Like thousands or perhaps millions of other Americans this weekend, I braved the crowds at the local cinema to be a part of the Harry Potter mania. Because I have not read any of the books in the series, I attended as a purely curious observer of this media phenomenon.

Although the movie did not absolutely dumbfound my senses or confound my imagination, by the end I realized why so many people have flocked to participate in this recent craze. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” offered a brilliant way for audiences to escape from the mundane reality of their daily lives into a fantasy world where magic reigns, good triumphs over evil and children save the world.

As I watched from the third row of a packed theater with my neck cranked back at an awkward angle, I could not help but remember the books of my own childhood that had captured my imagination and had whisked me off to faraway lands and distant times.

And as I looked about in the theater, I observed that I was not the only adult enjoying this “children’s” movie or becoming nostalgic about the works of literature that shaped my childhood memories. Although the recent Harry Potter marketing frenzy may be targeting children, adults compose perhaps ninety percent of the audience. None of them seemed ashamed or embarrassed to be there, either. After the movie, I overheard numerous conversations of adults and teenagers comparing the movie to the book and asserting the various strengths and weaknesses of the movie’s take on the story.

While I could not partake in this conversation because I am a Muggle relatively ignorant to the world of Hogwarts school and unversed in the magical doings of Harry Potter and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, I could appreciate the literary heritage which J.K. Rowling’s series subtly makes reference to.

As I watched Harry and the other Hogwarts children travel by train to what appeared to be a magical version of rural England or Scotland, I was reminded of another, perhaps even more classic tale, that opened with such a journey.

In the “Narnia Chronicles” by C.S. Lewis, a family of children travel to rural England to escape World War II London, and during their stay in the countryside they travel through a wardrobe and discover a magical world named Narnia. Through the Narnia Chronicles, Lewis creates a fairyland complete with its own history, geography, myths, legends and prophecies.

Having read each book in the Narnia series numerous times, I am fully aware of the power of imaginative worlds, like the one found in the Harry Potter series, to capture the heart and mind of the reader for life.

Books such as this offer the reader, young and old alike, a chance to temporarily escape the sometimes incomprehensible acts of real life (such as the Sept. 11 attacks) and enter a world where the lines between good and evil are not blurred and where pain and suffering have meaning.

Furthermore, the heroes of children’s books appeal to us precisely because they are not always strong and fearless but are oftentimes physically fragile and innocent. The selfless actions of these heroes offer us hope and inspiration in a world where the machinations of politicians and the materialism of our culture threaten to turn us all into hardened cynics.

For example, in the children’s classic “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White (a very different book from either the Narnia or Harry Potter ones) the spider Charlotte teaches the much larger pig Wilbur about the meaning of friendship and life by saving him from slaughter through her ingenuity (despite her very small size).

While I readily confess a rather unnatural affinity for this book, I think the simplicity of its message and the goodness of its characters offer any reader a wonderful lesson in friendship and life. Sometimes we just need life to be simple and clear-cut. For example, even though creatures may die in children’s books, their deaths generally provide meaning and work to strengthen the resolve and courage of the other characters.

Through Harry Potter and other children’s classics, we can believe — if only for a moment — that just as Harry finds his strength to fight evil despite the deaths of his parents, we all can continue living true to ourselves and our values in the midst of pain and hardship.