Just finished reading this out loud to my son. Phew, that’s a long one. I never read these as they actually came out, just saw the movies, so the novels are pretty much new to me too. Of the series this is my favorite so far, and Max reports it’s actually his second favorite. As an adult I’m not surprised it’s been my favorite, as it was the most riddled with politics and drama of the non-kid adventure variety. I’m surprised Max liked it as well, but he said that this book made him understand Dumbledore more and made him think about his teachers differently. Also I think living through Covid, social media, the Trump administration, and hearing us talk about misinformation, the whole department of mysteries and the ministry of magic coverups hit differently for him than they would have otherwise.

I also found Sirius’ death interesting. While in battle, it wasn’t particularly heroic. He was sort of celebrating hitting her and she hit him back and he was gone. In truth he probably shouldn’t have even been there.

Max and I also talked a lot about how Harry feels versus how the adults react to him. It was an interesting talking point for us.