Harry Potter: the beginning of the end

I'll be getting my hands on a (borrowed) copy of #7 this evening. No spoilers in the comments please.

More than five years ago, I wrote an English honours thesis comparing the representation of children and childhood in Harry Potter and Narnia. At that stage, only the first four books had been published and no movies had come out. I'll be very interested to see whether my claims still hold up in light of the final revelations.

As is often the case, the best thing I've read on Harry Potter is found on Alastair's blog in a lovely post called 'Of Boggarts'. Here's a taste:

Christian authors can and should tell stories of Greek and Norse gods, of dragons, giants, goblins, faeries, of witches on broomsticks, of pixies, gnomes, elves and dwarves. These stories are the chains in which defeated Boggarts are paraded in triumph before the Risen Christ.

Also from Alastair comes a link to this catchy video which I can't get out of my head.