well, yes and no. plus, she's a little egomaniacal.

[heidi tandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 1655

No, not JKR : )
A woman named Elizabeth D. Schafer, whose "Exploring Harry Potter" is 
the lead title in a new series called "Beacham's Sourcebooks for 
Teaching Young Adult Fiction."
First, let me suggest that the teachers on this list go right now to 
www.beachampublishing.com The site contains her analysis of Book 
IV, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," which was published after 
the sourcebook went to press, including a bunch of questions and 
projects which teachers can propose to their classes of all grade 
levels - and they're free. Of course, there's little, if anything, up 
there which I read that hasn't been proposed here already, and I know 
Ebony has come up with questions for her class which are more 
insightful than some of the ones Ms Schafer has proposed, but they're 
not bad. The one proposition which I haven't heard before concerns 
names. SHe hypothesizes that VOLDEMORT may also derive from King 
Vortigern, an overlord who, according to Arthurian legend, arrested 
Merlin when he was a child. 
Second, I'm not going to send the whole article to the list - it's at 
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/books/pott14.shtml and anyone else who 
wants it, email me. 
Third, does this concept make sense to anyone, or is it just me?
"In the Potter series, magic represents imagination and connection 
with adult mentors who help students achieve maturity and insights 
not available to other children."
I thought it was an energy force! : )
Fourth, I had forgotten, but the article reminded me - Rowling worked 
for Amnesty International in college. This makes it highly likely 
that even without doing extensive book-specific research on abuse, 
she has at least a grounding in abuse/torture issues.


Oh, and my yes, no and egomaniac comments from the subject? 
Yes & No means yes, there are probably some interesting nuggets in 
the book, No, I can't imagine there's much in there which hasn't come 
up on this list at one time or another.
The egomaniac part is because the author of the article says 
that "Schafer said she apparently is the first to notice that Harry's 
tenure at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry begins in 1991, 
which makes him an adult in present time. She bases that conclusion 
on Book II's Halloween Deathday Party to commemorate the 500th 
anniversary of Nearly Headless Nick's semi-beheading in 1492. Schafer 
extrapolates from this and other clues that Harry's birth date is 
July 31, 1980."

Um, personally, I concluded that somewhere around November, 1998. Any 
brits conclude it even earlier than that?

Of course, my believing that ms schafer really said that to the 
article's author may be leading me into the trap that snares rita 
skeeter's readers, so I'll refrain from letting it prevent me from 
buying the book anyway.