Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: THE FINAL CHAPTER

Once again I'm butting in to Arianna's review in purple. Much like our previous review.

I can't believe it's over! Over! It's the end of an era! The end of a generation's fantastical focus and an industry's livelihood. Many of us grew up with Harry, and now both books and movies have reached their dramatic ends. Sob. Loud weeping. I thought the movie was pretty good, but as usual thought that if you hadn't read the books it must have been awfully confusing. I was doing a lot of filling in the holes as the movie went along.

I watched a couple of the earlier movies with my family before I went to see the final epic chapter with Alana and Anna. Harry, Ron, Hermione and company were so tiny! SO TINY AND WEE! Every time a new character game on screen I would squeal over how little they once were. Sigh. How time flies. And now Daniel Radcliffe is on Broadway taking off his clothes and singing and dancing about woodchucks and Emma Watson is a model and getting bullied at Brown and Rupert Grint is being in independent movies and Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville, turned out to be a total fox. Stone cold fox. Amazing.

To the movie! As usual, lots of spoilers ahead!

News: Harry Potter Edition

MTV had a contest to find the most loved Harry Potter character.  Guess who wins?

A slide show of all that Harry Potter has given to pop culture.

Watch the stars of Harry Potter try and talk American, part two.  Tom Felton is adorable.

Check out the no-longer-live feed from the Harry Potter premier in Trafalgar Square.

Emma Watson's speech at the Harry Potter premier.  Awwww.

Wait, what?  Didn't J.K Rowling swear she wasn't writing any more Harry Potter books?

Loyalty!  Your thing is loyalty!  Poor Hufflepuffs.

Harry Potter the video game.   Harry Potter the clothing line.  It's taking over everything!

Behind-the-scene look at the Gringotts break-in.  I loved seeing all the goblins getting their makeup done!

And something for the adult readers: Harry Potter themed drinks! The Neville Longbottom sounds fantastic.

Did you know Harry Potter 7 Part 2 is coming out this Friday?

Or do you live in a hole? We Wandering Librarians have been waiting for this movie for quite some time and with quite some anticipation (I'm almost as excited for this movie as I am for the Hobbit to come out). So of course we're going, though not on opening night. I'm visiting family and Jamie is in Paris. So if you haven't seen it by the 19th, that's when our review will be coming out.

Just to heighten the excitement, I thought that I'd share this article from MN public radio. Harry Potter's music has become pretty iconic, so we should be expecting good things.

Pottermore...

It's finally been revealed what J.K. Rowling's new website is all about. The first 1000 people to sign up get a first chance peak at the end of July and it will be opened up for the rest of the world in Oct. I guess she's going to be self-publishing and selling the series online as e-books and the website will also be a cross between a social network and an interactive game. Huh. Obviously I'll be checking it out. I hope you will to. Here's an article to find out some more information.

Because Harry Potter News Should Never Die...

Anyone hear about the new website that J.K. Rowling has posted? It hasn't been launched yet, but there's rumors floating about and there's some feedback from a couple of fan websites who got a preview. What could it be? I have to admit that I'm hoping it'll be something of a summary of what happened to all the characters after book seven. That would be nice.

P.S. I got this image from Harry Potter's Place. I think this is a fantastic pic and couldn't post it without letting you all know.

New Harry Potter Trailer

You all know that we loved the first part of the seventh movie (except for a few parts that made us giggle). The trailer for the last part is finally out. It looks exciting! Can't wait until July 15.

Accio Books!

I'm a little late (as in almost missed it) with this but there's a non-profit I'd like to give a endorsement to. You might remember back in December Arianna and I went to Yule Ball where we were introduced to The Harry Potter Alliance which fights real evil in the world. It's pretty awesome. Anyways, during March they're having a book drive to create an entire library for Bedford-Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School in Brooklyn. It's only going on through March, so I would hope anyone who reads this would at the very least go and check out the webpage for 'Accio Books,' which let's you know more about what this organization is doing to improve the world around us.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

Or, Get a Plan, Harry Potter.

