capricious nerd / nerd teacher [books] reviewed Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter, #5)
Irresponsible adults annoy me.
3 stars
This book includes one of the elements that, as an educator, I loathe the most: Adults who refuse to explain anything to children because they... have some desire to see them still as naive, innocent, or something.
And that's the major point of this book (which could basically have been retitled as "Harry Potter and the Adults Who Keep Babying the Only Person to Repeatedly Face Voldemort and Potentially Endanger Him Because They Refuse to See Reality," but that'd be far too long). Everything Dumbledore does... messes everything up because he refuses to see the reality of people. He refuses to see that Harry could handle the situation, he refuses to see that Snape is really a big fucking baby that refuses to continue his duty to the Order (and never has any redeeming qualities ever).
There wouldn't have been a book without these elements, obviously, but this book is …
This book includes one of the elements that, as an educator, I loathe the most: Adults who refuse to explain anything to children because they... have some desire to see them still as naive, innocent, or something.
And that's the major point of this book (which could basically have been retitled as "Harry Potter and the Adults Who Keep Babying the Only Person to Repeatedly Face Voldemort and Potentially Endanger Him Because They Refuse to See Reality," but that'd be far too long). Everything Dumbledore does... messes everything up because he refuses to see the reality of people. He refuses to see that Harry could handle the situation, he refuses to see that Snape is really a big fucking baby that refuses to continue his duty to the Order (and never has any redeeming qualities ever).
There wouldn't have been a book without these elements, obviously, but this book is among the worst of them for me because I get so tired of chapters where Harry is lashing out at someone or something because some adult has refused to acknowledge the events of the past four years (or has acknowledged them and then completely did the opposite of what any other thinking person would've done).
I know so many people like this one more than the others, but I find it the most infuriating. This is probably because I actually work with children in this age range, and I know they're capable of handling so much (and probably because I previously was a teen girl who handled a lot of shit that teen girls shouldn't have to handle and have subsequently worked with a lot of girls who have also had to deal with shit they should've never been forced to). So it really frustrates me a lot to read this book with these adults just being... stereotypical adults. And somehow, there's not even one who breaks this mold at any point? (Which, to be quite honest, I would've thought Sirius or Remus would've taken that spot.)
Also: Dolores Umbridge. For fuck's sake, she is probably one of the better 'villains' of the world because she actually is present and making a mess out of things. It's also where we start getting a real look at some of the better characters (Neville and Luna), but it also creates a weird thing with Hermione that I hate?
So she's usually one of the best in terms of talking to people, making sure everyone is on board, she knows her information back-to-front, she remembers almost everything. Then, when they take Dolores out to the forest to get the Centaurs to deal with her, she... tells them that she was using them? Despite the fact she knows they're upset with humans and that Firenze working with the school is a major problem? And that even Hagrid isn't welcome in the Forbidden Forest? It feels like the person that should've been saying that was Ron, since that is the kind of mistake he would've made.
