This is something that I've always believed, and Ken Jennings (of Jeopardy! fame) seems to agree, though in an incredibly articulate way: the Harry Potter books, despite what booksellers and naysayers might have you believe, are not fantasy books at all, just glorified detective novels. Remove the "hocus-pocus"-esque elements of Harry Potter, and what you're really left with is Where in the Wizarding World is Lord Voldemort?, where, as Ken will tell you, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are the new Mystery Inc., using thestrals instead of a VW van to roam around solving mysteries.
Anywho. If you've never read the Harry Potter books, this should give you more reason to do so -- there's too much good stuff there than should be ignored. I also think the series is slightly prophetic, but I'll touch on that in another post. In the meantime, check out the mad literary discernments of Ken Jennings:
http://ken-jennings.com/blog/?p=526
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