Anna, Alana and I sallied forth to see the latest and second to last installment of Harry Potter. For the most part, I was fine with this one. I wasn't left with the WTF feeling I had after The Half-Blood Prince. There was still plenty for me to be all shirty about, of course, but really it still comes down to what I've thought about all of them: If you haven't read the books, you're probably kind of confused. Now, it's probably safe to assume that most people have read the books (although I know people who have never read the books and are very fond of the movies) so they can do a fair bit of filling in the holes. And there are plenty of holes.
Hello, it's Anna. I'm going to be adding a few thoughts, which will be in purple (obviously).

P.S. Arianna doesn't warn you but there are a crap ton spoilers here, so now you are warned. Proceed.

News

The OED is trying to save little used words. Head on over and adopt one. Mine is 'woundikins,' which means 'mild profanity.' Appropriate.

Who knew that Daniel Radcliffe loves Tom Lehrer, like I love Tom Lehrer. The secret and deeply hidden science/music nerd in me loves this.

Speaking of good old Danny, I'm not sure if you've heard of a little franchise called Harry Potter? Word on the street is that the movie is coming out in exactly one week.

AGTO Day Six: The Seminar

Friday was the Harry Potter day, but we actually spent almost an hour discussing an extra reading Maria had given us. It's called "The Problem of Susan," and it's from a short story collection by Neil Gaiman. Maria wasn't sure what the book was called, and neither am I. If you do, let me know. So this was a really weird story. Very sexual, and it's not totally clear what's going on and, more importantly, why. Personally, I'd read it, thought, "Huh, that was weird," and moved on. Some people were really stuck on it though, and it was quite the interesting discussion trying to figure out what on Earth was going on in the story, and whose dreams were who, and what was the whole Mary Poppins thing about? I can't really talk much about it in a way that will make sense unless you've read the weirdness, so if you have, or do, let me know and let's talk. Because man, that was weird. What was he trying to say about C. S. Lewis?

AGTO Day Two: The Seminar

On Monday, after a hearty English breakfast, the seminars began. Literature and the Fantastic is being lead by Maria Cecire, a Rhodes Scholar whose doctorate is in connecting classic texts to children's fantasy literature. The seminar will be mostly discussion based, starting with Tolkien and Lewis, then moving to Pullman and then to more contemporary authors like J.K. Rowling and yes, there will be talk of Twilight.

Maria gave us a packet of the facsimile of the original Lewis Carroll manuscript (just the first few pages) which was then called Alice's Adventures Under Ground. It is written in his own hand with his own illustrations. We talked about things that struck us, and how Alice's voice is mature for child, which makes sense since Victorian children were expected to be little adults, but she still acts like a child, not thinking, just dashing ahead. We looked at how Lewis Carroll was playing with words, physics, and twisting everyday school lesson for the amusement of the Liddells, who he was telling the story for.

News

If you're around my age, you have no doubt also dealt with this troubling question: which is better? The Baby-Sitter's Club or Sweet Valley High? BuzzFeed is going with The Baby-Sitter's Club.

For the Percy Jackson fans out there, Adidas has made a Hermes shoe. From Inspiration for Youth Advocates blog.

How Should Schools Handle Cyberbullying? From The New York Times.

Also at war, who's more popular, Harry Potter or Twilight? On Twitter, Harry Potter is winning.

In other Harry Potter news, trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is up! So excited!

In other Twilight news, this kid is awesome. Author Michelle Pan on her book, Why Bella Should Have Dumped Edward. From I Heart Daily.

Transforming Teens Spaces @ ALA Annual Conference. From YPulse.

Students Not Being Encouraged to Use Technology. From the Journal.

News

A review of the new Pretty Little Liars TV series, based on the books by Sara Shepard. From YPulse. In other book-to-TV news, Lisi Harrison's The Clique books will be coming to TV as well.

Michelle Obama is adding summer reading on to her Let's Move initiative. From USA Today.

It's what we've been waiting for for three years! The Harry Potter theme park is open! And it seems like it's not really for the little kids. From The New York Times.