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Is that the one and only Sue Upton above?

Yeah, Sue, you are definitely very cheery (though I wouldn’t call you boringly normal. ^_). I always like Order of the Phoenix, too. But when I first read it(or heard it read aloud by my mom), I cried for a long time upon hearing about the death of Sirius. I just couldn’t stop. So, yeah, the only thing I didn’t like about it was the whole Sirius dying bit. ^^;; OotP is arguably one of the more grittier and mature books of the series. It’s a very huge leap from Sorcerer’s Stone, eh? :3

Oh man I could listen to her talk all day. Sometimes I want another book so bad it makes me quite upset that there is nothing planned in the immediate future. Even if it wasn’t about HP, I just wish she would write another book. The interactions between her characters are so realistic that after you’re done reading you feel like you’ve just been hanging out with a bunch of your friends. I miss them. Yes, she should definitely write another book, non-magic if necessary, about three friends and their interactions… (they could be called Larry, Don, and, er Minnie). : )

Yes, THANKS ALEXANDRE for translating the article – my French is rather weak! What wonderful comments from Jo!

I don’t think that OotP is that bad. Its def in my top 3 favs out of the 7. I liked the fact that it was a change of pace and so much darker than the other books. The emotional side of that book is amazingly powerful and complex. I wonder what she’d want to change about it?

Sue, I always got the impression Jo liked OotP but was somewhat bemused by its general unpopularity (apparently it’s the book most likely to be bought but never finished in the whole of the UK, and I still hear lots of people complain about its length). I don’t know though, just an impression. OotP is my favourite too and I’m not strange either (I don’t think so anyway…). I thought it was absolutely amazing, provoking outrage, tears and laughter to a degree that, for me, the other books did not (though I loved them all!). OotP always seemed to me to be the book where everything (esp the war/Voldemort etc) takes on a new level of reality for Harry, and the exploration of popularism through Umbridge, Skeeter and the Ministry, was inspired. Plus the depth of emotion, especially in the wake of Sirius’ death – just perfectly written and so devastating! I loved it.

Great to have all these extra snippets of info too, I always love hearing anything about how on earth she plotted all of this, my respect for Jo and the utter genius of her storytelling just grows and grows! What an incredible story-mind!!!

Hello wunderkind26. I am a different “Sue” and I assure you I am boringly normal (as I sit here in Massachusetts reading Zoning Board of Appeals decisions – yay!). Perhaps that is why I liked Ootp – grittier (good choice of words) and more mature. Sirius’ death did not lead me to cry – I don’t know why. There was alot of death I dealt with in real life just prior to reading the book, so I guess I fictionalized it in my mind.

Is there any more translation? I see much more text and my French is horrible.

No EruditeWitch , i work for this site and there isn’t more translation. It’s just the same …...but in french.

I love JKR’s comments! I was particularly touched by the Harry/Dumbledore relationship, and Harry’s self-doubt about their relationship. I had a fantastic teacher/mentor in high school who suddenly passed away, and I had the same questions as Harry. She got that part note-perfect.

How cool for Evanna? I remember hearing JKR’s reading of OOTP, when she did Umbridge’s voice. Staunton did fantastic in getting the sticky sweetness of the character, but without the super-high pitch of the voice.

Michelle, yes, I’ve been taking note of how intricate the details are throughout the books. Right now I’m on Order of the Phoenix, and there are all sort of references to things in past books that show little things were important even though they sometimes seemed like extras just thrown in, and there is so much foreshadowing throughout (all the books, really).

Sue, I’m like you in that OP was my favorite until Deathly Hallows came out. I don’t think of myself as dark either, but what I liked about it was that Harry was finally feeling the isolation in his life and trying to find a way to deal with it. Jo had her characters dealing with so many things that many teens go through and in a very believable way. It was the honesty of those confusing teenage emotions that made the book one of my favorites. All the characters (and Snape) became more three dimensional than they had ever been. (That was also the reason that all the shipping in HBP didn’t irritate me as it fit well with the characters and their age.)

The other thing I really liked about Order of the Phoenix was that there were so many clearly Christian symbols in the book, especially at the end (the battle at the MoM). Those were things I had seen in the books before, and OP was the one that confirmed that I wasn’t just making it up. The imagery was subtle and so well done that everyone could relate to them and that makes it even better.

In hearing Jo speak about the books, I always get the feeling that she sometimes doesn’t realize some of the things that she put in and just how powerful it is. And that’s not a bad thing, not a criticism at all. The best books are those that take a reader beyond the basic story of the book, allowing the reader to be immersed in a new world, but one that includes all of us as the individuals that we are. In all the Harry Potter books, Jo has made room for everyone, while still telling the story she envisioned. That’s the best part of it all.

