So my DD13 and I have "grown-up" with Harry Potter. I started reading them to her when she was about 3 1/2 and we have gone to the midnight parties for the new releases of books and movies. We have read them as a family together around the table taking turns reading them out-loud. Hermione was a savior of a role model about being smart and into books. Of course we are doing the midnight showing of the last movie...and we both cry at the preview or when we see posters etc. We are having marathon movie watching, re-reading books, playing Harry Potter Trivia. I have to say, the Harry Potter series has been one of our "gifted resources" when I knew and understood so little of what was going on......

I laughed and cried when I read your summary. Ah.,what beautiful memories you have shared. Has it really been ten years already? Hah.

My kids have also been waxing nostalgic about this. D21 and D16 say that the hours (honestly, probably hundreds) spent discussing and anticipating the release of the next book since they were very young was one of the greatest parts of their childhood. They said they feel a little sorry for kids who can just go read them all in a row. Both will be away from home for the opening of the final movie. We will all be going separately, then planning to attend again as a group when they are back home in mid-August.

My daughter is 14 and I totally understand that this has been around her whole life. We have our tickets and are ready for the last one.

i totally get it. I started reading the series when I was pregnant with DS10. He loved the series and so did I. DH doesn't get it but DS and I love to talk about all things HP. I got overwhelmed emotionally when I entered the Wizarding World of HP at Universal's Island of Adventures and I cry if i just think about the end of the last book. Oh, there i go *snif snif*

It's so wonderful that you shared those experiences together!

I am making this Snape doll in honor of it all (i am a dollmaker and sculptor) hopefully I will finish him by next week

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q115/nanner2000/snapeWIP1.jpg

Nice Snape!

AntsyPantsy, I love the Snape doll you are making! What talent!

Kate

Oh my! Your Snape doll is unbelievable! Wow!

AntsyPants - Love the doll....

We have tickets too...midnight showing IMAX... I imagine the audience is going to be really rowdy.... I am so glad that I got to share this with her and wonder what if anything could be there for my DD2.9. I think it is really different now that you can plow through the whole set. They do get darker/violent as you go and it seemed paced ok for my older one regarding age etc. It seems now once you start you'd be going through the whole series. For the midnight book parties and movies I have usually dressed as Tonks... Not sure what I will do for this one though... Have fun everyone!

yes, DS10 plowed right through the whole series. He is really into the Pendragon series now. I think I'm the one that is the biggest HP fan around here!

thanks for the nice comments about my Snape doll everyone!

You're Welcome! I showed it to dd and she was soo impressed and amazed. Hoping you might post another photo when it's all done?

We have our midnight tickets too! DD11 read 1-6 in a row when she was 7 and then had to wait two months for book 7 (a shorter wait then most HP fans at that time had had, but the first time she ever had to wait for a book). She lived and breathed HP from the moment she started reading them, and I was re-reading them a step ahead of her. I have wonderful memories of that time in our lives, culminating with the midnight book release with her dressed up as Ginny (we left with 2 copies, of course). It was so fun for her too, because she was carrying the book with her everywhere as she was reading it, and all her camp counselors were reading it too, so she shared a connection with them that she didn't share with most of the kids her age.

DS9 will get to be part of this final opening, and I'm glad he gets a piece of this phenomenon too. He is less fanatic (DD and her friend have been planning and putting together costumes to wear but DS plans to go in regular clothes), but still excited about it.

We already know we will be seeing the movie twice. We have tickets with DDs best friend, brother and mother but couldn't get another ticked when DH decided he wanted to go, so we will all go again with him. Since we are seeing 2D on opening night, maybe we'll go for 3D when we see it the second time.

I hope that kids and adults will continue to fall in love with this series as the years go on, but it will not be the same in the future without all that delicious anticipation....

Taminy, your comment reminds me that this was something that distinguished my gifted D (now 16) from her peers. For many years (since she was about 3, when she asked me to read HP1 aloud to her -- 11 times straight, we finally bought her the tapes), she knew more about HP than anyone else she knew, except her sister. She would meet another kid, and they would start talking about HP, and she would sort of blow them away with her depth of knowledge. Then she would lose interest in them, because they didn't share her depth. It was frustrating at times for everyone. Also, we bought the first HP trivia game, and it was great. But every HP game ever released after that was too "watered down" for her (and we invested in many).

