Raising Boys

Harry Potter after the epilogue July 27, 2007

Major spoilers. Don’t read if you haven’t finished the book.

But if you have, then read on.

J.K. Rowling has given out details on events after the final epilogue in an interview with TODAY’s Meredith Vieira. She reveals, for example, that Harry and Ron work at the Auror Department for the Ministry of Magic but it’s a totally revolutionized place. And Hermione, with her brainpower, places high up in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Luna Lovegood is still eccentric but now comes to realizes that her father might have been wrong about those Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and Umgubular Slashkilters. Still, she travels the world to look for all kinds of interesting creatures.

And JK Rowling acknowledges a “bit of a pull” between Luna and Neville Longbottom, whose grandmother had finally accepted as a gifted wizard.

There’s a new Hogwarts headmaster and Harry pops in at the school sometimes to give an “odd talk” about Defense against the Dark Arts.

Rowling even says she may reveal more in a Harry Potter encyclopedia; she’s not writing it anytime time soon, though.

More on JK Rowling’s revelations.

Fantasy books and gaming cards January 3, 2006

Two things fascinate my 7-year-old son Dylan at present–books and Yu-Ge-Oh cards. I’m hoping he’d outgrow the latter but not the former. Our present to him during the school Christmas party last month was L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” book, and he has read it at least three times since then.

The first thing he said to me after he finished reading the book was that the wizard was just a “humbug”. He says the word as if he understands it and I could not be sure if he does because he and I have not found the time to discuss the book in detail. I let him read short stories on his own but I usually read books with him. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was the first book he has read on his own.
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English as a second language August 22, 2005

My 7-year-old son and I were watching Dreamcatcher (a screen adaptation of a book by Stephen King with the same title) on cable when, during a really scary scene, his hand clutched at his chest and he exclaimed “Gracious!”

I looked at him and he looked at me and we burst out laughing.

Dylan has been using English in most ordinary conversations now, an offshoot I’m sure of a policy in his first grade class that sets a penalty of a few pesos on anyone using the Cebuano dialect in the classroom.

But I did not realize how pervasive the effect of this policy was in my son’s life until last night, when he preferred to express his surprise in English, in our home, where it won’t cost him anything to speak Cebuano.
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