John Weasley????

[psychic_serpent]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboy_mn at y...> wrote:
> Barb,
> Did you notice the source of this interview? It's the publisher
> Scholastic. You would think that they would get it right. 
 
Actually, had I noticed (you're right, I didn't) it was Scholastic, 
I would have realized the reason for the mistake immediately.  The 
fact that this is on the Scholastic site means nothing.  There are 
ridiculously sloppy.  There are mistakes all over the Scholastic 
site.  I doubt that anyone who knows their Potter trivia is checking 
up on the webmaster.  This mistake, for instance, occurs on the page 
with information about The Sorcerer's Stone:

"Harry's room is a closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn't 
had a birthday party in eleven years." 

Actually, there's more than one mistake here.  Harry's "room" is a 
CUPBOARD (not closet) UNDER the stairs. (If it were at the foot of 
the stairs, how would anyone in the family be able to descend these 
stairs?  This not only contradicts the book, it defies logic and 
basic architectural design principles.)  And while it is true that 
Harry hasn't had a birthday part ever (which would be clearer than 
saying "in eleven years," which strongly implies that he had one 
before that, while he wasn't even born yet) he also hasn't been with 
the Dursleys for eleven years (the implication is that he's been 
party-less since living with them).  He's been with them for less 
than ten years.

The blurb is also badly written.  The last paragraph reads:

"For it's there that he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and 
magic in everything from classes to meals, but a great destiny 
that's been waiting for him... if Harry can survive the encounter."

Encounter? What encounter?  Until the last phrase, no one mentioned 
an encounter of any kind.  

Then this appears in the blurb on the Scholastic site for Chamber of 
Secrets:

"But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a 
strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter 
returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike."

Um, this did NOT occur just as he was packing his bags.  Dobby came 
during the dinner party for the Masons.  And Dobby didn't exactly 
say "disaster will strike."  This is a very poor paraphrase of his 
words.

Then, in the last paragraph of the blurb, we get still more bad 
writing:

"But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble 
begins, and someone — or something — starts turning Hogwarts 
students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival 
than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is 
finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most 
suspects...Harry Potter himself!"

That should be "seem to be minor annoyances."  And while the root of 
the word "petrify" is related to the Latin word for "stone," the 
students weren't technially turned to stone.  (Being petrified means 
you are LIKE stone, a distinction which is lost here.)  And finally, 
the end of the last sentence does not end with a question mark, 
despite being a question.

In the blurb for PoA, we are subjected to still more bad writing:

"Now he has escaped, leaving only two clues as to where he might be 
headed: Harry Potter's defeat of You-Know-Who was Black's downfall 
as well." 

Who on earth wrote this?  The implication of the colon 
after "headed" is that we are about to be told what the two clues 
are.  This does not occur in the continuation of the sentence.   
Thankfully, because of the brevity of the PoA blurb, there wasn't 
much else they were able to mangle.

In the blurb for GoF, the World Cup is called "the International 
Quidditch Cup."  It also says, "He wants to find out about the 
mysterious event that's supposed to take place at Hogwarts this 
year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a 
competition that hasn't happened for a hundred years."  This makes 
it sound like Harry KNOWS the event involves the other schools 
and "a competition that hasn't happened for a hundred years."  If he 
knew all this, there wouldn't have been much more for him to find 
out.  Once again, brevity here prevents further mistakes.

I've also found numerous mistakes in their pronunciation guide and 
their glossary.  In the glossary, for instance, "Avada" is listed by 
itself, with "Kedavra" being the beginning of the definition.  The 
Bloody Baron is said to be the "resident ghost of Slytherin Tower."  
Where is this Slytherin Tower, and why have we never heard of it 
before?  While the glossary is mostly in alphabetical order, for 
some reason "Crouch, Bartemius, Senior" and "Crouch, Bartemius, 
Junior" are separated by "Crockford, Doris," and "Crookshanks,"  
When Junior should be first (alphabetically), then Senior, etc.  The 
definitions of the spells are also simplistic, Dumbledore is 
described as wearing "a long, purple cloak that sweeps to the 
ground," as though he never changes his clothes, and the "reviving 
spell" is said to be "Enervate," whose definition also says, "In non-
magic usage 'enervate' means to make someone weaker."   While this 
is true, the spell in the book is "Ennervate," NOT "Enervate."  They 
are two different words.  (JKR made it up.)  "Ferula" is said to be 
a "Spell to conjure a sling for a broken limb," when in fact Lupin 
uses this to conjure a SPLINT for Ron's broken leg. (How would 
a "sling" help him?  It wasn't his arm he broke.)  The mistakes on 
the Scholastic site go on and on.  The "John Weasley" mistake 
doesn't surprise me in the least, given the extent of the 
sloppiness.  I recommend taking anything seen there with a boulder-
size grain of salt.

--Barb

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Psychic_Serpent
http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Barb