The Order of the Phoenix is probably my favorite of the series -- there's a richness in the story, the characters really come to life -- including some of the supporting cast. I love "Dumbledore's Army," and how it gives some unexpected characters a chance to shine (Ginny, Neville and Luna, for example).

One thing I like is that Rowling really shows us how Harry's understanding of his father has to "grow" as he grows up. When we're little, we think our parents or grandparents are perfect. But as we grow, we realize they're human and make mistakes and may have done things they are later ashamed of. And so it is with Harry -- he's developing a more mature appreciation of his father, and eventually he'll have to do that with other important adult characters. (but I won't say more)

And I love, absolutely love, Fred and George's exit from Hogwarts. It was brilliant.

Linda, those are really good thoughts. i agree with you on all counts.

I think your appraisal of Harry's view of his father "growing up" is excellent.

I also agree about the smaller characters getting to shine. Neville's my hero. ;-)

The last three books are definitely my favorites. I agree that listening on audiobook has it's own special appeal. The one problem I have, though, is that Jim Dale gives Luna and Ginny rather nasal voices. In the great big scheme of things, though, that's pretty minor.

I was also interested to see that Rowling had the courage to make Harry a real person who is definitely NOT perfect - in fact, at times, I wish he had a parent close by to give him a good talking-to (or smack upside the head, one of the two!). This book is where we start to pivot from Harry's dad as the more "important" parent to his mom which is kind of interesting because boys tend to be closer to their moms when they are younger and then need a dad's influence as they get older. Hmmmm.

This book also has a lot of stuff to say about education. Fred and George always have terrible grades, but even Hermione agrees that their understanding of magic is pretty impressive. And Umbridge's statement that school is about passing exams is just priceless!!!

Enjoy the next two books!!

I've been waiting for this post! I agree with most of what you've written, and will add a few thoughts of my own below.

No mention of Umbridge? I didn't think I could dislike a HP character more than Snape until Rowling created Umbridge. I like Rowling's subtlety in showing via Umbridge and Fudge that there are other kinds of evil besides the in-your-face Voldemort type.

Loved the DA. Luna is an awesomely conceived and executed character. She cracks me up. Like you, I liked how JKR handled the teen romance thing. She gives it a realism that takes a bit of the unreal, idealized shine off, but without sneering at it or being embarrassed about it in an overly Victorian way. If she had overly sanitized those elements out of the story, it would have lacked something that makes the stories so true to the experience of being that age. But if she had handled the romance and kissy stuff less well it could have really marred the story. I thought she struck a great balance.

I thought she was going to kill Arthur Weasley. I don't know whether you were aware or not, but before Order of the Phoenix was published Rowling admitted in an interview that a major character was going to die in the book. So I was braced for it and wondering who it would be.

Book 5 was my least favorite of the whole series upon first read. However, after re-reading the series I've realized just how much relevant detail is in book 5 that sets up books 6 and 7. I've also been able to enjoy moments of brilliance in book 5 that my annoyance at the ending had kind of erased from memory. I agree with the comment above that Fred and George's exit from the school while leaving behind a swamp in a corridor (that the teachers all insist to Umbridge they are unable to move), fireworks that write rude words (one of them later that evening still resolutely writing the word "poo" in the air outside the window), and their final order to Peeves - who never takes orders from anybody - was just brilliant.

But, I have to disagree with you a little bit about the ending. I thought the scene with the kids and the Death Eaters in the department of mysteries kind of cheapened the "badness" of the Death Eaters and pushed the envelope of believability. A bunch of unqualified teenagers - all of them 5th year students or younger - take on the baddest of the bad dudes, the very inner circle of the most powerful dark wizard ever? Here is something I wrote to a friend re. my reaction after book 5, and my fears going into the last 2 books:

"Most important, will Rowling be able to pull off the ending with the gravitas that the series deserves? The Keystone Cops/Scooby Doo feel of the Book 5 scene in the Department of Mysteries ("those dratted kids!" - the fearsome death eaters, previously terrifyingly formidable, succumb to Neville, Luna and the jellylegs curse) made me fear that JKR had finally crumbled under the weight of the series, wasn't up to pulling it off and would shy away from the ramifications of the story she had created."

And another friend wrote this after finishing book 5: "Apparently, the Death Eaters are all clowns."

After a re-read, I may have overreacted a little bit. JKR does try to paint a chaotic scene in which the kids are extremely lucky to escape alive. But it goes on for a long time, and even upon re-read it gives me a bit of the Scooby-Doo/Home Alone feel. The biggest bummer for me was that it instantly rendered the Death Eaters much less fearsome and intimidating. Voldemort is still one very bad dude. And Bellatrix Lestrange comes across as pretty formidable, although her infantile teasing of Harry with faux baby-talk struck a sour note with me - sour in terms of not being believable and rendering her a little ridiculous. But these other guys who are supposed to be the next worst - Voldemort's fearsome henchmen - just come across like a bunch of inept clowns.

