Rating: 
Summary: For Adults too...
Review: As a single girl with no kids- I have not been swept up in the Harry Potter craze,but i am a fan of the book as adult contemporary literature. It is worth reading. The Harry potter series is marketed as a kids book, but I know that alot of adults enjoy it with their children. I hope that more and more adults will give this remarkable story a try- it has alot of grown up themes. Like the other books, this fifth installment starts out with Harry Potter's summer with his muggle family. This allows us to cover his whole year at Hogwarts and ends with him leaving for the summer at years end. This year is quite different for Harry- he is ostrasized from the kids (who think he's crazy); from Dumbledorf (for reasons to be explained); and even from his best friends (who are now prefects). No one believes him about the return of Voldemort and Harry and the Order of the Phoenix are battling the dark forces- not knowing who is on their side or who can be trusted.
This book is filled with darker images which is more appropriate as Harry grows older and is faced with difficult challenges and choices. There are also more adult subplots-harry's adolescent romance, losing loved ones and even racial differences (muggles vs wizards, house elfs, pure bloods vs. those that are not pure etc)- it is quite an adult theme to deal with especially in these times. I was happy that the author's writing style is also more sophisticated than in her previous novel, and the length of the book was not intimidating once you start to read it. Each book can be read as a stand alone, but this book did not give the typical summary of past events so readers will get more enjoyment having read the previous 4. All in all, I encourage adults and kids alike to pick up this amazing story and be transported into another world. Besides, anything that makes kids start reading, has to be good!
Rating:
Summary: Not Written for Designated Age Group
Review: I loved this book. My son loved this book. Both of us are outside the designated age group. I have thoroughly enjoyed everyone of Mrs. Rowling's books thus far and look forward to the next one in the series. Unfortunately, this book is too complex for the average 7 to 12 year old (the target age). Even if one is just reading for the pleasure of reading, there are too many subplots for the average elementary student to follow (at least in this country). One would need the ability to delve beneath the layers of complex relationships between Harry, his odd assortment of friends and associates; as well as Dumbledore and his teachers, and his relationship with Harry in order to keep track of the various storylines playing out.
Don't get me wrong, I loved it. I can't wait for the next one, and the next one, I hope she can keep the series going in some form or another. It was a wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: Order of the Phoenix is great!!!
Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a great book in the series. It clears up several loose ends and explains in more detail what happened with Harry and the Dark Lord. And you learn some back history on several characters including Snape. I will not give away to much information since most readers of the series want to experience it for themselves.
We are introduced to some new characters, some we like very much and some that will frustrate Harry fans. I have yet to talk to anyone reading the book who does not hate the new Dark Arts teacher (hem hem). She is much worse than Snape. If you liked the other books you will love this one.
Rating:
Summary: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Review: This in my mind was the best Potter book yet. It exlains many things like why Lord Voldemort wanted to kill Harry. There is plenty of action which makes it seem shorter than it really is. Harry has to overcome many obstacles like the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge, who bans him from Quidditch.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not great.
Review: I enjoyed the first four book so much that I was perhaps expecting a little too much from this one, but i was extremely disappointed. The phrase that comes to mind is too little too late. We were all left waiting so long that the hype got outrageous and the book just couldn't live up to expectations. That said, I still enjoyed reading it. So it was not as bad as it could have been. Maybe she was doing scene setting for the next two books, so we can hope they will be as good as the first four...
Rating: 
Summary: Avid Potter Fans Disappointed
Review: As a serious Pottermaniac, I must say that I was highly disappointed. The book lacked the cohesion and excitement of the previous four. It was slow through the middle and left fragmented gaps in thought. Mostly, I was disappointed in the ending. It was way too abrubt. While I can understand Rowling's choice in who died, I cannot understand the lack of drama assigned to the death scene nor Harry's response to the death. Both were way underdeveloped.
Rating:
Summary: Well written but.......
