People around at the time, was the 'religious' hysteria around Harry Potter a big deal?
I've heard some people place a lot of the responsibility for Harry Potter becoming popular at the altar of the US Christian Right. Considering their wealth, reach and influence it seems plausible to me!
I was finishing Prisoner of Azkaban (My teacher in school loaned the first three books. Thanks, Miss Miller!) when my mom and grandma suddenly started asking me about the series. It quickly became your typical republican Christian fixation. Mom and grandma were telling me to stop reading the books, and that it was a "manual for witchcraft". Like, as in a literal set of instructions to cast spells and stuff, not stories. Naturally, everything they were telling me about Harry Potter made absolutely no sense to me. Now that I think about it, this was probably the point in my life where I started doubting religion.