Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
J.K. Rowling
Raincoast/Bloomsbury, 766 pages
$43.00 CDN

All right; we've given you three months and two issues of Wyntergreene have passed. If you haven't read the newest Harry Potter book by now, then you're likely not going to, and we're going to go ahead and review it.

As her protagonists age, J.K. Rowling's style, subject matter and tone deepen in complexity accordingly. The world in which Harry, Ron and Hermione are growing up is not as idyllic as a reader might think after the first book. At the age of fifteen, these protagonists are discovering lies, duplicity, and political undercurrents are all too common in the magical world, an honest reflection of the mundane world.

The magical world gears up for a war in this book, and it isn't pretty. The teenage protagonists learn that the adult world, which until now they have trusted, is merely human, with the all-too-human failings of jealousy, fear, anger, and subjectivity. Think back to the day when you first saw your parents as real people instead of untouchable Mom and Dad, and you'll get an idea of how the scales fall away from Harry's eyes in The Order of the Phoenix. There's implicit criticism on the school system, governmental procedure, patronage, ethics and playing by the rules in this book. It's harsh, and a shock to some readers, but this book is stubbornly true to the story begun in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

There have been a variety of responses to this latest episode ranging from the deeply philosophical to complaints regarding Harry's sulky adolescence. However, it must be remembered that he's a fifteen-year-old boy, whose emotions and hormones are just as wacky as yours were around that age. Rowling provides her characters with gritty and realistic characteristics, and if that turns a reader off, so be it.

Rowling never underestimates her audience: she gives them exactly as much credit as they deserve. Challenge your stereotypical perception of children's literature by reading Order of the Phoenix, and understand that kids aren't as naïve as you think they are.

(c) A. Murphy-Hiscock. Originally published in Wyntergreene, Mabon (September) 2003