I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. If your ‘childhood is ruined’ and you are shattered by JK Rowling unveiling her transphobic nastiness for the world to see, then you should re-examine why a book series that depends so heavily on racist stereotypes, ret-conned diversity, the subtle whitewashing of slavery, and an explicit valorization of classism, speaks so much to you.
And a reminder of what Ursula K. LeGuin saidabout Rowling’s “amazing originality” that you all love so much:
> “I didn’t originate the idea of a school for wizards — if anybody did it was T.H.White, though he did it in single throwaway line and didn’t develop it. I was the first to do that. Years later, Rowling took the idea and developed it along other lines. She didn’t plagiarize. She didn’t copy anything. Her book, in fact, could hardly be more different from mine, in style, spirit, everything. The only thing that rankles me is her apparent reluctance to admit that she ever learned anything from other writers. When ignorant critics praised her wonderful originality in inventing the idea of a wizards’ school, and some of them even seemed to believe that she had invented fantasy, she let them do so. This, I think, was ungenerous, and in the long run unwise.”
Rowling is very lucky that Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch series has not retained the popularity it had once upon a time.
TWW features a down on their luck protagonist child with two sidekicks, a smart friend and a clumsy, gregarious friend. Their child enemy is the wealthiest kid in school, also a bully - who is favoured by their Potions teacher, a tall, thin magician with dark hair and an acid tongue, who makes sarcastic comments & appears like they might be able to read minds. This teacher has an unconventional grudging friendship with the elderly school principal who is kind, friendly, and forgiving of the protagonist’s mistakes.
Other teachers include a short-haired woman sports teacher, and a teacher who believes all kinds of crazy things with a dishevelled appearance. Oh, and it’s a boarding school. These books were published in the 1970s-80s.
