Half-Blood Prince

[42]

How old is your oldest?

The books are kind of designed to have a reading learning curve. Basicly, by starting with the first one and then reading each of the following, they help kids improve their reading skills. Hence the first book is at a 2nd or 3rd grade reading level. The second book is  3rd or 4th grade, ect... Course many kids just read all of them and gain the benefits of being better readers earlier.

My 8-year old niece has started reading the 3rd book. My 10 year old niece has read all of them. My 13 year old nephew has read all of them 2 or 3 times.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

she's 5. She's also got the delicate psychic constitution inherited from her mother. I think she can handle most of what goes on, and in a couple years she'll be able to handle all of it.

Plus I think she needs to develop some attention span first.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Whoa. Now, that adult cover is perhaps the most telling. Looks like Dumbledore is going to be teaching Harry advanced potion making. (Not Snape?) They're definitely doing something potiony on both the kids' covers, but what everyone was noticing was that Dumbledore was giving Harry individual attention, not that potions were going to play a key role in the book.

[Oldie Black Witch]

Actually, on the US cover it looks like both Harry and Dumbledore are looking into the Pensieve. The bowl is too flat to be a cauldron, and the Pensieve is described as "cracked," just like the bowl on the cover. So I doubt that Dumbledore will be teaching Harry any potionmaking. But I fully agree that Dumbledore will be giving Harry more personal attention in HBP.

I've been reading the series aloud to my 6-year-old son for a while now. We're about five or six chapters into Goblet of Fire, and more often than not, he doesn't really listen to what I read. It's more of a bonding thing than feeding his interest in the series. Besides, it gives me the chance to read the books again.

[Skar]

My 7 year old just finished book 5.  

[Oldie Black Witch]

And now that we've established the meaning of the word "bludge," we can call Voldemort a "real son of a bludger"with impunity.

[Spriggan]

Scholastic has allready printed about 10 million copies of the book.

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Barbara Marcus, president of Children's Book Publishing at Scholastic -- author     J.K. Rowling's U.S. publisher -- said 10.8 million copies of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" had been printed.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050605/en_nm/arts_potter_dc;_ylt=Aj0cZ0RFiFMsi05FNbpemuus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2OXY1b2VrBHNlYwNlbg--

[Chimera]

The picture in the article is misleading. It makes it seem like those are people fighting over a copy of the "stolen" book released in Britain. But when I looked closer at a bigger version of the photo, I could make out that the book was the American cover for Order of the Phoenix.

I wouldn't want a stolen copy anyways. I want the real thing. I like Marie Grand Pre's art on the American covers. So now I'm starting to get really excited for this to come out!

[lehea]

HBP like the rest of JK Rowlings books has just the right amount of suspence to keep you wanting to turn the pages.  Her past 3 books 1 good character has died, starting with Cedric Diggory to (skip this part those of you who have not read the book) _{coughDumbledorecough} (it is now safe to read again  ) HBP was as good as her other books, read if you have not read!