Books |
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
J.K. Rowling
By
Published: Jan 01, 2005
Category:
Fiction
When I met Eric Stirpe, he was 10 years old and I was….considerably older. But I listened with great interest as Eric talked about a book he’d just read: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone." I was then editorial Director of America Online, a vague title that seemed to allow me to make special features whenever I wanted, and because Eric had been so excited, I decided to create a feature about Harry Potter.
So I did. I waited for kids to show up and get as excited as Eric had been. But nobody came. It turned out Eric was like the first kid in America to twig to Harry. Six months later, we relaunched the Harry Potter special. By then, everyone knew.
When J.K. Rowling agreed to do a live AOL chat, my first idea was that a kid should conduct the interview. My second idea was to ask Eric. He did the interview from his home in Virginia, firing questions by Instant Message as I sat with J.K. Rowling in New York. I can report that, by the fifth or sixth question, she looked like a bobblehead — Eric’s questions were so smart that she couldn’t answer most of them without giving away information from books she hadn’t yet written!
Eric is now 17. He still knows more about Harry Potter than any young reader I know, so I asked him if he would review the latest novel. Bookstores put it on sale at midnight; by late the next afternoon, Eric had finished its 700 pages. A few hours later, I had this review…..
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
J.K. Rowling
Well, ladies and gentlemen, J.K. Rowling has done it again. Her latest foray into the land of magic and Muggles is, in fact, one of the best of the series. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" has taken everything successful from the past books, trimmed off some of the fat, and thrown in some new aspects that, simply put, just work.
One complaint of "Order of the Phoenix" was the overabundance of Harry’s teen angst, with Harry chewing out Ron and Hermione at every free moment, and often screaming the phrase