I know you are following up further, but your #8 prompted a few more thoughts:

I loved Umbridge's comeuppance at the end. Insulting a herd of centaurs? Not a good move.

I like what you say about Harry's enduring the torture by Umbridge, and the effect that it had on how you feel about him. I had already admired him for his guts and courage - all those things that got him through the previous encounters with Voldemort, as he tells Ron and Hermione when he tries to describe for them how un-glamorous it was and yes, how lucky he felt to have survived. But his sticking it out in the face of Umbridge's quiet tormenting, really shows something about him. I like what you wrote about the two-sided nature of that aspect of his personality. As C.S. Lewis says in some of his literary criticism: "Any road out of Jerusalem may also be a road into Jerusalem." Channeled rightly, those aspects of Harry's character can serve noble ends.

Great thoughts Shrode. Looking back at your original post I agree that finding out the young James Potter and Sirius Black were full of themselves and that they bullied Severus Snape, was a real shocker. I didn't like finding that out at all, but I thought it was brilliant of Rowling to introduce that degree of complexity and depth to the characters and the overall story.

Equally, I thought it was interesting the way JKR portrayed Sirius kind of living vicariously through Harry - again making him a more complex character rather than the always-right, older and wiser godfather figure she might have made him. Many (most?) children's authors either portray adults as dense and bumbling, unable to perceive what children percieve, or else as all-wise, nearly omnipotent guides whose advice is always sound. JKR does a great job of coming closer to the reality of things. Her "good" adults ARE generally wiser than the kids, but they aren't infallible. Neither in their wisdom nor in their maturity/morality.

If you've googled much about the Potter series you've probably picked up even more on just how much the religion underlying the stories and the world in which they are set, is Christianity. Not necessarily evangelical Christianity. But still Christian in broad terms even if it's very muted and in the background.

Speaking of google searching, it must be really hard to be reading these books, and reading about them on the internet, without constantly running into spoilers because so many people have read the whole series.

On the ending of book 5: I have no desire to make someone who loved it, see it in a less enjoyable light. That (Home Alone/Scooby Doo) was just my reaction to it. I agree that throughout the series, Harry really "shouldn't" survive most if not all, of his encounters with Voldemort and the Death Eaters, and that some type of luck or outside intervention is what saves him - though often combined with his exercising an unusual amount of courage up until the point of escape. But I guess we each have our own "breaking point" where the willing suspension of disbelief gives way to a sensation of "ok, this is getting a bit ridiculous." The ending of Book 5 was the only place in the series where it reached that point for me, even though many of my criticisms of that passage could technically also be levelled at other passages in the books.

But the real climactic "ending" of book 5 wasn't the chase/battle in the dep't of mysteries, it was the scene with Harry, Voldemort and Dumbledore up in the lobby of the Ministry of Magic. I had no problems with that scene - I thought it was tense, chilling and well done.

Thinking back, another frustration that I had with book 5 when I first read it was that it was so different from what I expected. After finishing book 4, I thought that all out war was about to commence. Voldemort's Back, in the body! Or if not all out war, then at least nearly non-stop action. All hell must be about to break loose. Yet instead the Ministry goes into denial mode, Umbridge shows up and for most of book 5 it felt like nothing (nothing that I really cared about anyway) happened! It was really long, but Voldemort only makes a brief appearance at the very end. Yeah, we get to hear the prophecy finally but even that didn't seem like much of a payoff given the length of the book, and it didn't say anything that I hadn't already kind of assumed was the case. Umbridge was deliciously - almost painfully - hateable. But in terms of the fight against Voldemort and/or V's attempts to take over, I felt like at the end of book 5 we weren't really any further along than we were at the end of book 4, and that was really frustrating. Especially so since I couldn't just go get the next book. I had waited 2 years for book 5 to be published and at the end of it things have barely advanced, and now I have to wait another year and a half or two, before I find out what happens next??? I was incensed. But as I referred to in a comment above, upon re-reading book 5 with the knowledge of what is to come in books 6 and 7 much of that frustration is removed. Partly because books 6 and 7 are ready to hand and I don't need to wait 2 years for them. But also partly because much that I thought was wasted - or fun but frivolously used - space in book 5 is actually significant. As always, JKR buries details in each book that seem like throwaways, but which come back to have great import later, and book 5 seems now in hindsight to be kind of a necessary stage-setting rather than (as I first received it) a frivolous timeout.