Is there a Harry Potter frenzy at your house?
My kids have grown up with Harry, Ron and Hermoine, so they're anxious to get their hands on the last book Saturday. Halley's still out of the country and plans to buy her own copy for the long plane flight home, but there is a running discussion about who gets to read our copy first. I might have to buy two. But for now, my solution is to have everyone leave it in the living room so concurrent readings can go on.
If you have youngsters who are already mourning the end of Hogwarts, I wrote a column for Tuesday's News Tribune. It's about the literary legacy of HP and contains a bunch of other reading suggestions. Our kids at Seabury already know of many of these books and often are more excited about them than HP.
I'm not going to write much more here, because I've written so much about Harry Potter this month already. I do love the books, and the excitement they've created among young readers for the past 10 years.
One thing I do want to say is if you and your children don't want the surprises of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" spoiled before you read the book, it might be a good idea to limit your use of the Internet for a few days.
People have gotten hold of copies, posted pictures of every single page, and plot developments are leaking out faster that Scholastic, Bloomsbury or JK Rowling's lawyers can control. I was trying to read some news stories about the leaks, and commenters feel compelled to assault you, without warning, in all-caps: ***** DIES!!, etc.
Who knows if the tiny bit I saw before closing the screen is true. But I do know that actual spoilers appear to be out there.
The whole thing makes me sad, and mad. The Harry Potter phenomenon has been a magical one. I don't understand why some unscrupulous meanies who are good at computers feel compelled to try and squash that magic.
That's all for now. Be careful out there in cyberspace!
No comments:
Post a Comment