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Summary: The Harry Potter books are the best!
Review: The Harry Potter books are the best books I've ever read, and I think everyone, even adults, would enjoy them. I think this because they're very adventurous, suspensful, a little scary, and weird. They're the best books I've ever read because they're very well written and you can't put them down, they're so good. When you read them you don't always realize it but you are constantly imagining what it would be like to be there and what the people look like. So if you get a chance read this book you'll enjoy it!
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Summary: I'll read it to my children
Review: The Harry Potter books are the best books I've read in my life. Last year, I was feeling ill and had stayed home from school all week and was getting bored. My mother, fed up with my whining, went out and bought me the first Harry Potter book. That certainly stopped my boredom. I read it twice that day and since then I have bought the next two book and read them all at least ten times. The first chapter or two were quite confusing, and at first I thought it wouldn't be that good. But once Harry got to Hogwarts, the story improved immensly and I couldn't put it down. The books all have excellent plots, you never know what is going to happen next. There are secret meanings everywhere which adds to the charm. The books, especiallly the third one, are so fantastic that I wonder if Rowling can go even better. This is a great book and I'll read it to my children.
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Summary: Very exciting despite the writing style
Review: The Harry Potter books are very much as exciting and enjoyable as all these reviews state! My children (6 and 8)and I have been enthralled every night over the past weeks reading about the adventures of Harry, Ron and Hermione. I must say that these books are NOT the easiest to read aloud! The author often trips over herself cramming way too much into some sentences. Sometimes she will cram a final thought or description to the end of a sentence just just doesn't fit right and requires me to re-read the sentence aloud or even split it into two sentences to be sure we all understand what she is trying to say. Other times the author gets on a roll, and when she does, she writes smooth exciting sentences and fills our minds with thrilling images. Several parents have expressed to me their frustration with reading these books aloud for the same reason, so I thought I would let you know. REGARDLESS, we love reading these books and discussing the various sub plots and clues that interconnect the three volumes. Its amazing what my boys discover the further we read. If you are looking for a book to inspire kids to read and think (and have a blast doing so) then I have to recommed all three volumes. Just be prepared to glide your Nimbus 2000 broomstick over the turbulent sentences. And watch our for You Know Who!
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Summary: Harry Potter And The Sorcer's Stone
Review: The Harry Potter books are with out a doubt the best books i've read. Thes 4 books are probly the most relistic book's in the world right now. Harry Potter and the Sorcers stone I think is the best book of the series. The best part of the book is the end when evaray thang comes out you think stuped of me it was right there.I will be sad when the last book comes out becuse then it will all be over. With out books there are no drems with no drems there is no life. (by Anonmys)
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Summary: HEARING HARRY POTTER'S FIRST YEAR AT HOGWARTS
Review: The HARRY POTTER books by J.K. Rowling are witty, mysteryous, magical, fun, scary, grupping, action-packed, adventurous, and daring. HARRY has gone where no book series has ever gone before--winning the UK's Smarties Prize Award three times in a row for the three books in the series so far: HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, and, most recently, HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN.I just recived the audio of HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE to my great delight. I have already listened to the first chapter, THE BOY WHO LIVED, and plan to enjoy many more experiences at Hogwarts--hearing them. Now I can only imagine what Quidditch will be like, what I will hear Harry say when he discovers The Mirror of Erised, the note of panic in his voice when he finds out Voldemort's plans, and the taste of victory over Slythern for The House Cup. Unchanged and in it's entirety, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE will be a treat--just as unpredictable as Every Flavor Beans! To sum it up, just say one thing: "Once upon a time" never sounded as great as in HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE and "happily ever after" never was as great a final treat for the ear.
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Summary: The Controversial Harry Potter
Review: The Harry Potter books have been very controversial. J.K Rowling makes use of different types of magical devices, such as the famous Quidditch broom, owls that deliver mail, and invisible cloaks. This book is developed in a fictional point of view and this is why it is so controversial. They live in a fantasy world called Hogwarts, which is a school for magic. All of this magic is placed within the fantasy world. Every reader that I know, including myself, creates a passion for this book and the rest of the series. Even though this book is controversial, I believe this is the greatest book to help children create their imagination and picture themselves in the fantasy world.
