And the Deathly Hallows

All good things must come to an end.  And so it is with my annual summer re-read of the Harry Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows contains all of the elements of a perfect ending.  There's adventure, plot lines come together, lingering questions are answered, and most importantly you get a sense of what happens to all the characters.  The Deathly Hallows is not my favorite book in the series but it does have an incredibly satisfying ending.  I know what happens to all the characters, but their lives are not spelled out for me.  I still get to wonder about them.
Potter series.

And since J.K. is such a great author and friend to her fans she continues to release little tidbits of knowledge so you never have to feel like it's really over.

Ok we are now into spoiler territory, you know what to do.

I find it interesting that the symbol of the deathly hallows has become so popular.  I love the tension of hallows versus horcruxes.  I think that was masterfully done, but I don't love that the deathly hallows symbol has overtaken the whole series.  There is no denying its important but to me the graphic of the glasses and scar is a much better representation of the series as a whole.  What do you think? When you look at these images which one says, "Harry Potter." And you can't say both.

I think these books are so endearing for me because they are the best kind of children's or young adult books. They are not for one subset of the population, they are for everyone.  And who better to describe that best kind of book then J.K. Rowling herself. Here is an excerpt from a speech she made accepting the Hans Christian Anderson Award.

“Those who write for children, or at least those who write best for children, are not child-like or immature, but they do remember with sometimes painful intensity both what it was to be small and confused and how wonderful was that fierce joy in the moment that can become so elusive in later life. Any book that is written down to children or with one nervous sideways eye on the author’s fellow adults or in the belief that this is the kind of thing that ‘they like’ cannot work and will not last. Children are not 'they.' They are us. And this is why writing that succeeds with children often succeeds just as well with adults—not because the latter are infantile or regressive, but because the true dilemmas of childhood are the dilemmas of the whole of life: those of belonging and betrayal, the power of the group and the courage it takes to be an individual, of love and loss, and learning what it is to be a human being, let alone a good, brave, or honest one.”

Harry Potter...that's kids stuff.  

PS I love this particular quote because it is why I named my blog "that's kids stuff."  It's why I end every post with that tagline and it's what I mean when I say, "that's kids stuff."