The answer to this is probably the same boring answer that so often explains great successes: it wasn't something structurally novel about the Harry Potter books, but simply that Rowling did a great job writing them.
That said, there is something structurally novel about them: they're a way to bring back the boarding school story (once wildly popular in England) for an audience that doesn't consist of boarding school students.
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Also: Randomness. There must be hundreds of novels better than Harry Potter series that never made it big.
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Some popularity factors * Simple language - ideal bedtime reading * Detective novel structure (book = mystery) * Magic - who wouldn't want to receive a letter from Hogwarts? * Series - finished one --> anticipate the next * Movie adaptation while books are still being published
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Very good point Paul. I went to a boarding school in England and people are very curious to find out about the traditions and mystery surrounding them.
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functional creativity- things you can relate too vs extreme creativity that is way out there
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Structurally the Harry Potter series is innovative: combining the Bildungsroman genre with the Manichaean good v evil plot. The Narnia series was a thin prototype with an overt religious agenda. Rowling a better writer and entertainer.
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Boarding school story meets magic, plus ‘ordinary child’ to empathize with, plus the lost prince/chosen one myth. Lots of mythic boxes being checked.
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Plus Christie-type detective/mystery narratives
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