Don't miss...

...The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows discussion group over at the Scholar's Blog Spoiler Zone. I'll be over to join in the discussion as soon as I finish rereading the book and taking notes.

...The late summer edition of The Edge of the Forest. Lots of good articles and reviews over there!

Finished it (no spoilers)

We finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night. I'm not going to review it or say much about it, because I know that people are still reading it, but I do want to say that it was, in many ways, even better than I thought it would be. It was certainly different than I expected, but overall better, and I am totally in awe of Rowling's skill at plotting. She's an amazing writer, and I'm sad that it's over.

I'm saving all my specific comments for the discussion group in August/September at the Scholar's Blog Spoiler Zone. I hope that you'll all join the discussion; I have a lot to say, and I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's comments, too!

While waiting for Harry, part 3

As you might expect, with only 10 days and a few hours to go until the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, our household is immersed in Harry. Last week, my husband reviewed two Harry Potter-related books as a guest blogger, and I reviewed another one. Today, I have a review of another:

Muggles and Magic: An Unofficial Guide to J.k. Rowling and the Harry Potter Phenomenon
by George W. Beahm

Whereas many of the other books look at the content of the Harry Potter books, with analysis and speculation, Muggles and Magic takes the external view and looks at the Harry Potter phenomenon itself. Muggles and Magic is a collection of short essays on all things Harry, from a biography of J.K. Rowling to a look at the making of the movies. The final section is a thorough coverage of the Harry, Carrie, and Garp event last August at Radio City Music Hall, where J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, and John Irving did readings and answered questions to raise money for charity.

If you enjoy Behind the Music or those "Making of" specials, you'll probably enjoy Muggles and Magic. It's packed with all kinds of interesting information about the history and social impact of the Harry Potter phenomenon, as well as about its amazing creator, J.K. Rowling. Because everything is presented in short, independent essays, this is a book that you can dip into or flip around and read the parts that interest you. It's a great bathroom book or book to carry with you for waiting in lines or at doctor's offices. It's also a book that will annoy your family, as you repeatedly read excerpts to them: "Hey, did you know..." or "It says here that..."

Some of the essays are outdated; "The J.K. Rowling Story," for example, was obviously written just before the publication of Order of the Phoenix. Other essays have been updated and contain fairly recent information. The outdated essays are a little disconcerting, but are still worth reading for the interesting information they contain. In general, this is a book that will be interesting to read even after the release of Deathly Hallows, because most of its information doesn't depend on the content of the last book.

While waiting for Harry, part 2

We're now just a couple of hours shy of two weeks until the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,, and today I'm reviewing another Harry Potter-related book. Earlier this week, my husband reviewed two other books about the Harry Potter series.

Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader
by John Granger

In Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader, John Granger evaluates the Harry Potter books in terms of five different concepts, or "keys":

• Narrative misdirection: how Rowling uses the third person limited view to trick the reader and create the surprise endings,
  
• Literary alchemy: Rowling's use of images and concepts from alchemy throughout the books
  
• The hero's journey: the repeated elements and patterns that the books follow, and where the books deviate from those patterns,
  
• Postmodern themes: how Rowling, as a product of her time, writes the books from a postmodern perspective, and
  
• Traditional imagery: Rowling's use of transcendent symbols and how that interacts with her postmodern view
  

After explaining the five keys, Granger then uses them to offer an explanation of what really happened in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and give predictions of what might happen in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Unlocking Harry Potter is both a fascinating and a frustrating book. Fascinating, because the ideas he presents are thought provoking, but frustrating because it can't seem to decide what kind of book it wants to be. In language and ideas, it's written like a scholarly work, but the tone seems to be aiming for a general audience. I think that Granger is trying to bridge the gap and appeal to both audiences, but I suspect that it won't completely satisfy either. The cute names (such as Quirrelldemort or Vapormort) and simplified explanations will most likely be annoying to a scholarly audience, yet the language is at times so dense that non-scholarly readers will have difficulty reading it.

In addition, Granger has a frustrating way of bringing up concepts without explaining them, and then referring the reader to some other work for an explanation. Obviously, in some cases, a full explanation of these concepts would be far too lengthy for a book like this, but any concept mentioned should at least have a brief explanation before referring the reader elsewhere for more information. To bring up a concept and give no explanation is to leave the reader hanging.

