So last Sunday afternoon Mom asked me if I wouldn't mind dropping off some folding chairs over to my sisters house, as she was apparently having some kind of kids party and needed more seating.

As I hadn't seen nor spoke with my sister since before my holidays, I figured I would drop by, check up on how things were going and say hello to my six year old nephew Mikey, who was really the only one over there I can tolerate for any extended period of time.

Both his Mom (my sister) and Doug (my brother-in-law), I have very little in common with and find them both to be rather mindless & annoying. Thankfully young Mikey, who seems quite clever, appears to not take after either of his unfortunate parents.

After I arrived, unloaded the chairs, grabbed a beer and sat down, I noticed that Mikey was acting extremely hyper, even by his usual standards.

He was running around, jumping up and down and yelling "Harry, Harry, Harry" over and over again.

Finally after he ran out into the backyard and quiet was re-instated into the house, my sister explained that Mikey has been like that for days ever since the latest Harry Potter book entitled "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" was released and she had purchased him a copy.

Tonight he was having all his little friends over and their mothers would be reading the book together with them. Evidently it was some sort of Harry Potter book party for everyone.

I had heard about the Harry Potter books on TV, but didn't take much interest in it as it seemed to be kids stuff, but the phenomena that this latest book was causing is quite incredible.

Millions of kids of all ages were going crazy over these books about a young boy battling evil sorcerers.

According to both my sister and the news, suddenly reading is cool for kids to do and these books have put the Xbox and the PC on a backburner, albeit temporarily, as children want to find out the next instalment of Harry Potter and his friends.

Now kids are sitting down and either alone or with their parents and siblings, reading chapters to themselves and each other. It is an excellent thing.

Of course as with most things, there are always a number of idiots and freaks who seem to think there is something wrong with this. In this case, as these books have sorcerers and witchcraft in it, the religious fanatics are crawling out of their antiquated woodwork and are calling this book evil and a product of the Anti-Christ himself.

There are even some protests and book burnings, reminiscent of Medieval times, going on in some places of the world over the harmless words written on the pages.

Nice bunch of people, eh? Scaring young children by telling them they will go to Hell and live with the Devil if they simply read a innocuous kids story.

My personal belief is that instead of these religious fanatics and there crazed flock protesting over children reading a fictional storybook, they would better serve themselves and their community if they focused on perhaps some real issues such as preventing child abuse within the church, feeding the poor and helping the weak and the needy.

Of course I may be way out of line on this point since those items I mentioned are not considered "high profile" enough to raise funds when the ever popular collection plate gets passed around each week at the church.

I pointed out my belief to my sister expecting a heated argument from her but surprisingly, she supposedly had the same discussion with one of her neighbours who found these books to be satanic and evil and genuinely claimed theses books were a possibly a prelude to devil worship. (great neighbour, no wonder the houses in that neighbourhood are so damn cheap!!)

My sister actually called her a "religious nutcase" and no longer speaks with this neighbour.

For once my crazy sister was correct, which rather surprised me. Her track record for having any common sense at all is at best questionable, when you look at her lazy husband, Doug. Aside from that, over the years she has been a very poor sister to me and a great disappointment to my parents. Of course both my folks would no doubt vehemently disagree on that last point, however I am the one writing this so I feel I can further perpetuate our petty sibling rivalry here today.

But seriously, I was quite surprised and pleased that she took that stand and is encouraging young Mikey to read at every occasion. I told her that and even went on to offer a rare compliment that she was "a good mother".

She then asked if I wanted to hang around for the Harry Potter party tonight with her, six other mothers, the perpetually comatosed Doug and eight screaming hyperactive kids.

"Stick with being a good mother and an adequate sister, because your a poor salesman", I advised her laughingly, "I think I'll pass on being a guest at that party".

With that, I headed out to the pub to meet up with my friends and enjoy the peacefulness of a noisy bar with no screaming children.