Another crazy dispatch from the school reading front

In fairness, I wouldn't call letting kids pick their own books "crazy." Debatable, but not crazy. But this essay I ran across does seem to deserve the word. This system, called "Accelerated Reader," assigns point values to certain books. Kids rack up enough points, and they get a treat or a prize or whatever.
But look at the howling-sick points assignments, according to the New York Times story:

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling: 44 points
• Harry Pointer and the Deathly Hallows: 34 points
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: 32 points
• My Antonia, by Willa Cather: 14 points
• Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin: 13 points
• Hamlet, by Shakespeare: 7 points

I like Harry Potter, but I have a big problem with this points system. The latter three works are much more sophisticated and thematically challenging. That they would be worth fewer points strikes me as bad and wrong, ESPECIALLY when school kids are motivated to read the Potter books anyway. What is the world coming to? The essay author, thankfully, is appalled as well.

Thoughts after reading Harry Potter (no spoilers)

Just finished the final Potter book. I don't want to post any spoilers at this point, so I'll just say it was quite good and did a remarkable job of keeping in the spirit of the whole series.
It's not giving away much to say this: I shouldn't have worried about getting enough on the early life of Albus Dumbledore. Thankfully, that was a major plot line -- hooray!

Thoughts before reading Harry Potter

About 2 and a half hours from now, I'll pick up my copy of the last Harry Potter book. I'm guessing I will finish it by Sunday night. What a wonderful trip it's been! My sister introduced me to HP right around the time Prisoner of Azkaban came out in 1999. Seven years later, these books have brought a lot of happiness to my life. There's something so fun about a series, and J.K. Rowling hit all the right notes.
My personal predictions -- no spoilers here, these are just guesses -- are that Harry lives, Voldemort dies, Snape is good, Dumbledore does not return. Harry ends up with Ginny, and Hermione ends up with Ron, and they all live happily ever after. Who will die? I hate to say it but I think it's Mrs. Weasley and Hagrid.
I'm most worried that we won't get sufficient back-story on Lily Evans and Neville Longbottum. I'd also love to know more about Dumbledore's early life, but I'm not holding my breath for it. I also wonder what will happen to Draco Malfoy.
OK, that's it! I've got to get ready ...

Harry Potter Reading Project Update

Since June 1, I have re-read two of the six Harry Potter books -- Book 1 (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) and Book 6 (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). I am currently re-reading Book 5 (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). I'm not sure if I will have re-read all six before the final book comes out on July 21, but I'm going to try! (I also have other non-HP books I'm reading, too.)
I'm re-reading for the following reasons:

• 1. for fun!
• 2. to mine for clues to the final ending.

Years ago, I read an opinion piece on an HP fan web site -- sadly I can't remember where. It said we current Harry Potter fans are blessed to be able to read the books as they come out, to be able to savor the anticipation between books. Future readers will probably come at the series differently, reading them in sequence much faster. Some children will no doubt spend a long weekend reading all seven books in one big gulp. And their experience will be quite different from the years we current readers -- we few, we happy few (relatively speaking)-- have invested in looking for clues, contemplating themes and teasing out meaning.
That sentiment hangs on whether you believe the Harry Potter books will be read for generations to come. I think they will -- they are that good, embracing enduring themes, like what it means to live a good life in the face of inevitable death. Time will tell.

Harry Potter Read-a-thon

Here's a series of emails between me and my dear book group friend L.

L.,
I want to re-read all the Harry Potter books before No. 7 comes out in July. Do you think I should read them in order, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6? Or do you think I should read them backwards -- 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ?

It would make sense to read them 1-6, but I was thinking I might detect more clues to the ending by reading them backwards.

What do you think?
--Angie

Angie,
I'm in the process of re-reading the last one. If you have enough time, start at the beginning. What if you burn out though and then stop reading by book 4 and then book 6 is untouched as you are in line to get the new book?

If I were intent on reading them all, I would start with 6 and then 1,2, 3, 4, 5.
--L.

L.,
I think your point about burn-out is a good one! And I hadn't thought of that before, but I think you're right.

I started Book 1 this weekend and I'm almost done. Maybe I'll do 1, 6, 2, 5, 4. Mark jokingly suggested that, but I don't think it's a bad idea!

I have a hunch that Book 2 is more important than we might think, because it has so much of Voldemort's boyhood and the diary was likely a Horcrux, etc. So I want to get that one in if I can.

What fun!
--Angie

Harry Potter in 2007

I know I'm super late on posting this, but I am so thrilled that the last Harry Potter book will be published this year on July 21, less than 150 days away as of this writing. (You can check the countdown on mighty Mugglenet's homepage.) I was really worried that it wouldn't come out until 2008.
These books are fanciful and funny, and impossible to put down. Each chapter ends in a way specially designed to irresistibly (literally!) lure you on, until you've fin shed the whole darn thing. In some ways, they are like literary heroin. They get a powerful grip on you.
I made a pact with myself after seeing the third Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which was quite good) that I wouldn't watch anymore of the movies until I had finished reading the whole series. I don't like the movie images in my head when I read the books. So far, so good.

The final installment of Harry Potter

The name of the next Harry Potter book was revealed this week: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. J.K. Rowling revealed it through a fun little puzzle on her web site, jkrowling.com. (I always read the little cheat sheets floating around the 'net; I can't imagine how actual kids figure out the complex games she sets up.)

So what does the name mean? Like most of her previous books, nobody knows. Most of the HP titles refer to new themes that haven't been introduced before, and that's the case here. I'm going to hazard my own guess though. "Hallows" can mean holy ones, as in All Hallow's Eve (aka The Eve of All Saints, aka Halloween). I think the Deathly Hallows are the spirits of Harry's family and friends who have died, and they will have a role to play in helping Harry defeat Voldemort. Another clue is from Order of the Phoenix, when Harry heard whispering "behind the veil" in the Department of Mysteries. The veil symbolized death. My hypothesis is the people whispering were those who have died.
Now I don't think it will be like Obi Wan Kenobi in Return of the Jedi, where they come back as regular characters, just, y'know, dead. I think they will be more like friendly spirits, the way Harry's parents appear as part of the Phoenix Effect at the end of HP and the Goblet of Fire.
If I remember correctly, JRK said we hadn't seen the last of Sirius, so that fits in well with my theory, too. I'll see if I can dig up the reference.
I realize this doesn't make much sense unless you've read the books. But so many people have, and in fact one of my favorite things about the books is that they have created a huge reading community. HP lovers unite!

UPDATE: Check the comments for JKR's hints on Sirius and future books.