MOSCOW -- It is normal for a parent to distrust the things kids like. Having heard enthusiastic reports about some new product, be it a toy, computer game or movie, an average parent issues a suspicious grunt, thinking that it is probably overpriced, stupid and aggressive, and that the kid will never benefit from anything popular.

It is even worse when we can't understand what makes our children choose the product in question. We start suspecting that the generational gap has acquired gargantuan proportions and that the mass culture has turned our offspring into zombies or, for a more charitable word, aliens.

Nowadays parents are stupefied by the amazing success of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series -- particularly those who have bothered to read all five books, including the recently released "Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix." Those are very good books, no doubt, and I am an avid reader of Potter. On a recent afternoon when I was finishing part five, my kids wanted my attention, but I snarled at them angrily, refusing to be distracted from the misadventures of Harry, Hermione and Ron.