Rating: 
Summary: Not the best
Review: Harry Potter five reminds me of The Catcher in the rye. I dont know which main character in the books complains more. This is certainly not the best book in the series in fact I would rank it as fourth best while being superceded by books 4,3 and 2. Although this book lacks the passion of the others it is still pretty good for what it is. We get some looks into the wizarding goverment and hospitales which is interesting and atones a little for the lack luster pace. I eagarly await book 6 which hopefully will pick up the pace.
Rating: 
Summary: The best Potter so far!
Review: Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix is one of the greatest books I've ever read. This book is by far the best of the series, for right now. This book is different from the other Harry Potters as Harry is going through his teenage years. It is quite shocking when you first start to read it. Right from the beginning though, the book is great and already hard to stop reading where usually you have to get about half through it. This book also introduces a new defense against that dark arts teacher, as always, that will throw the reader through many emotions. Harry must battle against the darkest of forces in his fifth year at Hogwarts while having to go through the standard emotions of an adolescent and worrying about the O.W.L.S. Every Harry Potter fan and non-Hary Potter fan should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Calm before the storm... Totally understood the idea!
Review: I can see now why so many people say the book is not what they expected. Maybe they have not experienced a situation as described in the book, us in Panama with Gen. Noriega lived through a time as the one described in the book with Prof. Umbridge (of course much more worse!!!) I could totally relate to the book and is a perfect example of the calm that comes before a big storm. It's a transition period in the series, and I think the sensation of uncertainty it leaves on the reader is exactly what the author intended. That's just how we felt in my country just before all the crisis with Noriega (who believe me was worse than You-Know-Who)exploded and ended. I recomend the book, enjoy it and learn form the kid point of view how is like to live in under a dictator, ubelievable as it is that's just how it was here. Two thumbs up!!!
Rating:
Summary: Harry Potter and the Great Book with a Disappointing Climax
Review: From the the moment I layed my eyes on the dark blue cover I knew this book was my favorite so far, and it was. Before going to the story I'd like to point out another thing: Mary Grandpre's art. The blue cover totally shows the mood of this book and her chapter illustrations, compared to those of previous Harry Potter books, are magical because they are sharp yet hazy, and a lot more professional. Too bad the movies couldn't be animated in this artistic style. Back to the book itself, J.K. Rowling spends a lot of time on Harry's thoughts in the first chapter and I simply fell in love with all the angst and hoped it would stay like that for the rest of the book but it did not. Instead, several subplots were being examined. Many of these subplots were unnecessary but I still enjoyed them nonetheless. The plot in this book is a lot more psycological, instead of the villian-in-disguise of previous books, and I enjoyed the change greatly, but I was hoping Metamorphagus would come into play at the end. This book has has a lot of disloyalty to government, and the political issue of the wizarding world is similar to that of Iraq. J.K. Rowling also in this book has several liberal views yet only political junkies will notice. The climax was slighly disappointing to me as I was expecting something of book three or four's nature but it is, alas, similar to that of book two's, now along with the death of my favorite Marauder. There's always two more I guess. Another problem I had with this book is that I expected a ton of people to die, but (probably because of young fans through the movies) only two do so. Really, would madman Voldemort stop killing off the innocent during the day to possess Potter at night? I found this very odd indeed. I highly recommend this book as it will satify fans of any genre'. This was the best book after Prisoner of Azkaban and I hope the last two are even better.
Rating:
Summary: Harry Potter and the Gargantuan Page Turner
Review: Three frustratingly long years after the publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of
Fire, J.K. Rowling's legions of fans were rewarded for their patience with the release of
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - launched simultaneously in Britain, the USA,
Canada, Australia and in other English-speaking countries at one minute past midnight on
21st June 2003. This fifth book in Rowling's incredibly successful wizarding series is a challenging 766
pages long, containing over 255,000 words and weighing in at 2.8lb (1.3kg). In Britain
alone, it sold 1.8 million copies in the immediate hours following its release - a Nielsen
Book Scan estimate revealed that one person in every 28 possessed the Order of the
Phoenix. In the US, five million copies were sold during the same period. There can be
little doubt that Harry Potter is a global literary phenomenon. Trivia aside, Potter is no longer the awkward 11-year-old boy wizard that readers were
introduced to in the first book. Phoenix sees the tangle-haired Harry in his fifth year at
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is now an angry adolescent, a survivor of
various hair-raising escapades who often finds it difficult to control his emotions. He
frequently finds himself "consumed with anger and frustration, grinding his teeth and
clenching his fists", and occasionally takes his "growling resentment" out on his best
friends Ron and Hermione. Phoenix is an enormously harrowing adventure for Harry and definitely not ideal bedtime
reading material for the squeamish or fainthearted. He is attacked by dementors,
threatened with expulsion from Hogwart's, banned from playing Quidditch, discredited among
much of the magical population, haunted by dreams, visions and stories of his dead
parents, accused of being a liar by the atrocious Dolores Umbridge, forced to endure the
loss of a dear friend - and all this before his destiny is finally revealed to him by Dumbledore, who sits Potter down in his office and tells him "everything". The book is considerably darker than the first four novels as Voldemort begins to spread
