I cut and pasted this since the D and C links usually don’t stay live for very long 
It appeared in the Aug 25th D and C .
Golden Pen: Try these book selections post-Potter
(August 25, 2007) — In her 24 years of work in the Monroe County Library System, Patricia Uttaro has learned how frustrated parents can become when trying to get their children to sit down and read. Over the past decade, the popularity of the Harry Potter series — among readers of all ages — has proven this task is not insurmountable. The July 24 editorial “Reading resurge” touched on this topic and prompted Uttaro to write the following letter, first published Aug. 17:
Your editorial about the final Harry Potter book struck a chord with me. As a librarian, a parent, and above all, a reader, I applaud your encouragement of reading beyond the Potter-mania that has consumed our culture.
There are many avenues for young people to find their way to books just as satisfying as Harry Potter, perhaps the most accessible being our local libraries. Librarians are always ready to recommend new and exciting stories to anyone who asks, and many libraries offer reading lists of all types for all ages.
For those of you who were devastated by the end of the Harry Potter series, I will offer these suggestions for future reading adventures: Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series, Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea Trilogy, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, Matthew Aiken’s Endymion Spring, Joseph Delaney’s Last Apprentice and Henry Neff’s Hound of Rowan.
For older readers, books by Robert Jordan, and, of course, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings will satisfy your craving for more excitement beyond the halls of Hogwarts.
A native of Rochester’s South Wedge, Uttaro now lives in Chili with her husband, Cosmo, and their two children, Scott and Elizabeth. Though she has worked in several area libraries, she now specializes in personnel and communications for the county system, and also serves as assistant to the director.
Uttaro advises parents to let kids’ interests guide their literary selections. “Eventually, reading the classics will come. Don’t try to force it,” she said Wednesday. “They’ll get enough of that in school.”
