Rating: 
Summary: Dark, but a natural growth for a growing character
Review: After reading the previous four Harry Potter titles, this one has a lot to cover. The book centers around Harry and his much-increased troubles over the summer and especially back at Hogwart's. Chased by his enemies and people who don't believe his claims, he spends a lot of time trying to survive the changes in school faculty and the issues that seem destined to wipe him out. His cohorts all return, each with their own new challenges that add to their time being drawn away from being able to help Harry, but somehow finding a way to prepare together for their dreaded exams that will dtermine their magical careers ahead.For children, this is too dark a dark book to be introduced to Harry effectively, but no problem if they have read the previous books. It still retains the power to enthrall a reader, though, and leaves us waiting for a resolution down the road we won't see soon enough. On a very happy note, it will certainly entertain your youngster for a long car trip quietly, or yourslef for some good escapist reading.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but Umbridge gets on my nerves
Review: Does Rowling want people to stop reading her books? That is my question. It is a great book. But it could get on someone nerves. Umbridge is a pain in the rear end.I think she's trying to get everyone expelled. I had to stop reading for a few days. Fudge is also being a twit. Whats he so mad at Dumbledore for? The book does have good parts. I liked it when MacGonnagall gives Umbridge a good smack a round. She got what was comin to her. Overall the book is great.It has a good storyline and great characters. My final review is 4 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Though very different from the previous four, Harry Potter 5 is a great book! Yes - it was dark and a bit gloomy but as an older reader I feel that J.K. Rowling has mastered the teenage Harry. This isn't really a story for younger children because they would miss the main ideas. Anyhow, this is a great read! Yeah Harry Potter!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Social criticism worded for teenagers and even children
Review: This fifth volume of the Harry Potter saga was more than expected and it finally came out and it did not disappoint our expectations. This volume is interesting because it puts the first four volumes in a clear perspective as for Harry Potter's fate contained in a prophecy. This volume is interesting too because it shows how Harry Potter is able to summon around him a fair number of fellow students to fight against the Dark Lord, Lord Voldemort. This is a great optimistic sign about young people who are able to fight against evil, against what is bad in the world. Then the adventure of the fight between the good forces and Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters is full of unexpected developments and surprises. But the book is also interesting because it shows how a government in our countries is easily choosing the third way that is the negation of evil forces and the rebuffing of good forces who denounce these evil forces. This is a clear cut syndrom in our societies today with the choice of that middle of the way policy that leads nowhere except to victimizing those who are the only defense against evil. Here we can wonder if Rowling is not aiming at those benevolent governments who do not have the courage to fight against what is wrong in our societies and prefer giving aspirin against cancer or coughdrops against tuberculosis. The next interest of this book is that good is identified with being good and humane with your fellow humans, with accepting differences between people, be they physical, psychological or cultural and moral, with refusing discrimination, any discrimination in any form. The final interest of this book is the description of school life when the head and the teachers try to impose control of and limitations on students rights. It creates havoc and it leads to catastrophes, especially when some teachers try to retain some knowledge and to prevent students from getting the full picture of what they can and want to know. Luckily young people seem to be able to resist and to find other ways to get the knowledge they need and want. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan
Rating:
Summary: Great Book.... Can't wait for the next one!
Review: I thought the book was very well written, as were the others. I won't go into much detail because some of you might not have read it yet, but I think the book only has three flaws:
1. Harry's temper throughout the book is very strange. I think he was a lot nicer in the first books, and now he's borderline annoying! lol
2. I don't see why the person who died in the book had to die. It doesn't make any sense. But, I guess we will see what happens in the later books.
3. The book is kind of long and drags on a bit. But overall I thought the story line, the writing, and the entire book was excellent! I can't wait for the next one! :o)
Rating:
Summary: JK Rowling does it again!
Review: I have loved all the Harry Potter books, and this one was no different. It is great how everything starts to make sense in this book, and Harry growing up is more evident then ever. I love how all the problems Harry has just keep stacking up. All in all, I really enjoyed this book, just like the rest of the series.
Rating:
Summary: Growing as the reader grows!
Review: I loved this book! I finished it in less than 2 days. The plot was for an older child, perhaps a teenager. It has the Harry Potter charm and as an added bonus lets you see in to Snape's mind.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but flawed
Review: The first four Harry Potter books were almost perfect. Each book built on the last, with Year 4 being a huge payoff as it reaped what had been sowed in the first three books. Year 5, while good, is the first to feel as if it's "the middle of the story." I have faith that JK Rowling will make the most of the seeds planted in Year 5 in later books, but Year 5 does stand weaker alone. I agree with many of the points made in the negative reviews here, so I will try and highlight some I haven't read. Spoilers: (...) My other problem with the story is that after creating such great villains in Fudge and Umbridge, we really never get to enjoy their downfall. After creating a (...) state in Hogwarts and admitting to releasing dementors on Harry, Umbridge should be in Azkaban. Likewise, Fudge should be charged with corruption and abuse of power. I'm hopeful that these threads are at least visited in Year 6, but to not have these events in Year 5 makes for an unsatisfactory feeling. Likewise, there is no followup on the Percy Weasley thread. While I am sure that this, too, will be in Year 6, it doesn't seem fair to the reader to make us wait 2-4 years for this conclusion. The same goes for the results of the O.W.L. testing. The Hogwarts students only have to wait a month, we readers have much longer to wait. In the end, I did enjoy the book, but I put it below Years 3, 4 and 2 (in that order) but above Year 1.
