Completely brilliant article as usual, Mr. King. Best line: ”...if he had been an adult, the cops would have taken him away either to the drunk tank or to our local Dreamboat Manor…” BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

I agree what he’s saying about adult books today – they have 100 pages of so of *crap; pointless details that have nothing to do with the story and just bore the hell out of you. They’re not all that way, mind you, But I’d rather take my chance reading a children’s book.

(Class adult books rule though)

Ironically, too, Christopher Hitchens’ official review came out today in the NYT book review. Hitchens is somebody who I respect a lot, normally, but who simply does not get Jo’s magic, and comes across in this review – unfortunately, because I do not think he normally is – a pompous, over-intellectual academic who’s trying way too hard (he points out some interesting tidbits, but for the most part entirely missed the point). It’s almost as if he tried to demonstrate King’s thoughts about reviewers.

I love Uncle Stevie. From Shakespeare to the Who. Both he and JKR are on my list of if-I-could-host-a-dinner guests. I think I’d find them in a quiet corner of my fantasy mansion, comparing publishing and book-signing experiences, and giggling like school kids.

For those who are easily spooked, and haven’t tried SK, check out his 7-book series of “The Dark Tower.” There are fewer things that go bump in the night, and the tone is both heroic and tragic. And there’s no waiting. He took 24 years(!) to complete this series, but it is All Done now. And it’s his second magnum opus, next to “The Stand,” IMO. Maybe better.

Stephen King is amazing. I love him. He doesn’t let jealously get to him, like some other authors I could mention…, but he still criticises JK constructively with no malice and a love for the books. I have tremendous respect for him.

I think King sold Jo a little short. He does, indeed, praise her work, but I think comparing her to RL Stine is not all that flattering. And saying that the reason her books are so successful is that her characters grew up—? I can allow that that might have been one reason, but Jo’s writing is so much more than that. She combines fantasy, reality, humor and mystery. She brings in universal themes and addresses concepts that everyone deals with in their heart. She creates an imaginary world that seems so real, we expect to be able to stumble upon it in real life. She creates a place where we can examine how it feels to be scared and to mourn and to fail and to win, all from the safety of our favorite armchair by the fire. These books are classics and will remain in print longer than RL Stine’s, unless I miss my guess.

I seem to remember that in King’s novel It, that he mentioned in this article, the kids came back as grown-ups to again fight the beast they thought they’d conquered as kids. So King’s characters grew up, too. But kids don’t read his novels (good thing, too! It is definitely NOT a children’s book). Rowling’s works appeal to all because, along with the universal themes, she keeps the content appropriate for everyone, without talking down to kids or adding unnecessary gore and sex for adults. This is another of her great triumphs.

As I read the HP books to my 9 year old son, I don’t say the swear words out loud (though we had an interesting discussion last night about Merlin’s pants). I either skip the work and re-write the sentence so he doesn’t even know it was there, say “very bad word” in place of the swear word, or replace it with something like “darn”, depending on the context. I’m not sure what I will do when I get to the word King mentions that Molly says toward the end of the book. My son already knows what it is (he’s not afraid of spoilers, he knows who dies (he read it on Wikipedia) and it’s kind of hard not to see if you flip through the books, being in all caps. I’m glad this is the strongest language in the books, though I still question the use of swear words at all. What’s good about how they’re used in the HP books is that they are true to real life. The young kids don’t use them, but they start to as they get older, and it also varies from person to person and in situations. Flitwick doesn’t come out with one in the middle of class, and Mrs. Weasley doesn’t use them when talking to her children. Some characters use them more than others (Ron more than Hermione, for instance) and I loved the line about how the Weasley’s gnomes knew some excellent swear words but Ron thought they learned them from Fred and George.

All in all, I think King could have spoken more highly of Jo’s work. But maybe he’s just a bit jealous.