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Summary: Thoughts on Hermione
Review: The Harry Potter books have received raving reviews everywhere from pretty much everyone, and to see what all the fuss was about, I read the delightful Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at the end of July 2000. I did enjoy reading it too and had a wonderful time. In the first few days to come once I had read it and the dust was beginning to settle, I however had an unsettling feeling that just wouldn't go away. I think the feeling initially surfaced when reading the Halloween chapter in the middle of the book, at which time some tension had been building for a while with Harry and mostly Ron dismissing Hermione as "clever", "nagging", "annoying" and being a "bossy know-it-all" (p164). It was Hermione though, who got Harry and Ron out of the mountain troll trouble (pp177-179) and in doing so was punished herself. And "from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend". That's nice of course, but it struck me later that Harry, unlike Hermione, is not the kind that would unselfishly go out on a limb. He is simply the chosen, the natural if you will. While Hermione has faught hard and read much to get where she is, Harry was merely born into a destiny for glory. And whereas luck and others tend to protect Harry when he has broken the rules, Hermione, who by nature is not as easily likeable as Harry, has come to view following the rules as a defense mechanism. The more she does so, the more she is ridiculed, and vice versa. Once she has broken the circle, all is more pleasant. "Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking rules since Harry and Ron had saved her from the mountain troll, and she was much nicer for it." (p181). Hermione was the one who discovered that "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Sorcerer's Stone!" (p220). She also figured out that Harry's broomstick was jinxed. Yet she says to Harry towards the end: "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things - friendship and bravery and - oh Harry - be careful!" (p287). Once Harry wakes up from the stone and mirror climax, Dumbledore is there to tell him that "only one who wanted to find the stone - find it, but not use it - would be able to get it" (p300). This somehow rings truer for Hermione than for Harry, who earlier said that "Anyone would want it! (p220) and that "If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! (p270) and "Voldemort killed my parents, remember?" (p270). It is a highly personal matter of course, and it may be argued that Harry is indirectly using the stone, inasmuch as if he prevents Voldemort from getting it, then everyone, including himself, is saved. Looking back at the story, I can't remember a single incident where Harry did something exclusively for others. And that surprised me, because how can it be that there must always be something in it for him? After all, he is supposed to be our hero of the book. I am also a little uneasy about the various times he appears to be a bit too eager to get back at others like Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Snape, Voldemort and of course Dudley. Harry looks like a saint next to Ron (Harry's "animal" side?), who is easy to critize others. It is however Hermione, who comes through on her own, and she is my hero. J K Rowling once said in an interview that "Hermione Granger is a little bit like I was at her age, though I was neither as clever or as annoying (I hope!).", and the question is why she was written to be that way, if not simply to make Harry look better? The author says in another interview, that "I was a little bit like Hermione in the book when I was young. I wasn't as clever, and I really hope I wasn't as annoying. I did consciously base her on me when I was about 11.", and also that "Harry came fully formed out of my imagination, but there is obviously a lot of me in Harry."
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Summary: Harry Potter
Review: The Harry Potter books have to be the best books I have ever read. They are captivating and leave me counting down the months until the next book is released. You definitly won't be disapointed!
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Summary: Best book for young minds out there
Review: The Harry Potter collection is by far one of the most interesting and imaginative works out there. I'm 18 years old and you know what I asked for for christmas? All three of them. I read them all on a weekly basis. Since I received them I think I have read them all about 15 times each. Thank you Miss Rowling for this inspiring story about a boy and his travels. I anticipate the next book with great anxiety and recommend this book to anyone with an imagination young and old.
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Summary: Harry Potter and the dumbing down of children's literature
Review: The Harry Potter craze has swept the nation. If literary quality depended upon majority vote, surely Rowling would be lionized as the author of the decade. I stand against the tide, I'm afraid, since I think that the attraction of the Potter series is that they are inferior rather than superior children's stories and thus better suited to a public more used to dealing on the level of half-hour sitcoms than with intellectual or literary challenges. I've collected children's literature since I was a child myself (30 years now, and the books overflow the shelves). Like many other kids, I was always fascinated by fairy tales, fantasies and stories of the supernatural. We didn't have Harry Potter back then, but we did have Tolkein's THE HOBBIT and LORD OF THE RINGS. Granted, the Rings series is a little tough for a ten-year-old, but for the pre-teens there was always ALICE IN WONDERLAND as well as Lloyd Alexander's wonderful BLACK CAULDRON and its sequels, C.S. Lewis's Narnia series, Carol Kendall's THE GAMMAGE CUP, Madeline L'Engle's WRINKLE IN TIME, Joan Aiken's WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE and, for lighter fare, Eleanor Estes' delightful tales about the Witch Family. These were books that kept me and my school friends delighted and amazed. They fulfilled the charge of fantasy: challenged our assumptions, made us think about the world, and taught us to appreciate good writing. Harry Potter is a frothy, pleasant read but it does none of the above. That adults in the U.S. are reading it as well as children and that all are hailing it as some modern miracle of story telling signals only the poverty of our own literary experience and imagination and the power of a great marketing campaign. The U.S. has one of the most poorly-educated populations in the developed world (and falls well below many developing countries in literacy skills) and the apparent belief that Rowling's work is a watershed moment in literary history seems to bear that out. There are many wonderful and far less well-recognized writers of children's fantasy today. As an example, I particularly recommend the wonderful work of Virginia Hamilton, whose stories stimulate the imagination and feed the intelligence of young readers. Compare her remarkable SWEET WHISPERS BROTHER RUSH to Rowling's work. Also check out Philip Pullman's exciting series starting with THE GOLDEN COMPASS.
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