Mar 17, 2001 01:52 AM
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As her hero matures, J. K. Rowling's' style matures along with him. Each book is better than the one that preceded it--and that's saying something, because they were super from the get-go. The newest, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is something few children's books today can proclaim--it is literature.
This fourth book in the Harry Potter... series is meant for older kids, rather than the second-to-fourth graders who were attracted to the earlier books. There are situations and people here who might scare little kids.
Rowling's narrative is stronger than in the previous books; with so many creatures, improved narrative comes in handy. We have enough information for a perfect image of Blast-Ended Skrewts, the Dark Mark, and Mad-Eye Moody's magical eye, among dozens of oddities throughout the book.
The characters have aged too. The three main characters, Harry, Hermoine, and Ron, are growing up. No longer the nervous young kids at Hogwart's, they're teenagers having teenaged angst all over the place. Is there a surprise romance? Yeah, but it ain't as big a deal as all the rumors predicted. The kids learn the exhausting and sad art of dating--how guys choose girls, how girls choose guys, and how miserable a prom can be when you're stuck with someone you're not interested in.
The kids learn how it feels to be on bad terms with your bestest buddy, too. They learn how jealousy and pride can screw up a solid relationship--and how to put it back together. More important than anything else, they learn how to depend on one another completely, and how good it feels to be able to do that.
The other characters have developed into what you always knew they'd be, except Professor Snape. Formerly a Death Eater, he's now a hero who doesn't act very nice but will apparently risk everything to do the right thing next go-round. Hagrid, Professor McGonagall, Moaning Myrtle, and the other returning characters are familiar to us, though something's niggling at my mind to make me wonder about Headmaster Dumbledore.
I have only one serious complaint: my favorite characters, Malfoy pere et fils have become smaller and stupider than they used to be. Their smiling, well-bred evil is weak-chinned now. Draco as a terrified white ferret rather wimps him out; his personality isn't strong enough in ...the Goblet of Fire to allow him to be the sly wicked boy I fell in love with.
There's a snippy humor threading its way through this book. It's meant for older kids and adults; younger children won't get it. Hermoine's bitchy, ''What a twitchy little ferret,'' when speaking to Draco Malfoyle and the adolescent sarcasm of Ron and Harry are funny and enjoyable reading; no need for everything to be so serious all the time.
Though each book in the Harry Potter... series leads nicely into the next, ...the Goblet of Fire is the first that flatly demands a follow-up. Lord Voldemort has another body, a real one of his own, and it's clear there's going to be a war among the witching community of humongous proportions. Will there be a Quidditch championship next year? Will Ron and Hermoine stop dancing around their growing interest in one another? With handsome HufflePuff leader Cedric Diggory gone, will Harry finally get a chance at pretty Cho Chang? These questions and many others are left hanging, so you know there's got to be another Harry Potter book on its magical way. I don't know when book number five's coming out, but I'm counting the days.
I must question one thing that seems to have amused other reviewers: Hermoine's determination to ''free'' the house-elves. Everyone else seems to think it's silly of her--why free those who don't understand or care about being free? Why free slaves who are happy being slaves? Why make them take freedom and payment for their work if they don't know anything but slavery?
....Come on, people--the same could have been--and was--said about blacks in America before the Civil War! Just because slaves don't know how to be anything but slaves doesn't mean the stronger force should take advantage of them. I'm confused by everyone's amusement on this point and equally confused as to why Rowling made this a matter of comic relief.
At the End of the Day: If you've read the previous three Harry Potter... books, of course you must have this one. If you haven't, you're behind; get to it!
