AP Photo Archive J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novels, signs a copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for Nick Drews, 10, at a childrens’ breakfast in New York, in October of 2000. Rowling is one example of a mother who overcame the challenges of being a single parent and wrote a series of books which instantly made her successful.

Mothers overcoming adversity

J.K. Rowling changes circumstances, gives birth to a character for millions

by Tammy Walquist WAL01018@BYUI.EDU Special Sections Editor

However, for one single mother trying to care for her infant daughter in Britain, her situation changed dramatically with the birth of one young boy: Harry Potter.

Joanne Kathleen Rowling began forming stories of the boy wizard on a long train ride from Manchester to London in the summer of 1990. She could see her character and his situation very plainly in her mind. By the time she pulled into King’s Cross Station four hours later, many of the characters and the early stages of the plot were fully formed in her head, according to www.edupaperback.org.

After a series of events, which included a divorce from her husband, Rowling returned to Britain from Portugal, where she had been teaching English as a second language, with her infant daughter.

Pushing her daughter’s carriage around the city in order to escape her cold and tiny apartment, Rowling would duck into coffee shops to write while her daughter was asleep. It was in this way that she finished her book and started sending it to publishers, according to www.edupaperback.org.

Writing the novels provided Rowling a challenge.

“I was very low, and I had to achieve something,” she said in an interview with Scholastic. “Without the challenge, I would have gone stark raving mad.”

Rowling truly lived up to her challenge. She was working as a French teacher when she found out that her book about the boy wizard had been accepted for publication. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (the original title of the novel after its publication in Britain) was published in June 1997, and it attained almost instant success. It won the Smarties Book Prize Gold Medal for children ages 9-11 and was named the British Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year, according to www.edupaperback.org.

The American rights to the book were purchased at the Bologna Book Fair by Arthur Levine, an editorial director for Scholastic Books for $105,000, an unheard of amount for a first time children’s book author, according to www.edupaperback.org.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, as the book title was changed to in the United States, continued to make history. After its release, it climbed to the top of all the bestseller lists both children’s and adult books, catching imaginations of readers of all ages, according to www.edupaperback.org.

The whole concept of a child escaping from the confines of the adult world really intrigued Rowling.

“The idea that we could have a child who escapes from the confines of the adult world and goes somewhere where he has power, both literally and metaphorically, really appealed to me,” she said.

With the fifth installment of the series, Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, due out in June, Rowling has achieved success that many people only dream of. Indeed her daughter’s life has been affected by the success her mother has found as well. When asked what mommies do, she replies without hesitation, “Mommies write!” according to www.scholastic.com.

Some critics argue that the books are evil because they deal with witchcraft and wizardry, but this is not the case, Rowling said.

“The book is really about the power of the imagination. What Harry is learning to do is to develop his full potential. Wizardry is just the analogy I use,” Rowling said in an interview published in Book Links magazine.