There was an episode of the Kirby anime that's a spoof of Harry Potter, complete with a visit by the author "Rowlin". It was part of the trend of praise for it making children like to read.
My (at the time) favorite cousin was a huge HP nerd when we were young and tried getting me into them. I talked to my mom about getting the books and she gave me LotR and Stephen King's Dark Tower books instead. Later on she gave me Dune because she liked the movie (1984.) I've told her many times how much trouble she saved me by doing that, even though it was kind of accidental.