Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Chapters 21-22

Mark True statements with a “T” and False statements with an “F.” Write your thoughts about the discussion points in the comment boxes below! Jump right in…

1. _____ At the Gryffindor party celebrating Harry’s fun with the Hungarian Horntail, Harry opens the Golden Egg to learn the clue he needs to understand for the second task. There are galleons galore and music inside but no clue.

2. _____ Fred and George tell Hermione how to get into the Hogwarts kitchens so she can help the house-elves prepare more food for the party. She finds Dobby and Winky there – and runs to get Harry and Ron. [Read more…]

The first part of Ms. Rowling’s interview at The Leaky Cauldron is online already but I will wait to comment until the transcript goes up at TLC or Madame Pince’s Potter Pages. If you have iTunes on your computer and have listened to the show, please offer your thoughts here. The posted Table of Contents for the “landmark show” is:

-The morals of Beedle the Bard
-Who was right about Horcri?
-Who made the first Horcrux?
-Creating a Horcrux vs. splitting the atom
-Will Jo tell us how to create a Horcrux? [Read more…]

Prof. Edmund Kern, History Department Chair at Lawrence University (my wife’s alma mater) and author of ‘The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us About Moral Choices’ (Prometheus, 2003), sent me a note this morning about the crying baby that cannot be helped in Harry’s NDE/after-life experience at King’s Cross. With his permission, I post it here for your comments and correction. Thank you, Prof. Kern!

Hi John,

I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but JKR appears to have confirmed my reading of Voldemort’s soul in the “King’s Cross” chapter that you so kindly posted on HogPro. It’s in the FAQ section of her site: [Read more…]

I know next-to-nothing about stage drama or film artistry but I do know that I enjoy a good play or movie. Productions of two works by authors that influenced Ms. Rowling mightily, Dorothy Sayers and C. S. Lewis, are making news — and one is “running” now on your computer via the Internet!

The Man Born to Be King is being presented in twelve parts on BBC7 which you can listen to via the Internet. Anyone savvy enough to explain how to do so in real time (vs GMT) please explain in the comment boxes. [Thank you, Robert Trexler, for this link!]

Trusty Johnny at Sword of Gryffindor supplies not only with a link to the just released Prince Caspian movie trailer from Disney/Walden Media, but also two or three of Ms. Rowling’s interview comments about her admiration for Lewis and especially his Narnia work.

Please share below what you think of the BBC production of King and the Walden Caspian trailer.

I’m just back from a talk to Church of the Mediator parishioners here in Allentown on a topic near and dear to me — and good news was waiting at home. Tyndale House, the publishers of Looking for God in Harry Potter, has agreed to contract terms for the updating of that book and to give it a new title.

You want to know the new title? [Read more…]