Read
Each and every time a new book in the Harry Potter series has come into my home I have had to fight my husband and sometimes the children to read it first. This time E won. I sat anxiously awaiting my turn as E took his sweet time reading it (3 long, agonizing days.) I hovered over him urging him to hurry up and finish the book while simultaneously grilling him on what was happening. It drove me nuts when he kept saying, "You need to read it." Yeah, I knew I needed to read it. He needed to hurry the heck up before I lost control and wrestled the book from his hands as I had done with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Based on E's reactions while he was reading, saying he didn't want to read anymore over and over, telling me what happened to Dobby but not explaining how it happened, exclamations over what he considered unnecessary deaths, I found my eagerness for the chance to read it morphing into reluctance to pick up the thing I had coveted for three long days. When he handed me the book I asked the burning question, "Did she kill Harry?" I didn't ask if Voldemort killed him I asked if J. K. Rowling had killed him, after all, it was her hands that Harry's life was in, not Voldemort's. Of course, E's reply consisted of "read it and find out" as he hung his head, perhaps to hide from me the truth I would be able to read in his eyes. With a great deal of dread that I would discover that she had murdered one of my favorite characters of all time I picked up the book and began reading. Many times I put it down, each time a beloved character died, each time Harry came ever closer to Voldemort's clutches, and swore I would not finish it. I did not want to know for certain that he was going to die.
I've always been able to predict the ending of most any book I've picked up. And, I was certain the book was going in the direction I did not want it to. The hero isn't supposed to die. It's just not o.k. for that to happen. Good must always win. I wondered if J. K. Rowling knew that.
E urged me to finish the book, even placing it in my hands at one point and simply stating, "Read." Well, I finally finished it this morning after another round of "I'm not going to read another page. Why did she have to kill them? She didn't have to do that!" I truly understood why E had said the same things himself a few days prior. But, it was too late for me to stop. I had already wandered too far in and could not quit, not in the middle of the climax. My eyes marched slowly across the words of those last pages as I learned for certain, as I had suspected all along, that Harry's death was inevitable.
Very few books have stirred me to such emotion as the Harry Potter books have. Very few books have had endings woven so intricately that they surprised me; and, those are all by a single author, J. K. Rowling. In a few days my son will finish Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. He's entrenched in the last chapters as I write this. In a few days I will place the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in his hands and utter a single word, "Read."
Based on E's reactions while he was reading, saying he didn't want to read anymore over and over, telling me what happened to Dobby but not explaining how it happened, exclamations over what he considered unnecessary deaths, I found my eagerness for the chance to read it morphing into reluctance to pick up the thing I had coveted for three long days. When he handed me the book I asked the burning question, "Did she kill Harry?" I didn't ask if Voldemort killed him I asked if J. K. Rowling had killed him, after all, it was her hands that Harry's life was in, not Voldemort's. Of course, E's reply consisted of "read it and find out" as he hung his head, perhaps to hide from me the truth I would be able to read in his eyes. With a great deal of dread that I would discover that she had murdered one of my favorite characters of all time I picked up the book and began reading. Many times I put it down, each time a beloved character died, each time Harry came ever closer to Voldemort's clutches, and swore I would not finish it. I did not want to know for certain that he was going to die.
I've always been able to predict the ending of most any book I've picked up. And, I was certain the book was going in the direction I did not want it to. The hero isn't supposed to die. It's just not o.k. for that to happen. Good must always win. I wondered if J. K. Rowling knew that.
E urged me to finish the book, even placing it in my hands at one point and simply stating, "Read." Well, I finally finished it this morning after another round of "I'm not going to read another page. Why did she have to kill them? She didn't have to do that!" I truly understood why E had said the same things himself a few days prior. But, it was too late for me to stop. I had already wandered too far in and could not quit, not in the middle of the climax. My eyes marched slowly across the words of those last pages as I learned for certain, as I had suspected all along, that Harry's death was inevitable.
Very few books have stirred me to such emotion as the Harry Potter books have. Very few books have had endings woven so intricately that they surprised me; and, those are all by a single author, J. K. Rowling. In a few days my son will finish Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. He's entrenched in the last chapters as I write this. In a few days I will place the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in his hands and utter a single word, "Read."
Labels: homeschooling, life
posted by Cindy at 12:39 PM
1 comments
