HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE, by J.K. Rowling, Arthur A. Levine Books; illustrations by Mary GrandPre; Scholastic Inc., New York, 2005; $29.99, children’s hardcover.

Parents and schoolteachers should be glad that the new “Harry Potter” book was released in July, a month in which most children – Muggle or wizard – can stay up all night reading without their studies suffering.

And don’t doubt that children have been smuggling flashlights beneath their covers to read about the boy wizard’s latest adventures.

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth tale from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, takes us into Harry’s sixth year of magical studies with an exhilarating sense of dread that only the evil Lord Voldemort could conjure.

Rowling takes her time in the opening chapters gathering ingredients for the book’s brew, but the plot soon starts to simmer. Her unique combination of humor and PG-rated haunts comes shining through as Harry and mentor Albus Dumbledore prepare for an inevitable showdown with Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

The topics Rowling explores continue to become more mature as Harry himself grows older. In the first book, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” the main character’s main problems are adjusting to wizard life and navigating Hogwarts with new friends Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. In this sixth story, the three friends increasingly are preoccupied with their teenage love lives and career paths.

As Harry approaches his 17th birthday, the age of adulthood in the wizard world, he also becomes more involved in the battle against evil waged by Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix. Where in past books “The Boy Who Lived” mostly acquired knowledge and adventures by chance, “The Half-Blood Prince” shows Harry being given specific missions in the fight against the force that killed his parents.

Readers will be satisfied as certain truths and choices become more clear for Harry. While those who follow the series already know that Voldemort’s failed attempt to kill the Potter boy caused his temporary demise and a thirst for revenge, “The Half-Blood Prince” fills in some of the surrounding circumstances and illuminates important details.

Year Six at Hogwarts results in perhaps the greatest joy and greatest sorrow that Rowling’s readers have experienced. While readers may have found better imagination in Year One, or tighter plot development in Year Three (“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”), the strong emotions of “The Half-Blood Prince” promise a dramatic conclusion will be coming in Harry’s seventh – and final – story.

Parents hopefully will understand when they find the flashlight resting on a tear-stained pillow in the morning. And perhaps they will be wise enough to read along.

Judy Long is a BDN copy editor.