In spite of these flaws, however, I found the book fascinating, stimulating, and engaging. The fact that I dreamed about it shows how thoroughly I was engaged by it. And while the language is dense and difficult to understand in some places, in other places Granger gives perfectly wonderful explanations, such as his clear explanation of postmodernism using of the movie Sky High as an example. Unlocking Harry Potter opened my eyes to new ways of looking at the books, and while I don't agree with all of Granger's conclusions - I think his explanation of what really happened on the astronomy tower is much too complicated to be true - his arguments are compelling, and I think that he may be right on many points.

Unlike some of the books about the series, Unlocking Harry Potter has a potential shelf-life beyond July 21, 2007. Although Granger does indulge in speculation, some of which will most likely be wrong, much of the book will still be relevant after the conclusion to the series is revealed. Although his predictions may turn out to be wrong, his "keys" will still provide a framework for understanding and evaluating the series. In fact, I hope that after all the secrets have been revealed, Granger will release a new edition of the book, revised as strictly an evaluative work without the predictions.

For anyone willing to put some effort into understanding it, Unlocking Harry Potter is a fascinating and eye-opening way of looking at the Harry Potter books, and well worth reading.

While waiting for Harry, part 1

With only about 2-1/2 weeks to go until the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, excitement is building and speculation is rampant. While waiting for Harry Potter, you may want to read one or more of the plethora of books offering analysis, commentary, and predictions about the Harry Potter series.
Today, guest blogger Nick Ruth discusses two such books:

Title: MuggleNet.Com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Will the Adventure Finally End
Authors: Ben Schoen, Emerson Spartz, Andy Gordon, Gretchen Stull, Jamie Lawrence with Laura Thompson
ISBN10: 1-56975-583-3
ISBN13: 978-1-56975-583-9
LOC: 2006907934
Publisher: Ulysses Press

Title: The End of Harry Potter: An Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries That Remain
Author: David Langford
ISBN10: 0-765-31934-9
ISBN13: 978-0-765-31934-0
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC (TOR)

There are many ways to identify a classic work of literature such as bestseller lists, awards, Amazon.com ranking, and blogworthiness and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series certainly measures up in all these areas. How many books actually beget hundreds of other books whose sole purpose is to treat the source material like sacred texts, examining every word and scene for hidden meanings and deep philosophical underpinnings? The members of that group would be very small but I think Harry Potter fits in very nicely with the likes of the Bible and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and while the first six books generated plenty of high flying discussions, it is the 7th book titled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that has kicked in the literary afterburners.

How does a fan of the series prepare for the sure to be exciting conclusion? A real fan rereads the first 6 books ( over 2800 pages) timing the last book so that the last page is read while standing in line at midnight on July 21st, 2007 when book 7 is unveiled. The two books above (410 pages) invoke their own divination spells to save the reader the heavy lifting and summarize the main plot points, while attempting to mind meld with J.K. Rowling and guess how the story will conclude. MuggleNet’s What Will Happen (WWH) and The End of Harry Potter (EHP) are literary detective novels, and while there are some similarities in their conclusions, the paths they follow are very different.

The first thing that struck me when reading these books was the tremendous amount of planning that J.K. Rowling has put into her plot, and the second thing that struck me was the tremendous amount of effort that has been expended trying to unravel those plans by WWH and EHP. Every plot point raises dozens of questions. Did Snape kill Dumbledore on the tower? Was it really Dumbledore? Is Dumbledore one of the living dead? Why does the killing curse fling Dumbledore off of the tower? Both books explore these questions and so much more that I have begun to wonder how J.K. Rowling keeps it all straight in her mind.

The MuggleNet team has been at this game for many years and puts together all the clues in a very easy to read book that lives up to its title. The authors examine each of the major characters in the series and most of the minor ones and provide all the major clues to support their theories on what will happen to them in Book 7. Who will live and who will die? It’s all here but it’s almost maddening as you read this book to make a decision for yourself. I found myself nodding my head in agreement as the book argued for a particular point of view, and then found myself nodding again as it argued the opposite point of view. The book argues that there are no easy answers and that J.K. Rowling wants the reader to walk the halls of Hogwarts with Harry Potter. I think I’m ready for Book 7.