But we had a grand time within our family discussing it, and dressing up for midnight book releases/movie reviews. Once I went as a house elf It also took care of Halloween costumes for many years (although the year we lost her stuffed Hedwig while trick or treating was tramatic -- I retraced our steps with a flashlight, finally found her on someone's front porch guarding a bowl of candy). D still has a shimmery silver "invisibility cloak" that a preschool peer's parent made her long ago for a birthday present. And then there was the summer she tried to make polyjuice potion -- kept mixing in various plants, moving it around in a stopped up glass bottle to keep it in the sun during the day. Then she opened the bottle and it spilled on her. I could smell her from across the house when she came in the front door.

Oh, Harry...

AntsyPants, I love your Snape doll, but I may have to dispute the claim about the biggest HP fan. My younger DD17 was a HUGE HP fan. She wrote routinely to newspaper on this subject matter. I dig up one article that she wrote just before the 7th book was published. It still looks very good although her prediction was wrong. (She was 13 at the time.)

===

Happily ever after for Harry Potter?

As fans all around the world brace themselves for the seventh, and last book of J.K. Rowling�s insanely popular series Harry Potter, there is obviously one question that comes to mind: Will Harry die, or will he live happily ever after? Once unthinkable, the possibility of Harry�s mortality looms larger than ever.

A leading HP fan site, HPANA, polled over 15,000 fans last year about the fate of the boy wizard. Most hard-core fans believe that Harry will die in the end: 41% of fans believed that Harry would sacrifice himself to save loved ones while only 29% believed that he would live happily ever after.

Jo (J.K. Rowling) herself has been tight lips about the main character. "Am I going to finish Harry off? I cannot possibly tell you that, I'm sorry", said the famous British authoress.

But there are definitely clues of what is going to happen.

On one side, many hope that because Harry has already gone through so much, Jo couldn�t possibly be evil enough to kill him off. Or at least, not until he kills off Voldemort. After all, no matter what, the story is a battle of Good against Evil, and in that, good must always prevail. But, this does not mean that the hero cannot go down with the villain.

And while the rabid shippers may be hoping desperately for a happily-ever-after ending with Voldemort vanquished, Harry and (fill in the blank here) getting together, et cetera, but that isn�t necessarily how things will turn out. After all, the thing we love most about Jo is her plot twists.

�A price has to be paid. We are dealing with pure evil here.� Jo said in one of her much sought-after interviews, �They don't target extras, do they? They go for the main characters. . . well, I do.�

J.K. Rowling, of course, killed off both Sirius and Dumbledore because this genre of writing calls for the protagonist to have to rely on himself only. Before his death, Dumbledore was Harry�s main protector. For example, just when Voldemort was about to finish Harry off in Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore arrived and saved the day. Now that he and Sirius are both dead, Harry will have to face the evil alone. Whether or not he will have the protection of his parents, like in Goblet of Fire, we do not know, but at least all tangible, physical support has been torn from him. These are obviously made to prepare Harry for the last battle, the final showdown, where Harry�s fate will be decided.

Unlike the other six books, the seventh books will not have the same format of school, investigation and battle. If HBP (Half-Blood Prince) was accurate, then Harry will not be going back to Hogwarts at all. It will be all-out war against Voldemort. Jo already warned her fans that two main characters would die in Book seven. But the question is: will Harry be one of them?

Not only obsessed fans such as myself are hoping for Harry to live, author Stephen King and John Irving are crossing their fingers for him too. They both pleaded to JK Rowling to let Harry live in a charity reading event in New York this summer.

I take some comfort that either way teenagers will get the romantic ending that they are looking for. To be willing to die for someone is the highest form of love. From a writer�s perspective, that Harry sacrifices himself for loved ones in the final showdown with Voldemort is simply more compelling story. Rowling obviously writes for a higher-thinking audience than 6-year-olds reading fairy tales where there is always a happily ending. Therefore, we must accept the fact that there will be death, there will be angst, and perhaps even Harry the invincible will die as well.

