Rating: Summary: Spend a year at Hogwart's and you'll want to stay forever! Review: This is the most fun my kids and I have ever had reading together. Rowling captures your imagination with her quirky characters and magical adventures! We couldn't wait to read the next chapter (it was very hard to limit it to one chapter at bedtime)! In fact, I cheated and finished the book one night after my kids went to bed. Rowling's writing style is very easy to follow and she has written the kind of book that captures the little kid in all of us!
Rating: Summary: WoW! Review: This is the most fun-filled, edge of seat and keep up till the wee hours of the morning book. From his unfortunate happenings with the Dursleys and his rise to fame at Hogwarts, this book is a must have. There are exciting plot lines and a exciting battle at the end. It took me just 2 days to read it.
Rating: Summary: Hedwig Rocks!! Review: This is the most incredible fantasy book I have ever read! I've got all Four of the Harry Potter books & I have read them all about 5 times!!The characters are all so real, it just makes you want to shout & scream & cheer & cry & laugh & everything! Its great, I can't wait till the next one comes out!And by the way HEDWIG ROCKS!!!
Rating: Summary: The childhood you always wanted Review: This is the sort of book you buy for your kids, but read the first few pages just to 'have a peek'. You then find yourself curled up under the covers with a torch, imagining you are in the hidden passasges of the wizards' castle. Your kids will have to steal it from you!!
Rating: Summary: Mildly entertaining but very over-hyped Review: This is the type of book I find difficult to review. When I read a "children's" book, I'm not sure how I should approach it. Do I go in with the mind-set of a child, or do I look at it from an adult view to examine how effective it is for a child? I usually try to do a little of both, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. In the case of Harry Potter, I wanted to see what effect this story would have on a child, probably someone in the 10 - 15 year-old range. First off, let me say that having children of my own, I've read my share of children's books - from the early stories of Clifford to the later adventures in baby-sitting. So I've been exposed to all levels of children's books. What I found with HP was disappointing for the most part. The story starts very slow, a younger child (say around 8 - 10) will probably have a difficult time getting started. I even found it not easy to get involved with the story. The only reason I stayed with it was because I was determined to see what all the hype was about. Any child less determined will probably put it down and (hopefully) choose another story. And part of the storytelling is definitely geared towards an older reader. Thus leaving the younger reader confused - another reason to abandon this book. It isn't until you're about one-third into the story that it becomes interesting. But what child is going to stick with it until then? So here we have a problem, the story is written in a manner to appeal to younger children. It doesn't get involved with character development aside from the basic stereotypical characters that you can find on TV shows. So its simplistic plot and syntax make it relatively easy for a younger reader. But the pace that the story starts in, with vague plot discussions, is enough to discourage many readers. The beginning of the book seems to have been written with an older reader in mind, and then given up for a much younger audience. If this book is trying to appeal to readers of both a younger an older age group, it fails on both ends. It is difficult to tell a story in only one manner that both a younger and an older person would find as enjoyable. So what about the story itself? I'll admit there were a few surprises in it for me, but for the most part it's very simple. Once Harry gets to wizard's school you could substitute his adventures for any child's starting a new school. What happens to Harry, magic aside, happens to anybody. His friends, teachers and enemies are all taken from anyone's childhood days. His story is not any different than yours or mine. So, could I recommend this book? Probably not. I would say that if you're interested in what all the Harry Potter hype is about then read it. One advantage to it being directed towards children is it's a fairly quick read for an adult. So you don't feel too bad taking a couple of days to read it. But if you're looking for a good story that's well written, regardless of who the target audience is, then I would say skip it. It didn't interest me enough to want to keep reading the series and it probably won't interest you either.
Rating: Summary: The Best Book I Read Review: This is then best book I ever read! I was only supposed to read til 9:30 every night. Instead I read till 10:00. It was very entertaining and exiting. I liked when Voldemort showed up again,and when they played giant chess. If you haven't read It , READ IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating: Summary: Very possibly the greatest book ever written Review: This is very very probably the greatest book ever written, for children or for adults. Harry Potter is an eleven year old boy who grew up abused, ignored and ridiculed by the obnoxious Dursleys who took him in when he was a baby. His parents died when he was no more than two years old. He finds out on his 11th birthday that he is a wizard! And ever since then, life for this more-than-average boy has NEVER been the same. Trolls, wizards, giants, and dragons, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone delivers it all. Your mind will swell with imagination when you read this book. You'll see things that you could only see by reading about Harry Potter and his adventures in the wizarding world. And when you're done, you'll wish you were there with him. Soaring through the air on a broomstick, or facing the evil dark lord, Voldemort, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone conquers all. It's a book I guarantee you will read again and again.
Rating: Summary: An all right read Review: This is what you would call a "fair" book. It doesn't rank up with "Lord of the Rings" and the Earthsea books. There is no great harm in them, unless you take it the wrong way.First of all, those who say that J.K. Rowling is changing the rules if fantasy have no conception of what fantasy is. What makes fantasy fantasy is that it has no rules. Fantasy is like clay. You can mold in any shape you want. This is not to say there isn't good fantasy and bad fantasy. There is good scuplture and bad scuplture, isn't there? And this isn't quite good, but it isn't quite bad, either. It is a rather normal book. Why, then, if it is so normal, has the world embraced it in such a way? Perhaps because the characters are more realistic than most, or maybe because everything seems to be against them and they always come out on top. Some people object to these books because of magic. Lets strike out LotR, Grimm Fairy tales, the Andrew Lang books, and Norse mythology them. They all have magic in them. I uses to live in New Orleans, where kids have to have their candy checked on Halloween, because "Whitches" or the Satanists, might put poisin in them. And the magic used in this book is extremely different from that. The plot is simple. A boy from a awful household finds out he is a wizard, and so he goes to Hogwarts, where he begins to learn magic. On the way there he makes both a friend and an enemy. They learn with a lot of bruises and bumps, and make another friend, a Hermione Granger, by knocking out a mountain troll together. At the end he confronts one of the most powerful sorcerers af the age, and defeats him. Many people object to these books without reading them. Which is rather stupid. Don't judge what you haven't read. So there's what I think about this book.
Rating: Summary: What's all the fuss? Review: This is without a doubt a truly charming book (no pun intended), and sure to be a classic. However, I'm still not quite sure what all the fuss is about...there are many exemplary children's books that don't generate anything like the excitement that this series has... I simply wonder why.
Rating: Summary: The BEST Kids' Fantasy Book Ever!!! Review: This is, without a doubt, one of the BEST books I have read in my life! I LOVE anything dealing with fantasy and/or humor, so I hardly put this book down when I started reading it! This book ranks up there with any of Roald Dahl's dark kids' books. My dad and my mom are going to read it, too, and I gave a copy to my best friend. I can't wait for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to be published in the USA! Take my advice: If you haven't read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, then you haven't read anything yet!
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