Just delurking to say:

Isn't a tableful of new books awesome?

And:
Since I totally agreed with you about your HP entry, I'm now shaking my head going "huh" about the slamming. Personally, I'd love someone to point out to me the children's book where the main character dies. Aside from bibliotherapy picture books, I cannot think of one where the main character is killed at the end. (I'm even a bit hard pressed to think of that for a YA book.)

For example, Beth, Little Women: Beth is not the main character. Also, in Bridge to Terabithia: Jess is the main character, not Leslie.

Keep blogging!

I've got a really lovely former student (now in her first year of a PhD program in physical anthropology) who was just telling me about how she WEPT last year after staying up all night reading the latest HP! And she is at least 22; the age thing is a bit of a red herring, all of us want there to be a happy (enough) ending! In other words, of course I completely agree with you (and I agree also with your other commenter who suggests that this is a stir-up-conversation move and that JKR has no real intention of letting Harry die at the end of the series); and I wish people would be rather more civil in their personal remarks when they blog! Ah well....

Thanks guys - you know I am basically scarred for life from Old Yeller - I just can't get past the shock that there isn't a miracle cure or something in the end. And I know in real life that people and animals die but that's just not what I expect from my YA literature. Save real life for what happens after the movie ends or the book is finished; let the magic keep us away from all of that for awhile.

Liz I've been trying to think of an instance where the main character dies - Lyra and Will both make it out to the end in the His Dark Materials trilogy and even if you look at the Lord of the Rings series, well all the big guys make it through there as well. And I agree with you on Beth - Jo is the main character there, for sure.

So when did we decide that the main character has to die to get the point across? Is that just a 21st century invention?

I can think of some where the main character passes away, but I don't want to say the titles because I don't want to spoil anyone. ;-)

I hate how angry people on the internet get. It's the anonymity, of course, that allows for them to be so rude. But I just don't understand why people become so enraged. I think our world needs a little more anger management therapy or maybe we should send crop dusters over all major cities to spread some kind of sedative.

A while back, some people slammed the documentary I worked on (10mph.com) on Slashdot. I went in to try and level-headedly answer some of their questions of authenticity of the movie and all, and I was met by all manners of anger, rage, and insults. I am as irritable as the next person when it comes to stuff I thought was crap, but this anger that these people have is unreal sometimes. (And these people haven't even seen the movie and they are still enraged!)

I do think it is hysterical to read the comment in response to your comment on that slammer's blogpost. I think that he/she is perhaps the one that needs to take deep breaths and allow for someone to have differing opinions, eh? Lol. Umm.... hello?

Dear Elisabeth - haven't you just been kicking butt for me over there! ha!

People do get oddly angry about things it seems - I mean argue the point about Harry dying or not but where on earth do they see the info about me to make a leap on my parenting ability? And when I read in the comments how the poster was going on about sheltered childhoods, I really had to laugh. You know my son has not been sheltered - you know that he is abudantly aware of how much the world can suck and on levels that transcend that of most adults - and yet someone who knows nothing about me feels able to make statements about how I raise my child based on my longing for a happily ever after for Harry.

The whole world has gone crazy, I swear!

Love you cuzzzzzzzzzz

Just another day's work for Elisabeth, fearless defender against angry bloggers! :)

(FDAAB for short) :P