Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I loved it. Lots of twists and surprises. It is also clever of Mr. Rowling to let people know what a major character was going to die because......

POSSIBLE SPOILER BELOW...highlight text to read





...so many characters in the story get hurt or in a position to get bumped off and you are constantly worried that "this is it, this is the one", but then they get away safe. It really had me going a few times.

Noddy,

Are the Harry Potter series good reads or do they come across as children's books?

I think it was a great marketing strategy to let us know there was a death - but it also prepared all readers for the possibility it was THEIR favorite character. I had it figured out by page 400 or so.

now that we are done with V how long until VI ???

I second Craven's question. I have a probably unreasonable dislike of the series. Haven't read any of it yet, though I'm steeled to read the whole thing when the sozlet comes of age. I am way too fond of Narnia, Le Guin, what I consider "real" sci-fi and fantasy, and that this seems so sensationalistic and derivative. But a lot of people whose opinions I respect really like it.

Harry Potter is not going to find a cure for cancer or bring about world peace or turn the English speaking peoples of the world into saintly beings.

Rowlings has written a good story which children and adults enjoy. I don't consider the Harry Potter books Great Literature, but each volume is a guaranteed Good Read. (For many HP fans, each volume is also a guaranteed Good Reread).

Unlike a formula "boarding school" novel, Rowling's characters are complex enough to be interesting. While the point of view is that of a Hogworth student, the plot and word play are sophisticated enough to please an adult--and warrent rereading by devoted fans.

Perhaps as with Middle Earth, Hogworth School and environs provides an alternate universe--a safe, but not brainless escape from our own.

C.S. Lewis (Narnia) was quizzed by a fellow professor about the differences between "children's" books and "proper adult books". Wasn't it simply a matter of substituting descriptions of delectable meals for descriptions of sex?

Really! There are a number of good adult novels--some of them Great Literature--which don't rely on sex for reader appeal.

Some people dislike fantasy. From my observations a number of these people have had unhappy childhoods full of confusion and various degrees of cruelty. The flexibility of fantasy is threatening to them. Other people simply prefer to dodge Make Believe.

The critics who trouble me--aside from the bookburners screaming "Witchcraft! Devil Worship!"--are the Modern Malvolios who announce because they are virtuous there will be no more cakes and ale.

Killjoys are always unattractive and when killjoys embrace censorship....

While I haven't read the books (and probably never will), I think it's great when any book creates this kind of buzz, especially among kids. I see only positives in this...

True.

I didn't get to the HP books until my daughter was around 7 1/2, and she loved them so much that I've read all of them to her since then (she's 9 now). They are compulsively good reads, to the point where I was reading to her for an hour a night, because I couldn't stop.

I've read lots of fantasy books to her, like the Oz, Narnia, and now the Wrinkle in Time books. The HP books are great entertainment, not brainless at all. Who knows what people will make of them 50 years from now?

I was going to wait for #5 to come out in paperback, but I gave in and bought it yesterday. Thanks, Sinkerhawk, for posting the book's ending so it was hard to read. That was very considerate of you. Right now I'm into a book by Lois Lowry with my daughter, and her stuff (The Giver, Gathering Blue) is very good. While we're into her, HP can wait.

Hey, the magic highlighting text trick is cool!

A#1 son hit me up for twenty bucks this afternoon.....

No 'Hiya Ma, how ya doin' ~ it was 'gimme money'. At least the money went towards a literary purchase.....

Dougy has read all the Harry Potter books and is dying to get into this one.

Hot off the presses: The author speaks. I don't think she gives anything away, but I'm not an insider:

http://nytimes.com/2003/06/26/books/26CND-POTT.html

Thing is, I had to read some of the books with one of my adult English students in Brazil. I am someone who can read anything but the HP books were torturous. Oh well, maybe I should try reading it without explaining every other word to a student.

Nope, they're definately not ESL reading material.

D'artagnan--

Thanks for the link.

Craven--

I'd guess that you were not only explaining the English language, but the English culture and the English tradition of matter-of-fact fantasy.

I also guess that you are a rapid reader and being forced to read slowly and articulate clearly and patiently....

By the by, you are much more adorable as an ambitious rodent than a as a scream.

I'm reading it right now!

I got hooked on the HP books right when they started coming out when I bought a copy to send to my niece and decided to read it first. Now we have a tradition - I buy it, read it then send it to her. It is important that we both read the same copy, even though this means that she has a bit of a wait before she gets to read it.

I don't get to see this niece very often so it is nice that we have this touchpoint to share. It helps keep us connected.