J.K. Rowling Tribute Book

The Norwalk Public Library is calling for all kids and teens 18 and under to come up with their most creative Harry Potter stories, artwork, or dramatic reenactments.  Would you like to rewrite a chapter of the book or maybe write your own story about characters we did not learn enough about (like James and Lily for example)?  Maybe you’d like to write a short play and act it out on video or create a painting showing how you visualized a certain character or moment in the Harry Potter books?  If you don’t think you have that kind of creativity, you can even write a letter to J.K. Rowling or a character in the book expressing your gratitude.  We will be accepting submissions of all these kinds and turning them into a book that will be bound and sent to J.K. Rowling herself as a thank you for giving us such a wonderful series of imaginative books.

Make sure you hand in your submission by September 30th, along with a form that must be filled out, to the Norwalk Public Library.  All artwork handed in will be entered into a cover art contest.  All submissions must be in the tradition of Harry Potter to be accepted.  Each person who turns in an accepted submission will be given a bound copy of the book.

Get creative and let us know if you have any questions!

 

More Harry Potter?

After speaking with some friends about the ending of the book, many people feel that J.K. Rowling left herself room to write more books about characters from the Harry Potter series.  The rest of what I say will contain spoilers, so highlight the text below to continue reading.

One friend believes that Voldemort is still alive, because of the way the last sentence of the book was phrased – “The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years.  All was well.”  Does this mean that one day it might start hurting him again?  It says in the book that Voldemort is dead, and Rowling has always been adamant about the dead not being able to come back to life, so I believe that he is gone forever.

However, Ted Lupin, who lost both his parents by followers of Voldemort, and is now Harry’s godson, could have his own story.  Harry has children that might follow in his footsteps.  

Rowling seems determined not to write more than an encyclopedia on the series later, and I’m not sure anything can be as good as the original series.  But who knows?  Maybe Rowling’s children will want to continue with the Harry Potter tradition later.   

What do you think?  Did J.K. Rowling leave the story open enough that if she chose to, she or someone else could write more about Harry’s magical world?   

 

The Mystery Rowling Left Us

J.K. Rowling answered the question that many of us has been asking in an interview last week – who was the person that did magic late in life?  The answer was no clear once I finished reading Book 7, but that is because Rowling changed her mind about adding that storyline.  She is certainly entitled to do so and I don’t feel like any of the story is incompletewith out it, but I am so curious as to who this character was supposed to be and what the storyline that got cut was.  Do you think she’ll ever tell?

 

What Happened to the Longbottoms?

There are no real spoilers in this post, so if you haven’t finished the book all you will find out from this is that we do not find out why the Longbottoms were tortured by Bellatrix and other Death Eaters.  Maybe it is not all that important to the story and that is why Rowling did not mention it, but I wanted to know the reason for their torture.

Is it because of the prophecy?  This does not make sense to me, because their torture happened after Voldemort had disappeared, and therefore it had been decided that the prophecy was talking about the Potters, not the Longbottoms.  Maybe these Death Eaters thought the Longbottoms had information on Voldemort’s whereabouts?

Does anyone else have ideas or suggestions?  Or do you feel that if it wasn’t important enough for Rowling to put it in the book, then it must not really matter?

 

The Truth About Snape

Once again I’ve hidden the text for those who have not yet finished the book.  Highlight the blank space below to read.

Rowling did a phenomenal job building Snape up as a despicable, evil character.  Although I firmly believed that Snape was good, Rowling had me going for most of Book 7.  It seemed that he was just your typical villain until the very end.  Then we learned the truth and learned that he was more than just good, he was a hero.  As I wrote about in my earlier review of the book, the Harry Potter books center on the power of love, and, we learned, that Snape most certainly was able to love.  He loved Lily right up to the day she died.  It was her impending death and realization that Snape was responsible for it by revealing the Prophecy to Voldemort, that turned him to the good side and made Dumbledore trust him unconditionally.  Snape risked his life for the Order of the Phoenix for many years, and in the end died for it.  By giving Harry his memories, he was also redeemed.  

Like Harry and Dumbledore, Snape made many choices that changed the course of his life.  He was placed into the House of Slytherin, and even though Lily was his best friend, he befriended others that turned him onto Dark Magic and ruined his relationship with the girl he had loved his whole life.  Later he made the choice to tell Voldemort the part of the Prophecy he had overheard, and, when hearing that Voldemort believed he had to kill the Potters in order to survive, Snape realized what he had done.  He inadvertently caused the death of Lily, which caused him such grief that he turned to the good side, continuing to do his work for the Order until the day he died.  

While he was not always good, and did make some horrific choices in life, Harry realizes how brave and heroic Snape really was.  Harry himself was tempted by evil, like the Deathly Hallows, as was Dumbledore.  Snape redeemed himself in the end and made himself a true hero.  

 

The Deathly Hallows and Harry’s Choice – SPOILERS!

Highlight the text below to read:

Here is something I’ve been wondering.  Did Harry have a choice whether to live or die in the King’s Cross chapter because he was the true owner of the Deathly Hallows?  The cloak, stone, and wand all belonged to Harry.  He had already disarmed Draco, making him the true owner of the Elder Wand, the cloak was passed down to him by his dad, and the stone, while he had already dropped it, had been in his possession.  Is it possible that Harry was the Master of Death at that moment and that helped him live?  

I am speculating, but I think my theory has some weight.  I’m curious to hear what you think…

 

My Review of Book 7 (SPOILERS!!)

