I would only remind that perhaps this is supposed to be a book for 10 year olds...

I was pretty impressed by the way she tied up loose ends and still left the story open for continued adventures. My main complaints are who is the NEW Headmaster and what does HP do? I suspect any screenwriter will have a daunting task ahead. This is one book that CANNOT be edited down to meet a three hour film time.

That, or possibly the enormous amount of money her decision has left available to her. I hate to think it, but somebody needs to put it out there. I felt it was a copout myself...

To Dan Radovich - JKR is planning an encyclopedia companion type book to answer your questions, but there was an article posted which includes spoilers from the Today Show. To Bethanne - I agree that it was just a little too conveniently done.

I think the issue here is that this series started out designed for 10 year olds and they're now 20, give or take. They (we too) are, by now, used to suspense/mystery writing in which authors invent some sort of "magic" which just appears out of nowhere. The detective or other central character discovers her/his solution. The story ends satisfactorily. Granted this is a "kids'" fantasy series, but the increased use of the elements of suspense in Book #7 make me wonder what JK Rowling could do (probably under another name) writing in another genre!

Justin Golenbock, hmmmmm... most 10-year-olds I know aren't convinced by the convenience of the one-cannot-live-while-the-other-surives manipulative shtick...

NOT MEANING TO GIVE ANYTHING AWAY--DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED...I'm going to re-read the end of book 6 to see if it gives me some answers. And the epilogue was a bit too tidy for me, and left too many questions: What do they do as adults? How is it that some kids don't know HP's fame/achievements in the wizarding world? Anyone else with me?

Hmmm, I disagree with several of these comments. For one, it wasn't just 10-year-olds lining up to read this book, and besides, haven't we learned by now that kids books shouldn't be expected to be "dumbed down"? As for J.K. Rowling painting herself into a corner--I think this was the resolution she planned all along. She didn't pull a trick out of her hat to wrap things up--everything was set up and hinted at in all seven books. I was impressed by all the intricacies that were woven throughout the entire series and thought book seven was a perfect ending.

I, too, felt she wrote herself into a corner. I was very disappointed by the writing overall, but then I have to remind myself she's no literary giant, but she's a decent storyteller.

I don't care how great something is - there is always going to be an element of the public looking to pick out the imperfections. JKRowling has done something incredible here. She has written a children's series that is so satisfying to children that it has them reading books that are almost more than 2 inches thick, has adults discussing the merits of th series conclusion, and the adult press wondering how will the book industry maintain the increase in sales that the Harry Potter books created. If the ending was merely mediocre- which it is not-it is still one the best fantasys ever written. It has staying power way beyond its' best imitators. The ending was fabulous.I'm starting over.

I'm reading in my spare time, so I'm only halfway through, but thanks to the jolly types who've been circulating spoilers, I kind of know what to expect... (It's still great fun, though) I response to your query of a couple of days back, everything I throw out here is off the top of my head; just marking time till I find an agent's assistant who is actually awake on the job, y'know? (And no, I wouldn't tell you what I'm shopping around-using other people's blogs for that kind of stuff is the height of rudeness, in my old-school opinion...

One hasty HP afterthought Bethanne; did you happen to catch Lev Grossman's op-ed in Time a couple weeks back where he tried to portray JK Rowling as some sort of atheist fellow-traveller with Chris Hitchens, et.al.? Is this the most boneheaded comment of the century or what?

Kevin (after all these comments, may I call you Kevin, rather than Kevin A. Lewis?), I did not see that... and am going to go find it now. How bizarre!

Time;week leading up to HP, if memory serves... Serious Weirdsville...

Book Mav, You may be right about 10 year olds. That said, I don't think you'd be right about adults who write for 10 year olds. JK would hardly be the first YA author to end a long, beloved series with a slightly trite, good guy wins family and happiness ending. Jk has said she has no intentions of writing more Potter books or allowing anyone else to, and since she's done nothing to prove otherwise, I prefer to take her at her word. And I would debate that this is series that started with 10 year old readers who are now 20. While that is certainly true, I think the explosion of Potter mania we've seen from book 1 to book 7 has to be fueled by the continual discovery of these books by new waves of parents and kids. It's certainly got a pretty crazy universal appeal...

I have yet to finish the series, but it is interesting to me how people think (as they did with the Goosebumps series) that HP is "getting kids reading." The day after The Deathly Hallows was released, I was watching CNN for a few minutes and the reporter doing the piece mentioned this assumption and talked about a very recent report regarding literacy in America. Turns out that, in fact, American children are NOT reading more. They may indeed read this "2 inch thick book" and yet, if they aren't reading anything else, would we all say that HP is good enough? So what will they do for an encore? Read it again? I think that the HP books are pretty interesting, but I think their attraction is more in the series-length (soap opera in book form) than that it is actually better or more interesting than other books already out there (or yet to be known). Reading--of all sorts--is so utterly important to the development of the self. HP and the neatly packaged outcome are fine, but real life leaves us with a lot more hanging questions. Not the least of which might be to wonder what Rowling HERSELF is going to do for an encore! :^)