Finally . . . We've Finished Reading 'The Half-Blood Prince.' Now Onto 'Deathly Hallows.'

*Warning -- If you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, don't read any more of this post unless you want the book's ending spoiled for you.*

It has taken The Spouse and I more than a year to read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince aloud to The Youngest Boy (who, by the way, gave me special permission to write about him in this post). We finally finished the 652-page opus last night all the way to its sad and dreary conclusion. Harry Potter, the boy whose parents were killed when he was just a baby (his mother while putting her body in front of his), had to watch as his mentor, his fierce protector, was killed. It was only a little more than a year after his godfather, who he was just getting to know, was also murdered in front of his eyes.

Dumbledore's funeral, the lump in Harry's throat, that dread that was weighing on the boy's chest as he broke up with Ginny in order to protect her and his realization that he was embarking on a quest that could very well lead to his own death, all of it was so very bleak. Black hole kind of bleak.

The Youngest Boy was, as one might well imagine, quite melancholy and surprisingly muted when I asked him what he thought about how the book ended. When I first read it, not having known ahead of time what happened to Dumbledore, I shed tears, mostly for Harry who had already suffered so many losses and was really truly alone, with the exception of his teenage besties, Ron and Hermione.

I'm curious as to how The Youngest Boy will react when he sees the film's version of this tale (the weakest of all the Potter films) and sees Dumbledore die. (The Girl fled the movie theater when that happened, so tearful was she. It broke my heart.) Watching that movie is on our "To Do" list for the school vacation week.

As we prepare to embark upon the journey of the 784 pages that constitute Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I'm likewise wondering how The Youngest Boy will perceive the darkness that saturates this final book, the long periods of despair and loneliness our fearless trio faces as they attempt to locate and destroy the remaining Horcruxes before Harry attempts to slay Voldemort.

For those of you who are keeping track at home -- or keeping tabs on my Harry Potter: Reading Out Loud Project page -- between The Spouse and I, we've read 3,395 pages of this series aloud to The Youngest Boy. Wonder if it'll take us another year to tackle the last installment.

Image credits: Amazon.

16,000 Pages

When the summer began, the Spouse and I issued a challenge to the Picket Fence Post kids: Set your own reading goal and if you reach it, you’ll get a (reasonable) reward of your choosing.

The Girl picked the ambitious goal of reading 10,000 pages. If my resident Rory Gilmore made it, she asked that she be taken to Legal Sea Foods to lunch by one of her parents. No brothers allowed, please.

The Eldest Boy -- who was busy “studying” for his fantasy football team draft and playing on his drum set throughout the summer – set a goal of 5,000 pages. His request if he achieved the goal: “Financial help” from The Spouse and I to purchase a particular cymbal for his drum set for which he’d been saving up.

As for The Youngest Boy, my resident reluctant reader -- with whom The Spouse and I are still reading aloud the Harry Potter series (we’re roughly mid-way through book six) -- he selected a somewhat more modest goal: 1,000 pages and asked to be taken to play laser tag if he reached it.

The Girl reached her goal weeks ago, no sweat. She's always reading, so I never worried she'd fall short. On Tuesday I paid up and we enjoyed a lively lunch together at Legal Sea Foods (wonderful lobster salad for me, grilled scallops for her, plus she got Boston creme pie for dessert). No brothers.

Things weren't as easy for The Eldest Boy who'd put off his reading. As the first day of school grew closer, he realized he was in danger of not making it to 5,000 pages. For the past week, he holed himself up in his room voraciously reading so he’d be eligible to get his reward. There was one night last week when I asked him if he wanted to watch an episode of The Mentalist with me – that’s “our” thing together – and he said he absolutely couldn’t which was surprising because he rarely passes up a chance to watch TV. “Mom, if I don’t keep reading I’ll never make it,” he said. But he did make it and with his reward, his birthday money and money he'd saved, he got his cymbal.

The Youngest Boy thought he’d achieved his 1,000 pages a few weeks ago, until The Spouse took a look at his reading list and told the kid he needed to recalculate as he hadn't quite made it yet. The 10-year-old hustled and reached his goal at the end of last week. Now he’s waiting for his laser tag (to which I'm hoping The Spouse takes him).

The reading incentive worked so well, that I'm thinking we should do another round of it, maybe every four months so the goals would seem reasonable. For the 10-year-old who’d rather play video games, the more we can get him to read, the better.

The Harry Potter Reading Out Loud Project

I've frequently mentioned on this blog -- as well as on my parenting blog that preceded this -- that The Spouse and I had been engaged in a multi-year effort to read the entire Harry Potter series aloud to our youngest son, currently age 9.

We've been at this since 2009 and have, to date, read 2,750 pages of the seven-book series to him. Oftentimes his elder siblings join us as they're fond of listening to the tale that they've likely memorized by now because they've read the books so many times that I've lost count.

Just this week we finally finished the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (my favorite of the series) and, as soon as I said, "The End," The Youngest Boy clamored for us to immediately start the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, despite the fact that it was past his bedtime. We acquiesced because, hey, he was asking to read a book. At least he wasn't asking for TV or video games.

Given that it has taken us what feels like forever to read this series -- we try to read it a couple times a week, but don't always get a chance to do that, particularly when youth sports and school stuff is pressing on our time -- I decided to chronicle the back end of our project with a new blog page called, cleverly enough, the Harry Potter Reading Out Loud Project. When we finish our reading sessions, I'll update what page of the book we're on and what's happening so you can follow along with your favorite Potter moments.

Image credit: Amazon.com.

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' Trailer Out, Looks Bleak

*Cross-posted from Notes from the Asylum*

If you’ve got Harry Potter fans in your house, mark down November 19 as the date for the release of the second-to-last film in the saga: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.

I’m planning on taking my twin 12-year-olds to see it on opening weekend as this series is absolutely beloved in the Picket Fence Post house. My twins have read and re-read and analyzed the entire seven-book series countless times. The Picket Fence Post kids have dressed up for Halloween as various Hogwarts students for years. (The Eldest Boy looked eerily like Harry Potter the one year he was The Boy Who Lived for Halloween.)

The Spouse and I have read the series ourselves (me twice), and we, as a family, have been reading it aloud to our 9-year-old. (We’re a third of the way through the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.) I must admit, I’m really enjoying this reading-the-book-aloud project.

However when I watched the newly-released trailer for Part 1 of Deathly Hallows, it was rather bleak and sad, as I see Harry as one of the more tragic characters in children’s literature and the end of the sixth book/movie, literally made me cry. (No one had yet spoiled the ending for me.)

The Spouse and I went to see The Town this past weekend (which I recommend for a thoroughly entertaining two hours) and he saw a poster promoting Deathly Hallows and said it was upsetting to see the image of Hogwarts, on fire, under the heading, “It All Ends Here.” *sniff*



Will you be taking your resident Potter fans to see the Deathly Hallows?
Image credit: Warner Brothers.