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Showing posts from July, 2015

“The villagers of Little Hangleton still called it “the Riddle House,” even though it had been many years since the Riddle family had lived there.”

Courtesy of goodreads.com I will admit, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire  is the third best book in the series.  It also gives me the most anxiety.  I tear through the other books, not being able to put them down until I triumphantly finish and then throw it aside to militantly start the next book; this one usually takes me about two weeks to read.  I obsessively read through the beginning and then trickle down to a couple of chapters a day, and then, at the end, I am putting the book down every few pages to reel from the shock (the shock which never gets old.)  By the time I am finished with the book, I am stunned all over again. Why?  Goblet of Fire  is perhaps the most critical book in the series. It not only signals a shift in the narrative, but also a shift in Rowling's writing style. The narrative is darker, most complex, with more twists and turns. Rowling's writing is more mature, more detailed, and her crafted plot twists and characte...

“Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways.”

Courtesy of goodreads.com There is a character in every successful series that pulls at your heartstrings in a way that no other character does.  That character will have the love, admiration, and adoration of the readers.  There are several of these characters in the Harry Potter  series, but none quite wooed the audience like Sirius Black.  A bad boy with a heart of gold, a dog with unending loyalty, and the fortitude to stand up for what's right no matter the consequences to himself; this is Sirius Black and readers met him for the first time in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.   The third book in the series, Prisoner  is, without a doubt, one of the two best books in the series (the other being Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which we will be reading about soon!)   Prisoner  introduces us to new characters, new magic, new places, and begins to crack open the larger story line arc of the series.  It gives us a history ...

“Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive.”

Courtesy of goodreads.com By the time Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets  arrived on the scene in 1998, the formerly unsure readers were ready.  The book skyrocketed to the top spot in bestsellers in both the UK and the USA; Rowling became the first author to win the British Book Awards Best Children's Book of the Year two years in a row ( Philosopher's Stone  winning her first award); and Harry Potter fever was officially here to stay.  Movie rumors were being confirmed and, arguably the sign of a great book, people were challenging the series, due to witchcraft.  However, no amount of protests could slow the rampant Harry Potter craze. The beginning of  Chamber of Secrets  finds Harry miserable and lonely with his Muggle relations.  A series of mishaps later (a flying car! a mysterious elf! a tree that fights back!), Harry, along with his friends, are back off to Hogwarts.  They endure tougher classes, dive deeper into the hist...

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”

A good book is an escape.  It is a teacher.  It is a gateway to the corners of our imaginations that we never knew even existed.  A good book twists our mind, reshapes it, imprinting itself on us in ways that we would have never been open to otherwise.  A good book makes you want more.  Very very rarely do you get six more.  And yet, that is what British author, J.K. Rowling did for us.  She wrote not just one good book, but seven.  Literature and lives were changed.  The seven book journey of a boy and the fight between good and evil resonated with everyone.  That's why, during the month of July, Harry Potter's birthday month, I will be reviewing all seven books, the good, the bad, and the magical.  Rowling ushered my generation into a world of imagination and magic, during a time where we were awkward (preteen years are NO fun) and life seemed to be getting more stressful by the minute.  The Harry Potter  books mean so m...