Word: hagrid
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Potter peeves - including Peeves the poltergeist, who spends his afterlife being eternally unfunny - and I'll never get a better chance to air them. I've always found the Accio charm to be ridiculously useful, to the point where it's implausible even by magical standards - "Accio Hagrid" indeed! The house-elves are strangely overpowered too: they can, for example, apparate in and out of Hogwarts, a fact that Rowling notes but doesn't really explain. With Dobby freed from his servitude to wizardkind, one wonders why he isn't running the planet...
...wait for it--a certain Half-Blood Prince. Meanwhile, Dumbledore and Harry, with the help of that always handy expository aid the Pensieve, are poring over the details of Voldemort's early backstory for clues to his intentions. Oh, and somebody's trying to kill Hogwarts students. As Hagrid puts it, with the barest trace of a wink, "Chamber o' Secrets all over again...
...kids to read, parents and teachers appreciate how Rowling doesn't pander or patronize. "Generally adults in children's literature are horrible or incompetent," observes Debbie Mitchell of the Magic Tree Book Store in Oak Park, Ill., while Rowling shows adults being wise and fair and, in the gamekeeper Hagrid, the best friend imaginable. Her tone can also grow dark and Grimm in ways that many contemporary children's fantasies don't. "Children's psyches are a lot more sophisticated than we give them credit for," says Suzanne Ferleger, a child therapist in Encino, Calif. "Adults would like to think...
...rules and doesn't tell grownups things it would plainly be in his interest to reveal. He gets into trouble. ("If he didn't, you wouldn't have all those pages to read," notes Zack Ferleger, 12, of Encino, Calif.) Hermione may be smart, but she can be rigid; Hagrid is loving, but to a fault when it comes to horribly scary beasts. Ron is loyal but insecure. Rowling loves her characters and invites readers to love them, not just despite their flaws but because of them. Since one's flaws loom large in adolescence, that is quite a healing...
...example of the pitch-perfect casting and superbly restrained performances delivered by the supporting cast, which is a cavalcade of British acting luminaries. Dame Maggie Smith returns as the cantankerous yet kindly Professor McGonagall, while Robbie Coltrane provides a comic foil as the lovably gruff gamekeeper Hagrid. Simultaneously though, moments of hair-raising creepiness are offset by the considerable humor throughout, provided largely by Kenneth Branagh’s portrayal of new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Gilderoy Lockhart. Branagh positively revels in Lockhart’s self-obsessed dandy dress and mannerisms, a perfectly effected over...