After Harry

Yes, there is life after Harry Potter ...

Time to chill

TOTS TO TEENS By DAPHNE LEE

SO, what’s next? Now that you’ve read the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series, will you start all over again, from book one? Will you just re-read Deathly Hallows, lingering over the mushy bits? Will you buy the movies on DVD and hold a Harry party? Or, will you simply accept that there is life after Harry and try something not written by J. K. Rowling?

After spending eight hours (on and off) reading Deathly Hallows so I could write the review, I knew it was time for my annual re-read of The Dark is Rising sequence. As it happened, I also needed to recover from the horrors of the trailer for the upcoming movie, based on the second book, from which the series takes its name. At the moment, there’s a whole lot of ranting and gnashing of teeth going on online.

Fans of Susan Cooper’s fantasy quintet are outraged by how the makers of the film have decided to alter the book’s plot and characters.  If you like the book go take a peek at www.seekthesigns.com, but be prepared to be confounded and disappointed. If you have not yet had the pleasure of reading The Dark is Rising, please rush out and get a copy as soon as possible. It really deserves to be read before the movie is released.

The novel can be read as a standalone despite it being the second book in a series. In it, Will Stanton, the seventh son of a seventh son learns, on his 11th birthday, that he is one of the Old Ones, guardians of the Light, destined to fight the evil Dark that is constantly threatening to take over the world in its bid for absolute power.  Will also learns that he is the Sign Seeker who must find six cross-quartered circles, which are among the ancient things of power needed to vanquish the Dark for all time. Naturally, the Dark is also after the signs.

The book opens on the eve of Will’s birthday. It is also the week leading up to Christmas. Will wishes for a white holiday, but he doesn’t bargain for one of the worst snowstorms in the history of England.  As he begins to better understand his newfound powers and role as an old one, as well as the motives and plans of the Dark, Will realises that the cold and snow are instruments that the enemy is using to win this particular battle with the Light.

If you’ve never experienced the mesmerising, stark beauty of a snowy landscape, The Dark is Rising is a book that most effectively evokes the sharp and icy coldness of winter, and conveys how snow can be both a delight (in its pure, bright, magical loveliness) and a curse (when the cold lingers and becomes cruel and crippling).  In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the White Witch turns Narnia into an icy land, but life does go on. In The Dark is Rising, as the snow falls unceasingly and people become stranded and cut-off, food supplies dwindle and power fails, the possibility of death as a result of starvation and hypothermia becomes increasingly likely. Even if it happens to be 36degrees in the shade, you might find you want to snuggle under a blanket when reading The Dark is Rising. (By the way, another book that I think describes winter very well is Moomin Midwinter by Tove Jansson.)

Evoking shivers of a different sort is Deep and Dark and Dangerous: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn. I chose it as bedtime reading a few nights ago and regretted it because it made me lie sleepless and apprehensive for long minutes after I hurriedly closed the book midway (deciding I should complete it in broad daylight).

The story is not a terribly original one. In fact, it has a distinct urban legend quality to it. However, Hahn is very good at fleshing out her characters and filling in the details of the plot and setting so that you really can imagine what everything and everyone is like. The ghost doesn't jump out of dark corners screeching, but is frightening partly because it is so ordinary and also because its nastiness, although quite human in nature and execution, is quite diabolical in the context it's presented in. I won't spoil the story by saying more, but, yes, this is another good choice for those suffering Harry withdrawal.

Finally, because three is neat and is the number wishes come in, why not try a series that has nothing to do with fantasy worlds or alternate universes, wizards or ghosts, and battles between good and evil. Perhaps Hogwarts has stirred interest in books set in boarding schools, in which case, why not Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series, which was reissued last year by Egmont Books. The covers are godawful (it's like Bratz dolls in school uniform-inspired gear), but the text remains unchanged. Actually, although they are not fantasy, the books describe a life that is quite alien to most of us. It's a romanticised rendering of the boarding school experience. However, the snobbery is quite accurately portrayed (so my friends who attended posh British boarding schools like Roedean and Cheltenham Ladies College tell me).

Malory Towers tracks Darrell Rivers' schooldays, from the time she first enrols as a hot-tempered first former to her final triumphant year as universally-admired head girl. In the course of the six books, readers, along with Darrell, learn important lessons about friendship, loyalty and honesty. They might also learn that it's OK to pick on people just because they're different and that you should be nice to the mousiest, most nondescript girl in school because, who knows, she just might turn out to be a titled personage!

On that cynical note, happy reading!