I picked up my copy of the new Harry Potter book at Walmart yesterday when they opened at 7:00 AM. I’m only 150 pages into it (I had things to do, so I unfortunately couldn’t dedicate the day to reading it…), but I had some initial thoughts about it.

One thing that I have really liked so far about the new book is how JK Rowling has brought the post 9/11 feel into her books. Her description of Diagon Alley and also the security measures recommended by the Ministry of Magic happen to reflect the real world. Even though the possibility of a Death Eater grabbing you on the street in the middle of the day is about as likely as Malfoy complimenting Harry, the “gang” couldn’t go out alone and had to make sure that Mr. Weasley went with them. I also loved the protection against Polyjuice Potion (Agree on questions to ask people to prove that they are who they look like. ie. What is your favorite jam?). That so captures the (mostly) insane security measures recommend to people following 9/11. Thankfully over time in our world, calmer heads prevailed and most of those nonsense security measures have gone away.

I also love the way that JK Rowling separated the world into two generations: Kids and Adults. And with her later books, she has been able to link the situations that the Kids face to actions and things that happened to their parents. It is not like we are living in an isolated world where these kids are having brand new adventures. Rather, it is a rich world where the actions of our fathers have a direct effect on our lives.

But all these changes has me wondering a little bit: Is this still a kids book? While the writing uses simple words and sentence structures that very much suit a kids reading level, the issues dealt with aren’t always kid friendly. But maybe reading about how Harry handles issues like Death is a good introduction for a kid to start thinking about it. I don’t know, but I would probably let my kids read it (my parents let me read anything I could get my hands on when I was a kid and I didn’t turn out that bad).