Beware of spoilers

Two years ago, just days before the publication of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," Elizabeth O'Malley logged on to her favorite Internet discussion forum for some chitchat about the Red Sox or video games. She was jolted to find that there, in large red letters, a spoiler had announced a major plot twist in the book.

"I was like , 'Nooooooo!,' " recalls O'Malley, 24, of Bellingham. It ruined her enjoyment of the book.

This time, O'Malley is taking no chances. She plans to avoid any Internet site where she thinks there is a remote chance a spoiler will spill the beans about "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" before its publication Saturday. "It's something I've looked forward to for two years, and I don't want to be checking something online and find that someone has put it out there," she says.

Not all the potential spoilers are online, however. In Great Barrington, at the URJ Eisner Camp , assistant director Laura Gurvis is asking campers to vow not to reveal the ending of the final book in the series to other campers who haven't read it yet.

In 2005, when " The Half-Blood Prince" was released, some young campers raced through the book, then promptly told other children (who either had not read it yet or were reading it more slowly) about the death of a beloved character.

"You literally had children crying because the book was spoiled for them," recalls Gurvis, assistant director of the camp, which is run by the Union for Reform Judaism.

Chances are, the same scenario was playing out at camps, on beaches, and inside homes across the world. So what's a Potter fan -- or the parent of a Potter fan -- to do as the clock ticks down to Saturday?

"Put yourself in a voluntary news blackout," advises Liz Perle, editor in chief of Common Sense Media, an online forum devoted to issues of entertainment and family. "You can avoid certain websites. You can keep them only on e-mails you've already cleared." Her 13-year-old son, who has grown up with Harry Potter, is taking his appeal directly to friends and family. "He's telling everybody that he doesn't want to know, please don't tell him," says Perle.

Julie Dobrow of Lincoln brings to this question the dual perspective of a mother (she has four children ranging in age from 7 to 16, the older three of whom are Potter fans) and an expert on the effects of media on child development (she is the director of the Communications and Media Studies program at Tufts University). To Dobrow, the spoilers and the surrounding buzz afford a chance to impart some lessons to her children about marketing, about hype, and how to cope in an age of media bombardment. In skepticism and in media literacy, she believes, there is strength.

"When there's speculation about 'Will Harry die?', what I try to do with my kids is talk with them and ask: 'You see all this speculation. Does it increase your interest in the book? Do you think it will increase sales?' "

Of course, that line of defense only goes so far. "I don't know about my kids, but if Harry dies, I will be pretty upset," admits Dobrow.

Don Aucoin can be reached at aucoin@globe.com.