Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling. Because I'm a total sheep, and just can't bear to not have read the current book-of-the-moment.
I'll keep this fairly general and reasonably spoiler-free. If you want detailed blow-by-blow commentary examining all the minute details of the plot, well, throw a rock in the air, and it'll land on somebody who has a website listing all the latest Harry Potter buzz.
Unless you've spent the last several years living in a cave, you know that this is Book Five of the Harry Potter saga (and if you have been living in a cave, allow me to recommend sunscreen...). The first three books were enjoyable fluff-- a nicely whimsical style, a good dollop of inventiveness, and just enough creepy atmospherics to tie it all together. The sub-Roald Dahl antics of the Dursleys were a little bit off-putting, but those sections were dispensed with fairly quickly, and the Hogwarts bits were good fun. In the fourth book, however, the plot took a distinct turn, with an actual death among the cast, and some suggestions of greater depth to come, as the struggle against Lord Voldemort moves toward open war.
Unfortunately, this book, like Harry himself, is caught in a sort of awkward adolescent state, partway between the pure fluff of the first book, and the darker world of more adult fantasy. It's not exactly a step back in the progression of the series, but it doesn't really move forward, either.
A large part of the problem has to do with the structure of the plot. The first four books were all driven by a lack of communication-- they had to be, because all the problems could've been wrapped up in a matter of moments had any of the child protagonists bothered to talk to an adult. This is not a problem unique to Harry Potter, of course-- it afflicts all YA books to one degree or another. The protagonists are almost always children, and constructing an interesting book for the target audience pretty much requires that they be instrumental in solving the problems of the plot, which in turn requires that adults somehow be removed from the picture. There are lots of ways of doing this, ranging from having the adults be entirely absent during the crucial action (the approach used in Coraline and The Wee Free Men), to having them be utterly ineffectual buffoons (the Lemony Snicket approach).
Article comments
1 - Jeff Wiegand
I thought it was very good and so did my 11 and 12 year olds. The three of us managed to share and finish it from Saturday to Monday.
I think that she is really writing for children of this age and identifies with them perfectly. The lesson was that "when you Assume..." or would that be "Assurmate!"? I think if she went any deeper it would turn it into a snoozer for the kids (and unintellectuals like me).
I wish I had a series of books like this when I was growing up. Oh wait, I do! :)
Love the site,
JW
2 - Chad Orzel
I realize that the books are aimed at children, but that doesn't mean they need to be stupidly formulaic, which I think is the problem here. They're not entirely static-- there's been some characters growth, and the last two books have been significantly darker than the first two-- but sticking with the "nobody talks to anybody else" plot engine is a bit annoying.
Series books, even for young kids, don't need to all have the same plot. Even the Lemony Snicket books I mentioned (which are pitched at a lower level than Harry Potter) have a more diverse plot set than that.