I finished my weekend marathon of remaining in my PJ's and reading Harry Potter. Malinda called me last night - we hadn't talked about Harry Potter in months, but she knew I'd be reading it - and asked me to call her when I had finished because she couldn't take it. Lori e-mailed and said she had to talk about it. Last night, I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about it. Fiction really shouldn't have this effect on people, and children's fiction at that. But I am at a loss for words and don't know where to turn. Book Six can be seen as a bridge book, linking 5 and 7 by setting the stage for what Harry has to face at the end. This book is darker and in my opinion, the content will go over most of the younger reader's heads, not to mention scare them. If I'm 21 and I had my hand over my mouth in shock, how is a 3rd grader going to react? Well, maybe I'm not giving them enough credit, but this book will be sure to disturb most who read it. There is no stability left and no real promise of what will happen in Book Seven. But, I can tell you one thing, if Rowling kills Harry, I'm camping outside her house and going on a hunger strike until she rewrites the ending.
Reactions to this series should not be this dramatic by any means, but like I said, I just don't know what to do with myself now. If you've read it and have any words of encouragement/theories, feel free to pass them along.
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I finished it this afternoon, and I'm really wishing I could have waited two years to read it, so I could read 6 and 7 back to back. I really hope JK Rowling doesn't die in the next couple of years.
Just think Sarah, we'll be at least 23 when the next book comes out. Wow.
The Lord of the Rings wasn't a series. One novel, composed of 6 books, published in 3 volumes for the sake of convenience.
Left Behind blows because it's Left Behind, not because there are too many of them. If there were only 2 books, they would still be 2 badly written, poorly rationalized ones. Same thing with Joel Osteen: crap is crap is crap, no matter if there's one book or 100.
I don't think you can properly evaluate a series and say that all series shouldn't go past book 3 if you haven't read past book 3. With Harry Potter, it only gets better from there; my favorite book was the fourth.
And yes, the lipstick scar crossed my mind, but that's it. It was just an idea because I knew many others would be dressed up for the release.
I can't see any reason to criticize reading and literacy anyway--this is one of the only healthy addictions I've ever had.
I agree with Lori that the fourth book is the best of the lot. By the way, Jackson, my fourth-grader, read the last chapter first so he'd know whether Harry died and proceeded to read the rest knowing the ending. He admitted he almost teared up at the intense part.
Reading the last chapter first is no way to live one's life. Of course Harry wouldn't die in Book Six (but that would have been an almost comical surprise if Rowling pulled that one). But, if he dies in the end, Jackson can go on a hunger strike with me. He's young, he can take it.
The fourth book is one of the better, though I'm almost inclined to say the third might be better. Too tough to call.
You can't judge a series simply because it is a series, especially when you have only read half of the series.
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