The best part of being a Potter Pundit, besides the fun I have with Travis and James on PotterCast, is meeting readers and talking with them before and after lectures. The second best part? Conversations here and in private correspondence. My books always include my email address — that’s ‘john at HogwartsProfessor dot com’ — and an invitation for feedback, the coveted comments and corrections. I have met many of my best friends in Harry Potter fandom only because they chose to accept that invitation to share their thoughts.

The mailbag feature here at HogwartsProfessor, too, owes its existence and frequent appearances to questions I receive by email. Today’s entry is about the nature of death and just what kind of being the paintings at Hogwarts really are. I received this note from an adult reader new to the series and to serious thinking about the Hogwarts Saga:

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I’m often asked what I would ask Ms. Rowling if I ever met here. Today I think I would ask if H. E. Todd had visited her primary school and read a ‘Bobby Brewster’ story to her.

I learned in September that there was a very popular UK children’s book series published in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s about a boy named Bobby Brewster in which everyday objects talked to the main character much as, say, mirrors and portraits talk in the Wizarding World. One of the short story collections in this series, Bobby Brewster, Detective, has a title in it, ‘Follow that Spider,’ which reminded me of Hagrid’s clue for Chamber of Secrets‘ two boy detectives, spoken as he is hauled off to Azkaban, about following spiders. I ordered the out-of-print title from a UK bookseller.

The author, H. E. Todd, and Bobby Brewster are not in Phil Nel’s book on Harry Potter and children’s literature and Library Lisa at Accio Quotes assures me it isn’t in Rowling interview canon. Reading this remarkable set of recollections of the influence this inspiring author and story-teller had via his visiting schools and reading his stories to children made me wonder if the young Miss Rowling didn’t have such an experience. [Read more…]

We’ve had a great time here discussing Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games books! Louise, Elizabeth, and I at our last Hogwarts Professor faculty ‘sit down’ and tea decided, consequently, to continue our ‘new book looks’ with a title just released or published in the last year alternating with a classic book with some tie-in.

Our first choice is Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy, the third book of which series will be published on 28 September. It’s a dark, violent dystopian piece and if you haven’t read the first two, you’ve got until the 28th to get up to speed. We’ll be posting ten threads again on the day after Monsters of Men‘s publication, the day of publication if we can manage a midnight-release purchase or review copy, and the week prior I hope to put up some speculative notes. Get reading, All-Pros, if you want to join in that conversation!

On 15 October, we’ll start our classics reading with Jane Eyre and on 1 November, as a fun follow-up, The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde’s wonderful ‘Thursday Next’ mystery novel that take place inside Jane Eyre (if you’ve got time, you might try to squeeze in Martin Chuzzlewit, too, before entering The Eyre Affair).

And we’ll be continuing our conversations about Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games! Stay tuned for some great reading and even better discussions about books we love, how they work, and why we love them.