After digesting and re-reading certain parts of the book, I am ready to write what I thought of it. To read, simply highlight the hidden text below.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was not a disappointment at all. I can’t say that it was my favorite book of the series, but J.K. Rowling did an excellent job putting all the pieces of the puzzle together and giving us a fast-paced, riveting story. What I am most pleased with is that there is still so much left to discuss. We now know that all is right in the Wizarding world and Harry defeated Voldemort, but Rowling left it so that there are still items for us fans to ponder.

Dumbledore turned out to be a much more complex character than originally expected. In the first six books he appeared to be an all-knowing, infallible hero, but there were times during Hallows when I began to dislike him. Specifically when we reading about Snape’s memories and Dumbledore so casually mentioned that Harry was going to have to die in order to defeat Voldemort. He was redeemed in the next chapter, however, and I could then understand his intentions. While Dumbledore was a good person overall, he was susceptible to making errors and was tempted by power, glory and immortality, just as most people are. He makes us realize that there is a little bit of good and bad in everyone, and what makes a person truly good is their ability to overcome the bad.

And this is just what we learn about Harry. Here is a character that started off as a young, timid boy in the first book and grew into a true hero and leader by the end of the seventh. He was also tempted by evil – the Deathly Hallows were a strong temptation for him – but what made him good was that he was eventually able to focus on his original intentions and defeat Voldemort. What I found most interesting about Harry was that throughout the first six books, was that while Harry was courageous, he never did anything all that extraordinary. He either had help from his mother, his friends, or Dumbledore. In Book 7, he was revealed to be a true hero. He accepted his fate willingly and was going to die in order to save his friends. By doing this, he gave them extra protection from Voldemort in the final moments of the battle at Hogwarts. Another true heroic feat was that Harry did not have to use the Avada Kedavra curse on Voldemort to defeat him. He maintained his innocence and offered Voldemort another chance to survive by only using the defensive Expelliarmus spell, which collided with the killing curse that then brought about Voldemort’s own demise. Harry did not actually kill Voldemort, Voldemort did it to himself.

Harry won the Elder wand earlier in this scene by disarming Draco (the true owner of the Elder wand), which gave him what many others, Dumbledore included, sought, the three Deathly Hallows, but Harry realized that what he truly wanted was what he saw in the Mirror of Erised all those years ago, not the power, glory and immortality that the Deathly Hallows bring. While Harry became obsessed with the idea of the Deathly Hallows for a while, he was able to snap out of it in time to realize that his more important mission was finding and destroying the Horcruxes, the only way to defeat Voldemort.

Rowling was able to make love a central and important theme in the books, without it becoming sappy or overbearing. Harry saw a loving family when he looked in the Mirror of Erised in Book 1. What he truly wanted was to love and to be loved. Even the Malfoys showed their good side in this book by stressing the importance of family and love, the only thing that helped keep all of them alive. Harry’s desire for a loving family came true after he realized that the Deathly Hallows would not give him happiness, for that is not what power and immortality bring. Harry’s story mirrored Dumbledore’s, because both had a chance at having all three Deathly Hallows but willingly gave them up for love. Dumbledore lost his own family but still surrounded himself with loving people, those members of the Order of the Phoenix. This is a subtle but valid point. Every member of the Order of the Phoenix had the ability to love and to love strongly – from Lupin to the Longbottoms to the Potters to Snape. Voldemort lacked this ability, as, it seemed, did Bellatrix and that brought about their downfalls.

Overall, the book was well-done. I could nitpick, but the only negative I am going to include is that a lot of information was crammed into a small amount of space. Rowling would have been better off tacking on an extra 100 pages and giving us more detailed explanations. I found this especially true in the King’s Cross chapter with Dumbledore. But she certainly gave us an excellent story, that was both original and clever and that is sure to become a classic.

 

The Deathly Hallows Covers

I think that both the UK additions (children’s and adult’s) have covers that make perfect sense within the context of the books.  I am still unsure of what the US cover is depicting.  What are Harry and Voldemort reaching for?  Where are they exactly?  What are the curtains?

If you have any ideas, let me know.  I’m sure that you will only be able to write a comment that contains spoilers, so for those of you who have not yet finished Deathly Hallows, please don’t read the comments!!!!

 

Harry Potter Additions

J.K. Rowling is writing an encyclopedia that should touch on many side stories and characters that we would love to know more about, but do you have any ideas for your own short story?  Would you like to write a chapter on Dumbledore’s battle with Grindelwald?  Or how about drawing a scene depicting the young Padfoot, Prongs, Wormtail, and Moony?  Write a paragraph, page, or whole novel and either send it in as a comment or email it to voatis@norwalkpubliclibrary.org and I’ll put it on the blog.  We’ll also be starting a binder of your stories in the library for others to read.

Give us your best stories, novels, paintings, drawings, or even video dedications to Harry Potter!

 

Hidden Spoilers

This is not my review of the book, yet, but there are a few things I just had to share.  If you want to read, and be aware that this done contain spoilers, then highlight the text below with your mouse.

I have not yet had a chance to go back and read through the series again, I think I am going to find so many more hidden clues that I had not picked up on before.  Already I am remembering what Petunia said after revealing she knew what Dementors were, saying she overheard her sister and “that awful boy” talking about them.  Well, I think we assumed “that awful boy” was James, but now we know that it was Snape.  An interesting clue that very few people seemed to have picked up on.  

The lessons we learn about wand lore also explain Neville’s difficulty with magic early on, considering he was using his father’s wand.  He never won that wand, so of course it did not work properly for him. 

What other clues have you noticed spread throughout the earlier books that were not clear until you read Book 7?