I don’t think SK is right. JKR has always been greatly talented. And she is the most talented and greatest author a century. I don’t need any other writer’s comment to know that.

i don’t know why but i love reviews that cut up other crappy reviews.

as for christopher hitchens, the guy claims that women are incapable of being funny so there’s quite a few things that he doesn’t “get.” don’t get me started on his political views.

go jk go jk go jk go jk go jk go jk go jk go jk go jk go jk go jk go jk go jkgo jk go jk go jk go jkgo jk go jk go jk go jk go jk go jk go jk go jk go jk!!!! HARRY RULES

I love this line: “Jo Rowling set out a sumptuous seven-course meal, carefully prepared, beautifully cooked, and lovingly served out.”

I couldn’t agree more!

I totally agree this an awesome review. Although some people say these are fanatsy JK acaully tacling the dark heart of the real world(thats a direct quote from www.jkrowling.com go there to hear jks true voice.) These are tackling wat teens go through to adult hood and wat is going on in the real world. Its not just entertainment they personally give me confidence. I can go out and stand up for myself. Ever since Harry came out whenever i need to escape i pick up a Harry book. S King is right as the characters grow up the kids and rest of the audience grew up with them. Harry grew from a ingorant 11 year old wizard to saving the entire wizarding world by defeating Voldmont.S king thanks for the great review not many people appreciate J.K. Rowling and her novels.

Mrs Lovegood above obviosuly did not read Sk’s article all that well. SK did not compare JKR to RL Stine. He contrasted them. He basically said that RL Stines books are Happy Meals, while JKRs books are 5-star full-course dinners.

And to say that SK is jealous of JKR is one of the most absurd things I have ever heard. First of all, SK has had nothing but praise for JKR over the years, and second, he has nothing to be jealous of. The man has written over 50 novels, all of which are international best sellers.

So many other modern novelists pan Rowling that it’s refreshing to hear from someone arguably just as famous as her. King shows us he still appreciates a good story, and I always love reading his thoughts.

I can’t believe someone else cried reading King’s article! Since the book came out, I’ve been waiting for him to weigh in, and now that he has, it’s finally struck me that it’s all over. No more books, no more Harry. Until the next couple of movies and the Universal theme park, of course. But what a supreme gift Rowling has given us all, and how smart King is to have noticed. His article, along with EW’s review of the book, sum up to perfection why the Potter books mean so much to so many. Nothing becomes an international phenomenon by accident, particularly a book! I guess our only consulation is that Rowling’s still out there, she’s still brilliant, and who knows what’s germinating in that spectacular brain of hers.

In his article, Mr. King says the following:

“R.L. Stine rode a wave of kid popularity, partly fueled by the fledgling Internet, to become perhaps the best-selling children’s author of the 20th century. Like Rowling, he was a Scholastic author, and I have no doubt that Stine’s success was one of the reasons Scholastic took a chance on a young and unknown British writer in the first place. He’s largely unknown and uncredited…but of course John the Baptist never got the same press as Jesus either.”

Talis says King is contrasting Rowling and Stine. It’s true, in my first post I said he compared them. Maybe we’re both right, or maybe we’re both wrong. The passage I’ve quoted above seems to give Stine the credit for Rowling being discovered in the first place, as if the wonderful story she’d written wouldn’t eventually have gained such a following, let alone get published at all, if it hadn’t been for Stine. I find this hard to swallow and even harder to agree with. I admit to never having read any of Stine’s books, but I just can’t believe that Stine paved the way for Harry Potter in the way that King suggests.

Then after this wonderfully flattering analysis, he says that Rowling has improved in her writing ability but she still isn’t as good as a couple of British writers I’ve never heard of, and then he goes on later in the review to spend two whole paragraphs criticizing elements of her writing.

When I said the King might be jealous, I meant that, while he’s written lots of books and had best sellers, he’s never had a book as popular as the Harry Potter books, and those were Jo’s first published works. That has to be kind of hard to take, when he’s worked so hard to get to his status as well-known author. I do realize he says many good things about Jo and her books. I did read the article. I just thought he minimized her success by his analysis that the success was because her characters grew up, while Stine’s stayed as kids. I don’t think that’s the main reason for her success. Whether King is jealous or not, and I fully admit I could be wrong about that, I think it’s clear that the Harry Potter books are best sellers for lots of other reasons than that the characters simply grew up.