Harry Potter

[Christine Ciofolo]

Why has no one started a discussion yet??? I finished the book on Sunday (after staying up til 1:00AM to purchase my copy). As an adult, I loved the book as did my 20 year old son and his girlfriend. I am just wondering if my fifth graders will 'get it'. I also was very surprised by Rowling's use of B**** on page 736. I while I have no objection to the word in an adult book I question its use in a book marketed to children. I remember feeling the same way about the same word in The Boggart.

[Dawn M. Sardes]

I was, however, impressed with Harry's growing maturity in the aftermath of death.

When Cedric died, he was terrified reacted as a child, having nightmares, calling out in his sleep. He allowed what had happened at the end of book 4 to affect him in book 5, coloring his responses when the situation demanded prudence.

Theen Sirius died and again, like a child, he struck out, throwing things in Dumbledore's office. Book 6, Dumbledore dies and he foolishly goes after Snape, is unable to even hit him as he is allowing his emotions to control him.

But, then, in this book, he finally matures when Dobby dies. His insistance on digging the grave manually, it is his way of working through his grief in a way that is, finally, constructive. He now faces death as a man and not a child.

[C]

The series was great and it was great to see so much discussion of the last book. One theme that goes throughout the series which I plan on discussing with my youth group is that of prejudice. The whole wizard/muggle thing is a very important part of the books. It was interesting to see how far Dumbledore had come from his youth seeing how wizards would be "good" for muggles to his view later in life that muggles were equal to wizards.
I was happy at the end to see how everything worked out.

[Debbie]

I don't use words like B****, but I'm thinking that if someone like Bellatrix was after one of my girls, it just might pop out in the same way.

[Michael Simmons]

I agree, I too was a little suprised by her using the profanity. I guess she figured that since here characters had grown up, as well as her readers, I think she just forgot about her young readers. Also, she probably figured that 5th graders wouldn't be in this book, because most reading in that grade would still be in the earlier part of the collection. And by 7th or 8th grade (when they were into that book),they could handle the language.