Yeah, I agree with whoever above said something about not believing the Snape/Lily connection (before DH, of course) because it was too “cliche”— I too thought that, and was semi-mortified at the idea that it could actually be TRUE, but once I read it I was surprised to find that it didn’t bother me. In fact, it helped unite the story and . . . gasp . . . even made me a little teary-eyed!

Thanks a lot! But it’s La Gazette, not “La Gazetter”. “La Gazette du Sorcier” is the French translation for “The Daily Prophet” in the HP series.

Eeyore It is good to see you again. I thought you had left us. Come see us at the poll.

OOP is tied with POA for my favorities. POA had me crying at Taco Time when I realized that Harry was hearing his mother’s screams, and the word play and the complex story line was what hooked me on HP. BUT the new angry Harry of OOP is wonderful. Not only is there the PTSD of all he has been through, but his behavior is so typical of 15 year old hormonal boys it is sometimes laughable.

To whomever that commented on Evanna Lynch. I believe that she had been corresponding with Jo as a fan long before she was cast for Luna. I am not sure that they had spoken, but some one her vibes certainly passed through to Jo.

I worked out Snape loves Lily on book six because it was the theory that made the most sense. It gave him a motive and made Snape interesting. The whole remorse thing never came up in my mind though, I just thought Dumbledore had made an unbreakable vow with him and ordered to kill him by the end of book six, which is why he trusted him so much. The whole withering arm bit was a big clue that Dumbledore wanted to die so I also had that as one of my theories. I did not believe that Harry was a horcrux because I figured if he was, he couldn’t be any longer because Voldemort had recovered his bit of soul from him in book four.

The two things I liked the most was the wand thing working out for Harry in the end. Voldemort was so above him in power that there was no way Harry should survive in an honest duel against him. There HAD to be a trick. There HAD to be something he could use. Love being so powerful was a downer for me at first because I thought she might use it as some sort of destructive force when love is completely the opposite. When it turns out he ended up pulling the same spell his mother did on him on the rest of his friends because of his sacrifice, it all worked out far better. Love as protection makes far more sense than love as some sort of death beam from a wand.

Oh, and I thought that in the final battle he’d use the stone to call the ghosts of his parents and dead friends to FIGHT against Voldemort, not to give him the courage to enter the forest. I even thought he’d end up calling the ghosts of Hogwart’s founders to help him. That would have been one heck of a battle but she chose a more emotional path instead.

My favorite part of OOtP was when George (testing the skiving snackboxes) was projectile vomiting into a bucket and then beaming, arms held wide, to protracted applause. I wish that could have been in the movie. Hilarious. Just like I wish in HBP they would include the part where Harry is magically re-filling the liquor bottles to keep Slughorn and Hagrid drinking so Harry can get the secret from Slughorn. It’s these funny little touches that make the books so great, and I wish more of them could be included in the movies.

Sue, I always loved OotP. Of all the books, I read that one the most, and I really enjoyed it. I thought I was in a complete minority in liking it a lot, and it is nice to see so many others that like it. I love it that JK thought of Evanna while writing book 7, I bet she’s thrilled. Evanna is definitely how I imagined Luna, and it’s great that she’s such a potterhead :)

Wait, so Snape and Dumbledore were important?! Wow, never picked up on that one. Good thing she explained that in an interview, cause from the books, it’s not entirely clear!

Oh, please – I really hope Jo doesn’t touch OotP! I am one of those weird people who really dislike when writers/directors go back and “improve” their original works. Like when George Lucas redid the original Star Wars trilogy. I have VHS tapes of the original before he went back and “remastered” the movies and I will literally cry my eyes out when I finally wear out those tapes. You can’t get them on DVD.

I came late into reading the HP series, and got a boxed set of the first 6 as a gift. After reading all of them (in 10 days) my friend wanted to know which was my favorite. OotP was – hands down. It still is even after reading DH!

Please, please—don’t change a word, Jo!

When Jo said she wants to, “tighten up Order of the Phoenix,” she means she wants to fix it up, considering the fact that it was incredibly long and she really wanted to fix things on it and make it shorter—which she said in an interview.

So she finally confirmed things that the Snape fans have been saying for years while mud has been flying at them – thanks!

I agree that she should have explained this more thoroughly to WB.

I hope she never revises OotP, which is my favorite book. I’m sorry, but it is, and that’s because it is the very one in which Snape’s story begins to show it’s importance. I have believed strongly that the last three books are really the Snape/Harry story, and now I know that’s true.