Two Related Things

TAG! Including our adorable
bride & groom!

 And we're back!  So the past couple of weeks here in APL-land have been absurdly busy.  We had our wonderful, fantastic, and generally ridiculous "Harry-Potter-Bill-and-Fleur's-Wedding" event last week, followed by a TAG (teen advisory group) meeting so huge we couldn't even fit it into our regular meeting space (wish I had a picture!).  

Me & the Death Eaters!
(Best looking Death Eaters I've ever seen!)

The kinda cool, kinda weird, kinda amazingly coincidental thing about the HP program is the fact that some pretty huge J. K. Rowling news broke just a few days after our event (oh I'm sorry, did I say "pretty huge" news?  What I meant to say is "HOLY FREAKING COW* THIS IS GIANT NEWS!!!).  So here's what happened (think of this as the "Tanvi Condensed" version): "The Cuckoo's Calling," an adult thriller/mystery/crime/detective novel by debut author Robert Galbraith comes out in April.  It doesn't sell very many copies, but it gets rave reviews by both critics and regular readers alike; in fact, a lot of people are so amazed by this book that they're all like, "no way is this written by a first-time author, it's too freaking good!"  Well, um, turns out they were right -- it wasn't written by a first-time author.  Actually, it was written by the woman herself, the phenomenon we all know as J. K. Rowling.  Who wrote a new book.  And published it under a pseudonym.  Which is kind of insane.  So a book that originally sold like, a couple thousand copies now has the coveted #1 bestseller spot on Amazon; and here at APL, we originally had 1 copy that like, never checked out--now there are 56 holds and the library is buying 7 more copies (yes, needless to say, it IS on my APL holds list).  

I know this isn't necessarily YA-related, since the book in question is an adult title, but does anyone think you'll try it out anyway?  Also, when asked if J.K. Rowling is the actual author of "The Cuckoo's Calling," she and her publisher readily admitted that she is.  Anyone else smell something fishy?  Think this was some sort of genius marketing ploy?  I kind of do.**

By the way, stay tuned for more teen posts!

*Yes, I realize that I am probably the only person on the planet who says "holy freaking cow," and I am totally okay with that.

**But I don't care!  I still love her!

Photobooth! & Harry Potter!

Had to share pictures of a few of APL's teen advisory peeps from last week's teen event (click photos to see a larger image).  The photobooth pictures came out great!  Next week's event is the Harry Potter celebration of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's wedding.  So psyched.  How ridiculous and awesome will it be to watch Bill and Fleur get married in person (not to mention, how amazing will it be to hear them read the ridiculous vows we wrote them? ;)   Come by Bandshell Park on Wednesday, July 10 at 4pm to watch the ceremony, then stay for the butterbeer, cake, and chocolate frogs afterwards!

You Had a Good Run, Uncle Vernon

So I'm sure as many of you know, our beloved (and Harry's much despised) Uncle Vernon Dursley passed away this past Thursday in England.

Obviously as you can tell, I haven't posted much (i.e. at all) the past couple weeks, mainly because I've been feeling a little under the weather lately (weird combination of sore throat and migraines; I'm shaking my fist at you, weird and windy Iowa weather!).  But the news of Richard Griffiths's passing stirred me enough to drag myself on to the internet and fire up the old blog again--okay, actually I'm work right now and therefore probably would've been on the internet anyway.  That being said,  I did feel pretty emotional about the loss of the actor who played Uncle Vernon.

Here's the thing about Vernon Dursley, his misunderstood (but also pretty jerky, even if she did sort of come around in the end) wife, and his pretty annoying (again, even if he did sort of turn out slightly okay) son.  Actually,  here's the thing about pretty much all of the "Harry Potter" villains: they are awesome.  They are fantastically awesome.  Yeah, you hate them, because that's what they're basically there for in any story--to be evil and therefore be hated for their evilness while we cheer for the good guys and, you know, their goodness.  But you also kind of love the HP evildoers, too, don't you?*  When I think of say, the White Witch in "Narnia," I don't feel any particular fondness for her; she's just a jerk, and I hate her, and I'm glad when she's gone.

But Voldemort?  Totally fascinating.  I wanted to know everything about him.  I love seeing his weird lizard face on screen and took a strange delight in his quest to rid the magical world of Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore.  J.K. Rowling's bad guys aren't just bad guys--they're characters with histories and quirks, and they're interesting.  Maybe you wouldn't want to run into any of them in real life on the street, but from a safe distance, they're pretty freakin' fun.  I'm glad all ends well for Harry and company (well, minus a twin and a few others), but come on, let's be real: what's the HP-universe without a little Voldemort in it?

So back to Richard Griffiths.  Vernon Dursley, as written by Rowling, is a deliciously mean-spirited, fat old man that I absolutely despised, and I felt a lot of satisfaction each time Harry or another character managed to one-up him (which, yeah, was pretty much most of the time).  But Griffiths made that character.  He was the perfect Vernon Dursley--a totally bossy, petty, garish, contemptible, and kinda insecure guy of mediocre intelligence--and portrayed Harry's uncle in a way I doubt any other actor could.  A guy's got to have pretty damn good acting chops to make you not only hate him, not only love to hate him, but also feel genuine affection for.  So I suppose that's the finest praise I can give: Mr. Griffiths, you had some damn good acting chops.  I will think of you fondly each time I watch "Harry Potter" (which will, of course, be many, many times).

*The correct answer to this is: Yes.  Yes, you do.