The End of Harry Potter is a little bit more puzzling to read as it doesn’t seem very interested in how the series will end. David Langford takes a much broader view of the Harry Potter universe and examines the clues as literary devices. EHP was not as enjoyable to read, and although the author tries hard to keep the prose light and funny, I found myself skimming through it looking for interesting insights. EHP touches on many of the same areas as WWH like Horcruxes, curses and patronuses but it’s a struggle to read when you’re dealing with chapter subtitles like ‘The Wonder of Onomastics’ or ‘Infodumps and McGuffins’.

Both of these books will prime the reader for Book 7 and both of them will make you want to read the whole series again, but to my mind the MuggleNet book is the is the one to get and it will be a lot of fun to compare the predictions with the true outcome when the Deathly Hallows ties up all the loose ends. My predictions: A great read and Voldemort dies.

* * *

Nick Ruth is my wonderful husband of over 19 years. He's also the author of The Remin Chronicles. Nick blogs about politics at purple-politics.blogspot.com/

Harry Potter tag

Alyssa of The Shady Glade tagged me for a cool Harry Potter meme. Thanks, Alyssa; I'm always glad for an opportunity to talk about Harry Potter! Here's my answers to the questions.

1. Butterbeer or pumpkin juice?
I've always thought that pumpkin juice sounded disgusting, so it'll have to be butterbeer, which sounds delicious to me.

2. What House would you most likely (or want to) be in in Hogwarts?
I've always been a brainy nerd, so I'd probably be in Ravenclaw.

3. If you were an animagus, what animal would you turn into?
Most definitely a cat! I've always had cats, and I think I'm part cat myself.

4. What character do you empathize with, or resemble best?
Like many of you here, I see quite a bit of myself in Hermione.

5. What position do you play at Quidditch?
I think I'd like to be a beater. It would be pretty satisfying whacking the bludgers at people.

6. Which teacher is your favorite?
Of all the teachers that we've seen, definitely Lupin. Of the regulars, it would have to be Professor McGonagall. I love how she is strict, but fair, and empathic when she needs to be.

7. Any Harry Potter 7 predictions?
Too many to list! Snape dies saving Harry. Neville proves that there is more to him than we think (and may die heroically). One or both of the Weasley twins will die. Harry, Ron, and Hermione will survive. Harry will not defeat Voldemort in a climactic duel but will overcome him in some unexpected way. Crookshanks will turn out to be an animagus.

I always hate tagging people for these things, but I'll try Michele and Kelly. (Kelly, I know you're on vacation, but hopefully you'll see this when you get back.)

Not cool, Scholastic!

Scholastic is promoting the new Harry Potter book with a replica of the Knight Bus, which is touring around the country. Visitors to the Knight Bus can record a 30-second video about Harry Potter, and are given a password where they can view their video online. I think some of the videos are also going to be selected to be displayed on the web site.

David and I visited the Knight Bus during BEA and we each recorded a video. To have a chance to record a video, we stood in line in the broiling sun for over half an hour outside the Javits Center.

I just got the following email from Scholastic:

"We just found out that due to unfortunate technical problems, the sound did not record on any of the BEA videos which is why they are not uploaded."

So after waiting in line all that time in the heat, we have nothing to show for it. I didn't even get to see my son's video, because he didn't want me to watch while he recorded it. He thought he would be able to show it to me on the web site.

I understand that technical problems happen. They did offer to send my son a "care package" to make up for it, so they are doing what they can to rectify a bad situation. But it's still very disappointing.

Harry Potter 7 U.S. Deluxe Edition artwork posted!

Scholastic just posted the artwork for the U.S. Deluxe Edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! The stunning artwork shows Harry with, I assume, Ron and Hermione, riding a dragon. A dragon? Hmmm. David and I are wondering if it's Norbert? Click here to view the artwork.

Thanks to Brooklyn Arden (who obviously would know) for the link.

Scholastic Harry Potter news

Scholastic is sending seven lucky U.S. winners to London for the midnight launch of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with J.K. Rowling. The seven lucky winners will join 1700 winners from England to meet J.K. Rowling and have their book signed, and will also join the 500 winners from England for the midnight reading.

Click here for information and entry form

I'm also excited because I just discovered that Scholastic's Knight Bus tour will be at Book Expo America next week! I'll be at BEA so I hope I'll be able to see it. I really have no idea what there is to see aside from the bus, but just seeing the Knight Bus would be cool.

Click here for tour dates