[MSCASEY]

Wonder what kind of sick parents would also want their kids to have grand illusions in their heads of nearly headless nick and his pals playing polo with their heads? And the cutting off of a hand with blood dripping from it as it thrown into the kettle as a sacrifice so that the evil spirit can take on a body! And then there is that 11-year-old that becomes possessed and for some reason is killing cats. Gee there is nothing wrong with the books. Just the parents and people that have become so desensitized that they will be glad to have a mark stuck on their kids forehead or hand. Hey if they got the mark on their forehead then they could be just like Harry Potter!!! MCD

[My Identity]

All good points. And don't forget:
- killing child-like mandrakes for ingredients(II)
- giving potions (drugs) secretly to others (Crabbe,Goyle/II)
- taking potions (drugs) to gain knowledge(Potter,Weasley/II)
- running away as solution (Potter/III)
- graphic torture of innocents for sport (Quidditch World Cup/IV)
- gratuitous murder (the caretaker/IV)

Yes, I have read them all - twice. And enjoyed them immensely. But nevertheless, their casual moral structure and increasingly dark tone make me doubt the author's benign intentions. She promises that subsequent books will be even darker, because she has a "moral obligation" to show the true face of evil. Adult fare--certainly. But increasingly inappropriate for children.

MI