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The Hidden Key to Harry Potter: Understanding the Meaning, Genius, and Popularity of Joanne Rowling's Harry Potter Novels

The Hidden Key to Harry Potter: Understanding the Meaning, Genius, and Popularity of Joanne Rowling's Harry Potter Novels

List Price: $18.95
Your Price: $18.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very Worthwhile
Review: The only reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is the wish for a more rigorous editor -- there is a fair bit of redundancy in exposition and explanation. But that aside, The Hidden Key is a wonderful and fascinating read, full of illuminating insights that make explicit those compelling qualities of the book that without that understanding had only been intuitions. Strangest of all is that my 7 year old, who has consumed all the Harry Potter books, is fascinated by it, insisting I now read The Hidden Key to her. (I'm not recommending this for seven year olds, but my daughter has always enjoyed seeing linkages, not only between the Lord of the Rings and Narnia characters with HP, but also Greek mythology etc. So if your child likes puzzles and finding hidden meaning in things, they may too be captivated.) But even if this is not a book for children, it is something worth your reading so that in discussing Harry Potter with your children - or in reading the books yourself - you can make it even more relevant to our own lives and choices. This is a book I'm going to be giving as a gift to many friends.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tremendous Insights Into the World of Harry Potter
Review: This book succeeds on a number of fronts: 1) It details the important themes of the Potter books extremely well. This has allowed me to enjoy and appreciate the books much more than when I first helped read Sorcerer's Stone to my son. The Potter stories are great on their own but Hidden Key allows you to see the deep themes Rowling is baking into these stories. I guarantee you will appreciate her writing skill and the books themselves significantly more after reading this guide. 2)This has helped me to reinforce the themes in the Potter books, which are really the great themes we are faced with in life, for my son. It has given me an informed, adult view on Rowling's writing that has created many "teachable moments" with my son. In fact, I just had several more of these moments in the theater, while watching Chamber of Secrets, that were directly inspired by the Hidden Key's content.

I consider myself a decent reader but, to be honest, it's amazing how much I missed in Rowling's books that John Granger has captured in great detail. From the themes in each of the four books to the hidden meaning of most of the character's names--the detail and analysis will astound you if you are a Potter fan. Plus the predictions for the future direction of the story provide great fodder for musing and discussion. I've looked at a few of the other guides out there but they really don't compare. If you'd like to see a serious treatment of Rowling's world as literature--and benefit from the experience--this is your book. If you are a Christian reader, you'll appreciate this guide even more--although the prime criteria needed to enjoy it is being a dedicated Potter fan or the parent of one! Actually, that leads me to my only disclaimer. This book is not written for the 8 year old Harry Potter fanatic. It is probably best suited to good teen readers and adults. But I do think the 8 year old fanatic's parents should buy it so they and their child will get the most from the magical world of Hogwarts.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book was a huge disappointment. First, the author does not use correct spellings (i.e. Flu powder instead of Floo powder). He then goes on to mislabel the town where Harry and his parents lived before they were killed (Godric's Place instead of Godric's Hollow). I know this seems like nitpicking, but if you are going to write a book like this, all the small details should be correct. As far as the predictions go...well, you would be much better off reading The Ultimate Unofficial Guide to the Mysteries of Harry Potter by Galadriel Walters. I was thoroughly under whelmed by this entire book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Entertaining and Enlightening
Review: This is a great book that dives into some of the nuances of the Harry Potter series. It goes into a very supportive and in depth literary analyses of why Harry Potter is such an awesome series: Rowling's uses of symbolism, freedom of choice, and various other themes riddle throughout the first four books. He defends it as a literary work against the detractors of the Potter series and does a very good job at it. If you want to dig a little into the deeper meanings that can be found in Harry Potter, this is a good book for anyone. Just be careful. Because Granger wrote it before Order of the Phoenix, some of his predictions about what's going to happen in the future do get a bit silly, and sometimes preposterous. But, hey, this was before the public was graced with book 5.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Analyze this?
Review: This is a meaningless attempt to find meaning in works of fiction by attempting to psychoanalyze the author, her readers and the fictional characters. Too dry and boring for younger readers and adults alike. This appears to be nothing more than an attempt to make more money off the Harry Potter craze.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Extraordinary Analysis of Harry Potter!
Review: Truly, this has to be one of the best, if not the best analysis of the Harry Potter series. As a Potterholic, I was looking for a book that definatively got at the heart of Potter's popularity using logical and supported literary analysis, and Granger's book fulfills that.

John Granger looks at both the series as a whole, as well as book by book, the symbolism involved as an entity unto itself, and makes sound predictions for books 5-7 based on his analysis. The Christian themes that pervade Rowling's books are explained phenomenally well, and Granger puts, for example, information regarding Inkling literature and the Christian medieval morality plays (two important aspects of Harry Potter) into layman's tems, so that even those readers not familiar with those particular characteristics are not lost.

It is a remarkable book, and I have read it several times as I prepare for the release of Book 5. You will not be disappointed with The Hidden Key to Harry Potter. It is by far, the best way to unlock the secrets that make Rowling's books such a magical series.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Key shows there's more to Harry
Review: While many books have been written about the Harry Potter series, none (that I have seen) have really looked at the series as literature in the form of literary explication. The series is often evaluated as "Christian or unchristian" or discussed as a study in popular culture in an effort to determine the reasons for its popularity. John Granger's book The Hidden Key to Harry Potter does all of this. By exploring the book through his experience as a classics scholar, Granger makes the case in Key that Rowlings' Harry Potter is literature written in the tradition of Lewis' Narnia and Tolkien's Rings. Through a discussion of the books' plots, themes, characters, images, allusions, etc., he convincingly makes his case that the appeal of Harry Potter speaks to readers consciously or unconsciously through its archetypal elements and that Rowling has meticulously written the novels to do just that. He shows that the story's structure is too solid, the images consistent, the effect unified to deny that this was Rowlings' intention. Whether you agree or disagree with his conclusion, you will find Key to be readable and enjoyable, and definitely worth your time because it will help you explore the novel from a perspective that needs to be addressed as you consider your response to "the Harry Potter phenomenon."


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