so I got Elizabeth Schafter's book...

[heidi]

No: HPFGUIDX 1927

and while I haven't read every single word of it, I've given it a pretty
good overview - this post is part review (part A) and part Plan To Allow
Many Listies To Read It Without Violating Copyrights (part B)...


Part A
Apart from the fact that in places, the grammar is terrible ("...such as
William Wallace known as Braveheart whose physique and daring somewhat
resembles Hagrid, the school's gamekeeper.") and for some reason the really
long list of mythical creatures includes Achilles, Sartyrs and the MInotaur,
but don't include Phoenixes, the information is fine in some places (the
discussion of magic through the ages, starting in ancient Egypt, is brief
but interesting), unsupported in others (her statement on Page 92 about
"house membership as revealed in books 1-3 and their characteristics
according to the sorting hat" places Dumbledore and all 3 potters in
Gryffndor, even though there is no concrete evidence to support that), and
really really weird in other places (she claims that Hagrid is like Poseiden
because of his mastery of the water (is she refering to the fact that he
brings 1st years to the school in boats, because I can't find ANYTHING
else).
Oh, and she states unequivocally that there are 280 students in the school.
Unequivocally - right!
Some of the activities for students are clever or at least interesting -
write a report on how garlic has been used as a magic potion throughout
history - but others are kind of dippy, even for little kids- polish AND
paint a stone to look like your idea of the Philosopher's/Sorcerer/s Stone.
But the vocabulary lists in each of the chapter discussions would be great
for teachers of mid-elementary school students, if they want an easy way to
put them together for vocab or spelling tests without reading each chapter
with a fine toothed comb.
Overall, a very mixed bag (I've scribbled comments throughout) - but I want
to hear what more of you have to say, which is why we have....
Part B.
I am sending it to Penny on Monday. She is also going to scribble her
comments in it, and then will send it on to another listie, who will do the
same, and so on and so on. When everyone who wants to read it has had the
chance, it gets sent back to me, so I can put it into a time capsule, to be
opened one month after Book VII comes out -so we can laugh at what we
thought about characters & what we predicted would happen.
If you want to be on the list, send me an email - and put SCHAFER in the
title - otherwise, it won't go into the correct filter - the first 25 people
who send me their names will be on the list to get the book - don't sign up
if you won't be able to cover the postage to send it to someone else in your
country. ANd I'm going to have to limit it to the US, Canada and the British
Isles for now - if you live elsewhere but want to be on the list, let me
know & I'll see what we can do.