Title: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood PrinceAuthor: J.K. Rowling Publisher: ScholasticPrice: $29.99, though most major bookstore chains are selling it for less than $20Pages: 652Rating: Five stars out of five
Even after one completes the 652-page tome that is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
it is still difficult to think of anything new to say about J.K. Rowling and the magical world she has brought to life once more.
Wow might be a good place to start. So might, She's done it again for while this latest installment in the fabled Harry Potter series reads much like its five predecessors, there are, as always, new wrinkles in the yarn, new mysteries for ever-eager readers to unfold and to solve.
If you need proof, well, look no further than the title. Who, exactly, is the Half-Blood Prince? It could be any of a number of characters, from Lord Voldemort -no longer referred to as He Who Must Not Be Named, thank goodness, for was that ever a mouthful -to Potter himself, who is now 16 and less than one year away from coming of age in the Wizarding world.
Of course, the greater mystery, as always seems to be the case with Rowling's tales of Hogwarts, is what significance the title has to the story (the Order of the Phoenix, for example, which was emblazoned across the cover of the fifth book, played an integral role in the telling of that tale). And yes, for the record, the Prince's identity is revealed, though not until very late in the book.
Other questions that are answered along the way include which main character will be killed during this go-around -the beloved Sirius Black is no longer an option, obviously, since he perished at the end of the fifth volume, but don't expect any hints in this review -how the Gryffindor Quidditch team will perform under the watchful eye of Captain Potter and who is snogging whom.
That whole business of snogging -a British term that means to cuddle or spoon -leads to what is likely the only complaint about the sixth book, which is that it is not, in fact, a true children's book. Its themes are darker than during any of the series' first five books, and as the main protagonists -Harry, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger -continue to get a little older, the realities that come with being a teenager are discussed more openly.
As has come to be expected, too, more details are revealed about Harry's parents, Lily and James Potter, and his rival, Voldemort. And as for not knowing enough about the history of those characters, Rowling has said on her Web site that enough will have been written about the past by the time the seventh book is published that there will be no need for a prequel.
Which leaves only one question: When, exactly, will that seventh -and final -book be released? We Muggles can't wait.
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