Posted on 07/21/2007 5:18:11 PM PDT by JenB
The ministry had not fallen by the time Teddy was conceived, had it? By the time Teddy was born, it was pretty clear that things were very dangerous, but had it been clear nine months earlier?
I'm trying very hard not to be.
You aren't giving me much to work with.
My kids were most upset by Hedwig, a totally innocent bystander. Not even a target.
That is such a cute pic. :)
Ah, OK, it’s Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the vault at Gringott’s!
My daughter is reading the book now. She asked me to read to her. We got to the Hedwig scene and she started crying....I had to stop for a while to let her get composed. Then when she thought Hagrid was dead she kept saying Momma no, tell me he’s ok. :) Then we got to Moody. She said, I need a break for a while. She just now asked iif we could start reading again in a little while. I’m dreading the parts about Dobby and Fred. Those are some of her favorite characters. :/
It was a very yummy picture of Naomi Watts.
I guess the host’s bandwith was exceeded by FReepers...
Yeah that one got to be too. Of course in the long run it probably helped Harry, Hedwig is a pretty distinctive beast and presented a problem for secret communications before. And it was useful to help cut Harry off, and certainly established that everybody was fair game in this book. But still, whacking the pretty owl, that was rough.
Poor kid.
Tell her Uncle Nully says that sometimes unfair things happen, no matter how hard we try to stop them. It’s important that we pause to cry and mourn, but it’s also important that we continue trying to keep the world as fair and just as we can.
We owe that to the innocents who have been injured, to ourselves, and to our descendants.
Tell her he Uncle Nully is proud of her for being one who feels enough to mourn, and that that love and empathy she feels is proof positive of her good heart.
Heh, speaking of fun with shape changers... is there any question why Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four was given the codename "Mr. Fantastic"?
My wife and I used to watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine when it was new. Near the end of the series run, the character Kira Nerys developed a relationship with Odo the shapechanger. From then on, we referred to Kira as "the luckiest girl in the quadrant". ;-)
You know, at the point where they had a kid you could equally say it was irresponsible for any wizard couple to have kids. They were in the middle of a huge war, for goodness’ sake, against the most powerful evil wizard ever.
And Lupin wasn’t an Auror... all he wanted to be was a professor but he wasn’t even that any more, he was an unemployable bum.
ROTFL!! That was great. I’ll have to show it to our daughter, if she hasn’t seen it already. She and I are HUGH “Firefly” fans.
Thank you, I will. :) Like all of us, she has fallen in love with the characters of this book. We’ve discussed the good vs. evil theme, so she understands that sometimes bad things happen to good people because of evil, but it still is hard to deal with, she’s only 11 so she hasn’t had to experience too many real hard lessons yet. (Thankfully, not everyone is blessed.)
Don’t forget to emphasize that it’s fiction, and that the characters “died” because of the author’s deliberate choice.
At the very least they could have made it less shocking. :-\
Perzackly.
I *love* wisecracking pilots.
She's an incredible chameleon, as anyone who has seen "Mulholland Drive" can attest. She'll make a brilliant Narcissa.
I loved the book. It was masterful, in so many ways--not just the tying up of loose ends, but the settings, the atmosphere...I know some readers didn't enjoy the seemingly endless trips to the countryside, but I think they were absolutely essential. As I was reading those chapters--so little action, so much moving about--I began feeling anxious and frustrated, just like Ron. It was claustrophobic and expertly written. The chapters beginning with the capture and escape from the Malfoy's place to the end of the book are an emotional roller coaster, nail-biting, heartbreaking, bittersweet, triumphant...to quote Peeves, I luuuurved it.
More than any of the other books, for me at least, this one felt more like a nearly straightforward mystery, but I sensed some definite nods to Tolkien. There is even one line, describing the Hermione doppleganger coming out from the locket, in which she is said to be "more beautiful and yet more terrible..."...all I could think of was Galadriel when Frodo presented her with the ring. JKR's pace, plot, settings, I would say as a writer she is on par with JRRT. I think he edges her out only in that his writing can be so lyrical, consistently lyrical--but the authors were writing for different audiences, and I don't really think I'd place the LOTR series and the HP series in the same genre. The HP series is fantasy, a little mystery/suspense, but essentially fiction. The LOTR series (and here I include The Silmarillion) is what I would classify as historical mythology. Our world simply has no place in it.
Loved it, loved it, loved it!
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