Posted by Jonathan on January 24, 2002, at 0:23:30
In reply to Lighter books, posted by Ella on January 23, 2002, at 14:15:36
Don't underestimate "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (already recommended by Ella). If bloody Iris Murdoch has put you off books with the word "philosopher" in the title, you could order the dumbed-down American version from amazon.com ;) and donate a tiny fraction of the international shipping charges to Dr Bob by submitting your order through the link near the top of the PSB index page :) If you're shy about buying kids' books, there's also an `adult' edition, presumably like the post-watershed extended repeats on TV of Hollyoaks and Buffy ;) Personally, I don't like the item "adult books" appearing on my credit card bill, and it costs more.
Okay, it's for 8-13 year-olds and the characters, like the intended readers, are stuck at Kohlberg's heteronomous level 3 in their moral development (10 house points for each of the other 5 levels that you can describe!) However, if you're going to be a teacher, your students will not be impressed by your erudition if you've ploughed through interminable reading lists full of Kohlberg and Piaget but had no time for Harry Potter.
Much more important - it's great fun; and there's a brilliant logic problem for maths geeks in Chapter 16 :)
When you've read the poem, stop and think, because the stupid author gives away the answer lower down the same page! Although we readers don't know, as Hermione does, which bottles are the smallest and largest, we can still infer which one she drank from in order to go back through the purple fire, and which two she should have kept for an under-age drinking session in Gryffindor's dorm after lights out; and we can almost deduce both the size and the position of the bottle she told Harry to drink from in order to advance through the black (sic) flames. All you have to assume is that the bottles were arranged in such an order that Hermione, being able to see them, could work out which ones she and Harry should drink from (and I'm not necessarily including the wine they keep for later - that's not in the book).
When you've solved the puzzle and finished the book (six hours for both is impressive, Ella) I recommend the film (movie). There's no point in trying to cheat by seeing it first in the hope of looking at the seven bottles - this scene has inexplicably been cut :(
Have fun :)
Jonathan.
poster:Jonathan
thread:17108
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020112/msgs/17135.html