What one MG boy wants to read

My oldest is on an overnight camping trip (getting the scouts up to scratch on where they should be, achievement-wise), is coming back today, only to leave for a week-long scout campout in the Tetons on Monday. Yes, it's July. Yes, we're sending him with his warmest (-20) sleeping bag. There's still snow up there!

In the meantime, that means our babysitter is gone. So we took all the kids to DH's end of semester German dinner event last night. One thing that always impresses us at this university is how much initiative the students have. DH showed up as the sponsoring faculty member, but the students planned and cooked it all.

Then son 2 and I sat up talking about books last night. (He and his brother get along great, but there is naturally some rivalry, too--son 2 is always delighted at chances to have us all to himself, with no brother interrupting.) Anyway, both of them read a lot, but son 1 is more mathematically-minded and son 2 is more literary. This is the kid who comes up with cool, complex book ideas every day and who writes thoughtful book reviews. He's almost 11, and here are some of his ideas on what makes a good book:

1. "The characters have depth." Also, that they have something in common with him, like around his age, able to solve problems (ie, not stupid), and people he'd like to hang out with in real life. He doesn't like mean characters--flawed is good, but they need to be basically decent and trying to do good things at their core. Also, he wants his characters to change over the course of the story.

2. An interesting setting. He said Harry Potter wouldn't have been so interesting if it was just set in our basement.

3. An actual...story? He hates books where nothing happens.

4. He doesn't like things over the top where it strains believability. Interesting plots where things happen are good--but throwing in aliens or whatever *just because,* without a logical context, doesn't work for him.

5. POV has to be right--especially if you have the story told by more than one character. He doesn't like it when one narrator basically takes over. I didn't get what he meant here, so I asked for examples. He likes Riordan's Egyptian series, which is narrated by a brother and sister. But he mentioned another series (which I have not read) where trying to do that same kind of narration flopped for him. So if you do something out of the ordinary, make sure it works.

Books he particularly loves right now: Harry Potter, Alex Rider, anything by Rick Riordan, the Hatchet books (Gary Paulsen), Scumble (Ingrid Law), Schooled (Gordon Korman). Reading between the lines, I'd sum up his reading needs to include humor, action, and heart. While he does love books that end up with depth and meaning, I'm thinking he's about 100% the wrong kid for those books that salesguy was trying to sell me the other day, the ones with the morals all laid out and explained in the back.

Completely unrelated, but--I'm going to see Harry Potter tonight! Excited.

Wizard Lighting BATTLE!!*

Oh, wow. I just got back from Deathly Hallows 2, and WOW. I loved it. I don't want to be spoilerish, but there were just so many things I loved about this film. They totally NAILED it. I love how they took the story seriously, they didn't look at it the way Hollywood so often does with children's films--they didn't talk down to their audience. They made it really believable. It's rare that I really feel the stakes in a movie, even one with plenty of action and tension. (Okay, so I don't watch that many movies--but I often have a bit of a who-cares reaction.) This one--there's a point where you can see that Harry, Ron, and Hermione really believe they not only can but WILL die in their attempt to stop Voldemort. And they're willing. And even though I've read the book and know how everything goes down--I bought that on an emotional level.

It's funny--even though the film is nearly 100% action, it is a very emotional film. All of those big moments--wow. To compare big fantasy epics, I lost touch with Frodo, but I never did with Harry--he is still scared and falls short of what he wants to be--yet he's determined to do what he has to. And he's a decent person along the way. (Think Draco.) That's what I loved about the book, and what could have fallen short in the film. But it didn't. Definitely bring kleenex.

Amazing acting. The casting director who picked these actors? Brilliant. Ditto David Yates, the director. Applause to Alexandre Desplat, the composer--his own music fits perfectly, and he also incorporated music from previous films in exactly the right way. In particular, the film ends with John Williams's track "Leaving Hogwarts" from the first film (also heard in Chamber of Secrets). It's one son 1 and I have tried to find sheet music for, but apparently they never published any. We found a midi file that someone sounded out and we've been trying to adapt it for piano. Hopefully with this last film someone will publish it. Anyway--I've always sort of felt that's the theme that Hogwarts ends with, so I was particularly touched that they did.

Harry Potter--it isn't about death, even if one character wants to evade it and many people die. It's about something much stronger than that.


*Yes, I did manage to restrain myself from singing this at the appropriate moment. See here.