HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE IS DARK IN AND OUT
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince describes a magical world of Harry, Ron and Hermione in terror of Death Eater attacks and kidnappings (among many others, Ollivander the wandmaker has disappeared), and the Imperius curse (under it a 9-year old tries to kill his grandparents). The Ministry of Magic is flailing ineffectively, jailing for little cause, and making dire warnings while assuring they are in control (sound familiar?). Dementors are breeding. Werewolves are “coming out”. Headmaster Dumbledore’s incurably cursed hand and two students nearly killed by cursed objects that got by security prove that Hogwarts is not safe.
Author J.K. Rowling wrote Book 6 better than Book 5, however, if your child’s eyes are glazing reading chapter 1, I suggest skipping to chapter 2 where the mother of a young dark wizard runs to the home of a Hogwarts teacher to beg a promise that the reader will search for loopholes. Chapter 1 is just the Minister of Magic telling the British Prime Minister that blah, blah, blah, the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, his Death Eater followers, happiness-sucking dementors and other deadly monsters are loose.
With such turmoil in the background, Harry still has school. As the new Gryffindor Quidditch team captain he runs tryouts, deals with squabbling teammates and tries to avoid detention on game day. His Auror career track curriculum is difficult while dodging love potions from his new gaggle of groupies.
And deciphering clues. What is his school enemy Draco Malfoy up to? Is he just bragging to Pansy about serving the Dark Lord or are his threats to a shopkeeper, and disappearances from the Marauder’s Map significant? The new teacher — returning from retirement actually — Professor Slughorn has a custom of drawing successful and connected students into his circle. Who has he included in the past and did he give too much career advice? The replacement of the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is worrisome, but it does allow an old potions book with handwritten notes written in the margins to fall into Harry’s hands. Who is the author, this Half-Blood Prince, so focused and brilliant at refining spells and potions? And how does Dumbledore know he can trust Snape whom he sent to get cozy with the Voldemort gang by pretending to spy on Hogwarts for them?
Most fascinating are Dumbledore’s travels with Harry into the Pensieve memory bowl to witness memories of Tom Riddle: his mother’s teenage life as an inbred/pureblood daughter of an abusive Wizard-trash father, his grim life as a cruel orphan, and his gradual transformation into Lord Voldemort.
A word of warning to parents: though Rowling’s characters have used unspecified swear words and finger gestures before, in this book two teenagers “thrash like a pair of eels” on the common room couch, and on page 365 a rough character uses the 4 letter “S” word for a promiscuous woman.
The death at the end is hard to take, but not a total shock, and there are others whose deaths would cause us more grief. There are also a few clues that strung together, in the style of a grand conspiracy theory, could suggest it is not all it seems.
Many favorite characters: Dobby & Kreacher, Hagrid & Grawp, Neville (is he the boy of the prophecy?), and the Dursleys are given frustratingly short scenes. We hope Rowling uses them when she ties up the many tangled ends in Harry Potter Book 7.
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