Amy

I am continuing to find that the Harry Potter works are extremely well written and enjoyable stories, but I am not yet finding reason to be as utterly obsessed with them as much of the rest of the world seems to be. The lasting thought at the end of this book for me was, all of this could have been avoided if you had just told a trusted adult when strange things started happening. This was particularly true for me when Dumbledore directly asked Harry if he had anything to tell him, and Harry just said no. Tell Dumbledore! I realize this is the trope in a lot of children's and young adult books, and there wouldn't have been a book without it, but I personally find that frustrating. I also really found the unpleasantness in the book to be unpleasant, such as the overall existence of the Dursley family and Professor Lockhart. My favorite aspects are the friendship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione and particularly the humor that comes through Ron.

As I continue my introductory journey through Harry Potter, I continue to be appreciative of the compelling writing and excellent characters. It is also very revealing to me of what interests me most in books, which is character development and relationships, much more than plot, so I am not very excited by the constant peril of the books. I also find, so far at least, that the plots follow a pretty consistent formula: Harry's miserable summer with the Dursleys, adventures in Daigon Alley, adventures getting to Hogwarts, introduction to this year's classes, struggles with teachers, a few Quidditch matches, and then DANGER, with a wink-wink from Dumbledore, who always seems to actually know what's going on but leaves it to Harry and his friends to take care of it.

On that note, I think it's interesting to examine Dumbledore from the perspective of an educator. As an adult reading these books, it has sort of bothered me that Dumbledore leaves his students to take on these potentially deadly situations, especially when it seems like he knows what's going on. But when I think about it more, I know that as an educator myself, I'm often trying to give my students the space to try things out and learn for themselves without my always stepping in to fix things. That's a perspective I want to keep in mind as I continue with the series.

This was very clearly written as a study book for teen girls, and I tried to keep a lens on of viewing the book as whether I would want to use this group with a girls' small group. I think there are some great anecdotes and overall good points made, but I just didn't quite vibe with the style.

This is a tricky book to review. Sandra Uwiringiyimana's story is difficult and important. I wasn't familiar with the Gatumba massacre before, so this definitely did the job of bringing awareness to the story. And as difficult as it was to read, the beginning part of the book including the massacre and the aftermath was descriptive and really takes the reader there. However, a lot of the rest of the book seemed to be a case of telling rather than showing. Uwiringiyimana rushes through a lot of the ups and downs of her life in the U.S. in the second half of the book.

I love the adventures of the Dawn Treader. The sea voyage is a great structure for new encounters at each island. And it ultimately builds to some really lovely faith imagery and imagination. Definitely one of my favorites of the Narnia series.