Only time will tell.

chenchuan, I totally meant that as "here at my house" lol I would never make a broader claim than that!

I will read the rest of that post when i finish stitching up Snape's outfit but I wanted to clarify.

And, sure, I'll post an update when I finish him up!

Twelve hours, 30 minutes and counting.... Yes, we are obsessed!

Both of my DDs have seen all the movies to date, but haven't finished the books. I wish they had been a little older when HP first came out. I read the first three books to them when they were three and five. When she was seven, DD#1 read the books on her own, but stopped about midway through the fifth book. Also at age seven, DD#2 listened to the books on CD, but stopped at about the same place in the fifth book. I'm not sure if the series got too dark for them at that point, or if they got bogged down with the length of the fifth book.

DH and I are going to see the movie, and then we'll decide if the girls can see it in the theatre or if they need to wait for the DVD. I can't wait! We're not going to the midnight showing (too hard to get a sitter), but we're going first thing Friday morning.

MWM,

It is kind of dark but my DDs (9 and 7, DD7 finished before she was 7 and her birthday cake was of course HP theme) enjoyed them. They did not read it initially. I had all the books lying around in the house and after 2 weeks without having another new book, they tried a few chapters and got hooked. I let them watched DVDs only after reading the books (they like the books better) and they did not think the skulls talking on the bus or anything else is scary.

They are celebrating HP week by watching all DVDs again and rereading HP books for the 3rd time.

I just had to chime in - we were recently on vacation in England, and for part of the trip we stayed in a hotel with a view of Trafalgar Square, in London. We left the morning of the big red carpet event that led up to the world premier in Leicester Square. We just missed being able to see all the stars of HP from our window - we did get pics of the red carpet, though, which was laid out early in the day LOL

I finished my Snape doll His pix are in the Character Gallery on my website if you'd like to see http://www.enchantedwhimsies.com/

Antsypants--he's wonderful! I enjoyed looking at your other work as well. Thanks for sharing!

I cannot wait to go see this (delays due to shows all around us being sold out for first two weeks already AND sick baba )

BUT I have to say - I was wondering when I could start reading the HP books to DS(4)... how would you be able to tell if your child is ready for this? I cannot wait to share it with him...

AP - that Snape doll is phenomenal! How long did it take you to make him? He really is a collector's dream

Thanks Taminy

Madoosa, thank you I usually keep better track of the time but this was an unusual case. I sculpted the head, arms and legs right before we packed up to move then I made the body and dressed him this month (a year later!). I spent quite a bit of time working on the likeness. I normally spend 10-20 hrs on my usual figures. I can safely say this took longer! It was a labor of love though. The other night I was working on his robes while watching The Half Blood Prince and just having such a good time. He's getting a very positive response all around which is really nice too.

As far as readiness for the books, hmmm. I think it's individual. DS started reading them at 5 but lost interest. He had a very high reading level but was not into fantasy or any fiction really at that age and preferred reading books about the weather and science. He didn't go back to HP until he was 10. He got gotten into reading fiction series at that point (had read the Mysterious Benedict Society, Series of Unfortunate Events, Chronicles of Narnia, Crispin, Lord of the Rings trilogy, etc - lots of fantasy!) and at that point he tore through the entire HP series and loved it.

Love the Snape doll!

After watching the movie, DH and I decided that DD10 needs to wait until it's out on video. She does not do well with death, and we want to be able to pause it and take a break as she needs to.

I totally get that. DS10 read the books and doesn't seem to have probs with that but ME, oh forget it! if i just think about the end of it all I get weepy and I KNOW seeing it on screen is going to be rough!

oh, and thanks

I cried toward the end of the movie. Not as much as I did reading the book, but I still had tears streaming down my face. Luckily I came prepared with tissues.

it's so cool! I am sure that if you made a full collection of HP character dolls you'd be swamped with orders! (pick me pick me! lol)... but yeah Aiden is BIG into magic and mystery now - we are reading the magic faraway tree series now (not sure if this is well known in the US or not). I think I will wait a bit longer still - just to be safe.