateful summer she has read and reread all of the books; she’s even read “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (book three) 11 times.

Although Adney is a dedicated Harry Potter fan, she wouldn’t consider herself a fanatic.

“Any other dedicated fan would call me just that: ‘dedicated,’” Adney said. “Do I own a time-turner? Yes. Do I have editions of the books in foreign languages I can’t even read? Yes. To people who see Harry Potter as a fad, I’m sure because of these things I appear fanatical or uber-nerdish, but that’s OK. We all have our own passions, and Harry Potter just happens to be one of mine.”

Not only does Adney feel the Harry Potter books tell a good story, but they also address many of the issues found in our modern culture.

“I think the issues in Harry Potter are very relevant to not just students but people of today,” she said. “Racism, classism, sexism, ageism; All of these things are hot topics in our society.”

She also feels by connecting the class with a specific theme, students are better able to take in the material.

“Any time a class has a theme I feel that there is a better sense of consistency, and reading something like Harry Potter appeals in a different way to students compared to just a typical textbook,” Adney said.

Despite Adney’s love of Harry Potter, not all her students are always as enthused. Every semester she has at least three or four students who love the books and have read them as well as three or four students who hate Harry Potter, she said.

Adney truly believes in the academic merit of the JK Rowling series, having written several articles about the books in different academic journals and even speaking at the third annual Harry Potter conference.

The academic conference was organized into two categories of speakers, those from the academic world as well as fans of the series. Both sides discussed the series and the impact it has on society.

In preparation for the premier of the fourth movie, Adney and several friends have plans to get together in celebration of the event.

“I, along with a bunch of other dedicated NIU HP fans, will be attending the 12:01 a.m. show on Friday morning,” Adney said. “I have seen all the movies and went opening day for the second and third ones as well.”

Despite the pandemonium and fanaticism that surrounds the series, Adney feels the Harry Potter books will go on to live long lives in the literature world, long after the frenzy dies.

“I think these books are already children’s classics – and will be more than that someday – they’ll just be classics,” she said. “The intended audience for the books has shifted from children to adults. A lot about Harry Potter is what I’d call part of a fad – the candy, the toys, the clothing, etc. But the books, the books will remain, long after the candy is gone and the Harry Potter T-shirts have worn out.”