Harry Potter's phenomenal success proves that books for children can compete with new technological pleasures. So, too, does another remarkable and disturbing success story. The 40-volume Left Behind: The Kids series by Jerry Jenkins and Tim Le Hay has sold more than 11 million volumes. The books dramatize the liminal experience of kids "left behind" after Jesus has raptured the faithful: it was, thinks one of the kids, "the worst nightmare imaginable." This bald adaptation of their adult "post-tribulationism" series presents a bizarre Biblical interpretation as fact to scare readers into faith. As one child observed in an Amazon review: "This book made me want to become a REAL Christian for fear of this happening to me. " This prompts the question: what happens when publishers and writers blur the boundaries between adults and children? Perhaps it is not books that become obsolete but childhood itself. The paper explores a second blurred boundary: have we lost consensus about what constitutes fantasy? These two series serve as cultural markers in the United States. Harry Potter and the Left Behind books are at the heart of reading controversies: what should kids be allowed to read? The Christian Right has taken control of the terms of this debate. Those who want to censor Harry Potter fear readers will succumb to the dark arts; yet Left Behind: The Kids has barely registered on the national consciousness.