Review: I like just about everyone else waitied on pins and needles until my copy of Harry#5 arrived. I could have finished it the day I was delivered. However I forced myself to take it slow to savor the book, it's anyones guess when Harry#6 will be available.I enjoyed the storyline for the most part. It was good to see that it was not business as usual for the cast of characters. It was also a change to see Harry acting more like a normal teenager for once. As always the author is able to spin a rather outstanding tale and captivate the reader. Now having said all that I would like to touch on why this is not a 5 star review. I would have liked a bit more in terms of surprises or plot twists. The author tried that at the end but it kind of fell flat for me. Also there was alot made of the death of a major character, not sure if I consider this charcter (I will NOT give it away!!!!)a major one. However don't think for a second that I will not pre-order Harry#6 the minute I am able to do so. The best thing about this fantastic series is that it gets children to want to pick up a book and read. So don't wait,order it and ENJOY!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: harry has lost his charm
Review: It is deplorable, but true: Harry has lost his charm:
The first 350 pages of the book are just a waste of paper and ink (even more boring than the World Champion Quidditch Tournament in HP4): the Dursleys still dislike Harry, and when he has finally escaped them, there is nearly nothing but a lot of superfluous discussions and tedious house cleaning.
And the rest of the book?: is nothing but a rather carelessly arranged exhibition of old and well battered requisites and outworn motives: Harry slandered by the Daily Prophet and his misled school comrades, the Mallfoy gang malignant as ever, Snape none the better, Haggrid once again on the edge of being sacked and fired, the Ministry of Magic stupid and ignorant as always, and Voldemort still lurking in the dark background: this time for no sensible reason at all risking his life and freedom to get hold of an old prophecy predicting no more than any sensible reader has been knowing since HP1.
Even the inevitable great final showdown does not quite work this time: it mainly seems to be a detailed instruction for the special effects experts at Warner Brothers.
And the appetizing announcements watering our mouths for months before the book finally arrived? That someone was going to be killed, and that Harry would finally reach puberty?: There really is a casualty: but it is more of an accident, does not help the plot any further and meets no one we had cared about too much. And indeed, Harry experiences his first kiss: but suffers less from increased blood levels of testosterone than from an outright Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (and we are not going to blame him for that after all he has gone through).
Rating:
Summary: Flawed book 5, but series still good
Review: Revisiting my earlier review, I decided to write a new one for J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which most people would recognize as HP5. HP 5 is more of a coming of age tale than any previous Harry Potter book; if it's taken by itself, it actually makes more sense than if it is taken in the totality of the HP series to date, though, because Harry undergoes a total attitude change here. He starts to speak in CAPITALS to denote his anger, he yells at his friends, refuses to speak to authority figures, and lets new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Dolores Umbridge push him around and even abuse him without telling anyone except his friends after they notice something wrong. Harry's anger makes sense, but coming only one month after HP 4 ended, it perhaps doesn't. I want to know what happened in that month to anger him so much. Did someone cast a spell on him? Did Voldemort do something? What happened in that missing month? And Harry allowing himself to be abused doesn't cut it, either. He's now 15, and a strong magician. Why not use his magic on Umbridge? Why doesn't he try to protect himself? And later, when Umbridge takes his broomstick and forbids him to play Quidditch forever (something that was not fixed by the end of book 5), why didn't Harry fight her? Also, the fact that Ron and Hermione were made prefects wasn't really used except as something else to torment Harry. I don't understand that, either. Plus, as Hermione and Ron were the ones to find out about Umbridge abusing Harry, why didn't they report their suspicions to Dumbledore anyway, as they _are_ supposed to be prefects? And why was Malfoy ever appointed a prefect at all? Those are some of the many minuses. The pluses, however, are that J.K. Rowling tells an engaging, captivating story, and that for whatever reason, during the actual reading itself, the suspension of disbelief works. IT's afterward, however, when you start to think about various things (such as the magic mirror gift that's never used) that you realize that there were some fairly serious editorial mistakes made here. I'd recommend the Harry Potter series, and I'd even recommend this book, but I wouldn't start here. Start with book 1. And take this book as satire more than anything about political institutions; in that way, perhaps, the abuse Harry suffers silently might seem more bearable. I hope all the plot holes will be fixed in the remaining books of this series.
Rating:
Summary: Best in the series
Review: Best style. I really needed to keep reading right through to the end to find out what happened. Can't wait for the next one... this book is not just for kids.
| 