Rating:
Summary: Harry is growing up...
Review: I could not get this book off my mind after finishing it. I could not help but emphatize with Harry especially during the last chapters. While all of the five books have always been known to provide amazing and wonderful plots with all their twists and turns, this book however touches deeply on harry's emotions- his disappontments and frustrations, his anger and most of all his internal suffering and loneliness. Readers will probably feel very sad and disppointed in the final chapters but I hope they will also share my view that each unique experience that Harry goes through is a key ingredient in his transition from boyhood to manhood. There are also memorable chapters that I myself have re-read so many times because I just found them so touching. His battle with Voldemort continues and this has led me to believe that Harry would probably be the most logical and best teacher for the subject of Defense against Dark Arts, but this is still far away into the future. I wish Ms. Rowling would hurry up with book six so we won't be kept in suspense for a long, long time.
I congratulate J.K rowling again for this fantastic book!
Rating:
Summary: only two words- sad and good.
Review: I found this book- Harry Potter 5- a great book. It almost made me sick, they way that it is so good. i want to read it agina and again, only so i can feel sadder and sadder. in this book [gender]is brought in. (not SEX, just sexualaity. as in girls and boys) cho chang- harry's crush in book four- gets a little closer than just "girl in the hallway." i can tell you right now, as a tweleve-old girl, that harry does NOT get girls. (neither does ron, but that was expected.) he goes on his first date in this book, and let's just say that did not go as he expected or wanted. (i really wish rowling would get to ron liking hermione, which IS obvious. THOSE WHO THINK THAT HARRY LIKES HERMIONE BETTER TAKE ANOTHER LOOK!) but as it says in the title of this review, sad and good, it is just that. Sad. harry, as a teenager, which i can relate to, has many mood swings. (being chased and almost murdered and not told things adds to the list of his teenage blues and hot flashes, too.) rowling descibes this in the all-too-realistic-that-it-becomes-scary-way of ENORMUS FLASHES OF LOUD, FURIOUS, RAGE!!!!!!! he is pushed aside, ignored, and has the teenage, childish feeling that he is misunderstood. (i feel this way too, so look who's talking!) yes, harry does show a bit of arrogance at this age, but that is completely average, so it just makes the book even more well written. another type of evil is added in this book. in all the other books it was always good or evil. black or white. there was never an in-between. never a "gray". finally this is added in the 5th book. Umbridge. she is the worst possibel character, without beign associated with voldemort at all. she clearly expresses the view that there are people out there that are evil to the core, but in no way a terroist, a theif, murderer, or crime lord. not exactly malfoy, the annoying childish tease, but more like a snape that doesn't hate dumbledor. (and umbridge and him have a few "agruments"- to put it nicely.) with the word "snape" still in mind, i must say, he is the WORST in this book. you get to learn about his past with james, the "truth" about harry's father, (don't you hate it when the guy you hate is right?), and the real reason he is like what he is like. i find that he is a little childish with this grude he holds, and a little pathatic. but is realistic, and still leaves me with a reason to hate snape. (and may i mention, to everyone's disapointment, you get to see a LOT of snape in this book, due to harry's extra lessons...) fred and george. should i say "a perfect finallee" or maybe "wild and wacky"? or maybe just "you gotta read about them."? whatever i say, i will wind up giving the funny surprise away, and that is something i can't do to you. so i will just leave this subject. everybody's question- "what does voldemort do?" voldemort is one thing you see less of, though you still have your voldemort and june castrophe, as usual. but the question "who? what? when? and where?" is even asked by harry! and the only answer is "nothing yet." as i read the book i became fidgety- thinking "what is rowling planning? what is she waiting for?" i knew, though. everyone talks about it. THE MAIN CHARACTER'S DEATH!!!!!!!!
the main character that dies is my personal favorite, though it was predicable-rowling. weeks before this book came out i was hoping, PRAYING, that it was not that character. lucky me, i fell in love with...(omg, i almost gave away the character's sex!) but i really liked that character, just friendship love. i was too sad to cry when the character died. it was so realistic. that was the worst part. (it being realistic, i mean.) you are going to have to read it to find out who (sniff) dies. back to voldemort. he is there, and again harry lives, somewhat lamely, to his effort. he is always saved, and i sickly wish his savior is killed off in the 7th book. (sick, i know, but i am sort of a slythiren. my favorite song is "long live the dark lord!") but i can't really say much in this book, except that he's after "something he didn't have before. something like a weapon". one line was given out at the end of the book. dumbledor, tellig harry everything. well, everything was SURPRISING! NOT! i already knew THAT! as did all the other readers i met. some of it got me as angry as harry, as is exampled by the state of my bedroom. "old man's mistake" really got to me. i was thinking more like "A LITTLE BIGGER THAN A DAMN MISTAKE, DUMBLEDOR!" but that is not important. the important thing is the effect it has on harry. he is depressed, and his attitude makes me sooooooo not look foward to book 6. but it is, i guess, shocking news to him, so i understand. (sorta) but dumbledor is right- he should have told harry 5 years ago. (and if you search the first book for an unanswered question by dumbledor...) sirius is also right- he is not a child. mrs. weasley just tries to baby him more in this book. this book makes you cry, scream, and laugh along. almost as if you ARE harry. it is too realistic for me, as i now feel as depressed at he does. it is a great book, and i suggest you read it. just...uh...don't read it in one day without sleeping and eating as i did, because next thing you know your dizzy and trying to throw the nothing in your stomach up. "Dark"
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