his evil influence, opposed at each stage by the Order of the Phoenix, a protective circle
of benevolent witches and wizards. Once again, serious issues such as slavery and racism are touched upon in subplots such as
Hermione Granger's quest to liberate the long-suffering House Elves and in Malfoy's
fascistic hatred of "mud bloods" and "filthy half-breeds". Rowling's books reflect rather
than condone prejudice and Harry continues to take people at face value. Indeed, in their
steadfast determination to shield the weak against the evil forces of Voldermort,
characters like Professor Dumbledore quite clearly advocate open-mindedness and empiricism
at great personal cost to themselves. Unsurprisingly, Phoenix, like earlier books in the series, has been subject to intense
political and moral analysis. Since Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (the Sorceror
's Stone in the US), first took the American reading-public by storm in 1997, there have
been vicious attacks by Christian fundamentalists who believe the series is cultivating a
generation of "evil-doers". Indeed, the more extreme of these groups have accused Rowling
of deliberately "spreading witchcraft". After the release of book four, the Minnesota Star
Tribune reported that a New Mexico town had actually held a book burning, and the People
Magazine informed its readers that parents across the country were seeking to ban the book
from their children's school libraries. Mercifully, the vast majority of American families
have taken Harry to their hearts and Phoenix has broken all US sales records, outselling
even the biography of former first lady, Hillary Clinton. In a far more agnostically inclined Britain, critics have tended to complain that Potter
and his palls are a tad too "Middle-England" for their liking. However, I can only surmise
that there must be a distinct lack of humour amongst present-day literary commentators
because Rowling is quite obviously being ironic when she writes of the curtain-twitching
residents of Privet Drive and the Minister of Magic in his pinstriped robes. The Order of the Phoenix is by far the most sophisticated and mature book of the series so
far; it is also a more confident work than its predecessors. Although the earlier books
were far more comedy-driven, there are still many hilarious scenes in Phoenix that will
amuse children and adults alike. The narrative moves at a cracking pace as Harry struggles
to convince the wizard world that Voldemort has returned, and the book's prodigious size
allows Rowling to weave in serious themes. With two books to go, it remains to be seen which direction Rowling's storytelling will
take, but it seems likely that the link between Harry and Voldemort will lead to ever more
elaborate plot-twists and sensational revelations. In the meantime, Pottermania will
continue to inspire children across the globe to read - a truly magical achievement in
itself.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: Although I had already read the book, when my daughters were listening to these tapes I found myself listening in. Once again these tapes are beautifully done and really capture J.K. Rowling's story, and characters. Many hours of listening pleasure, great for long car rides, if played at night my children wouldn't sleep until they were done. Just be careful if you are listening and driving, you'll start paying more attention to the tapes than the road. A great set.
Rating:
Summary: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Review: This book was more exciting than the other four, but Harry was getting annoying, being mad at everyone all of the time. Over all, this is a very good book. I'm probably going to read it several more times, like I have with the others. Eventually, I want to get the French version, but it hasn't come out yet...
Rating: 
Summary: WELL, IT WAS NICE WHILE IT LASTED
Review: Sadly, when an author rises so rapidly it is the story that suffers. Such seems true with this latest installment of the Harry Potter saga. Not only is the book unnecessarily long (I guess Rowling felt that length would mean greater credibility), it also has all the trappings of an author who is thinking too much about selling books than about the story. I can hear Rowling now: Let's see, let's put in all sorts of bizarre and tangled foreshadowing, like staircases that, shifting this way and that, ultimately lead nowhere and just for show. Wonderful, wonderful! And what about a few new characters that are all poorly developed. Yes, yes, that's it. Oh, and let's overuse a few favorite phrases like "screw up" your eyes. Good, good! And let's be sure to go to the newspapers and to talkshow interviews and drop hints all over the place that sound more interesting than they really are! I shudder to think of what the final installment of this series will be should this trend of overthought and overmarketing continue in ensuing books in order to see Harry through to graduation from Hogwarts. If you need a fresh Harry Potter fix, read one of the previous four installments or watch one of the movies and let's hope that JK Rowling finds her muse again before proceeding with the story.
Rating: 
Summary: In my opinion...
Review: After reading the 800+ pages of non-stop suspense that gripped me throughout the entire novel, I was clearly dissapointed in the ending. Perhaps I had anticipated this latest novel to be along the same lines as it's predecessors. I understand that Harry is in constant struggle with his adversaries and like always, I had hoped that everything would turn in his favor in the end. It was almost like J.K. Rowling has taken the beakon of hope and happiness right out of Harry's eyes. The shift in Harry's attitude and outlook are quite depressing and it discourages me to see what will come in the next novel. But... I don't want to discourage anybody else from reading this novel, as the matter of fact it actually enlightens the reader on some questions that were never answered in the previous stories.
Rating:
Summary: only half way there
Review: i enjoyed this book very much. i thought Rowling did a great job bringing the reader into the world of Harry Potter. i could feel the anger he felt right along with him. i also think she was able to capture what a boy his age might actually be feeling after all that has happened to him in his life. it took me a week to read the book only becasue i had to work also, but it was very hard to put down. i was anxious to get to the end. but when i did, well, i look forward to number 6.
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