Rating: 
Summary: Best book ever written!
Review: Every time I read a Harry Potter book, I say "there will never be a better book than that!" then I read the next one, and i say it again, but this time, #4, it IS the best. The Harry Potter searies are the best books I have ever read. I can assure you no one will ever write a book better than Harry Potter. ANYONE and EVERYONE who reads this books falls in love with Harry, Ron Hermione, Dumbledore and all of the rest of them. I've read them all multiple times and they get better every time. In my opinion, 4 is the best and then 2 then 1 then 3. I wish I would wake up one day a witch, imagine going to Hogwarts! But it's never happened, so I'll just have to be happyy with being a Muggle, and waiting untill #5!
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS BOOK!
Review: First of all, if you haven't read this book, you SHOULD! This piece of work is priceless...! This is the best book you could possibly read because it falls into a magical world where basically you feel like you're living in it, it's so real! It's not like all those other wizard book stuff, this is a lot, lot more in depth and FUN to read! Some teachers and parents are saying that this particular book is evil, but that's hardly true! This is just as non-evil as almost ANY children's book- it may seem warped at times, yes, but HEY, if it wasn't it would be another cheesy little Roald Dahl book or less. This is so good you will be smiling through out the whole period you are reading it, and it makes your skin get goosebymps! I'm serious here! And some adults may say that this is just a little "CHILDREN'S BOOK" and it's not worth reading, but I guarantee you that you will not be put down by J.K. Rowling! This is a classic and I whole-heartedly reccomend you read this piece of astonishing work!
Rating:
Summary: "Harry Potter, Minus a Certain Flavour"by Peter H. Gleick ("
Review: "Harry Potter, Minus a Certain Flavour" by Peter H. Gleick ("New York Times," July 10, 2000) BERKELEY, Calif. -- My family, like so many others, was excited about Saturday's release of yet another Harry Potter book. But although there are many legitimate reasons for praising the series -- the exciting plots, the new young readers being drawn to books, the quality of the writing -- I am disappointed about one thing: the decision by Scholastic, publisher of the American edition, to translate the books from "English" into "American." Scholastic even went so far as to change the title of the first Harry Potter book from "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Why? Were the editors worried that some people wouldn't buy the book because they couldn't understand it in its original language? Were they concerned that some children would be confused by new words for otherwise familiar objects or actions? I like to think that our society would not collapse if our children started calling their mothers Mum instead of Mom. And I would hate to think that today's children would be frightened away from an otherwise thrilling book by reading that the hero is wearing a jumper instead of a sweater. Are we afraid that when presented with new vocabulary, children will shrink away? Or that alternative spellings of previously known words will make children (and adults) suddenly start spelling things wrong, sending school test scores falling? A careful reading of both the English and the American editions of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" reveals three kinds of substitutions. The first are spelling differences: gray for grey, color for colour, flavor for flavour, pajamas for pyjamas, recognize for recognise and the like. The second are differences in common words or phrases: pitch turns to field, sellotaped to taped, fortnight to two weeks, post to mail, boot of car to trunk of car, lorry to truck. The third are metamorphoses of truly English experiences or objects into something different, but distinctly American: crumpets to English muffins, for example (a particular odious change, in my opinion). My two sons didn't have any difficulty understanding the British version of the book sent to them by their aunt in London. I admit to occasionally offering the meaning of a new word the first time it appeared, but don't we do that with every book we read to our children, or help them read to themselves? Do we really want children to think that crumpets are the same as English muffins? Frankly, reading about Harry and Hermione eating crumpets during tea is far more interesting to an American than reading about them eating English muffins during a meal. Are any books immune from this kind of devolution from English to "American" English? Would we sit back and let publishers rewrite Charles Dickens or Shakespeare? I can see it now: "A Christmas Song," "A Story of Two Cities," "The Salesman of Venice." By protecting our children from an occasional misunderstanding or trip to the dictionary, we are pretending that other cultures are, or should be, the same as ours. By insisting that everything be Americanized, we dumb down our own society rather than enrich it. As for Harry Potter's latest adventures, my children and I will wait for the British version coming by mail.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you J K Rowling
Review: I haven't been this entranced with a series, since I read Tolkien back in the early 70's. While not as achingly beautiful and heartbreaking as the Lord of the Rings, this series definitely has earned it's place in great novels of fantasy. J K Rowling has created a great world for her characters to exist in. There is a lot of humour in these books. I am totally entranced of the whole idea of Hogwarts, a school for young wizards. The details are so great, the ghosts who roam the corridors, the pictures that have moving people in them, Moaning Myrtle, Diagon Alley,Quidditch. I absolutely do not like sports, but I love reading about Quidditch. This fourth book is darker in tone, but Harry and his friends are also getting older. If you like a great adventure with fantasy elements and a helping of humour, read these books. If you're not a kid, don't worry, you don't have to be a kid to enjoy these. I cannot wait for the next book to come out!
Rating:
Summary: Will Harry redeem us?
Review: Will Harry redeem us? The answer is, sadly, no. There is neither God nor Easter in these books, though there is Christmas, and the wizards appear to have an insatiable appetite for food, sweets, nectar, chess and sport(?). There is no sex to speak of, other than the blushing engagements of wizards of every age. There is no self-knowledge, nor is there inquiry into purpose. However, I have read these books with real enjoyment, chapter by chapter, to my children who are aged six, eight and ten, and we look forward to the next installment. The plots are fast-paced, the people interesting, though stereotypical, and the events are riveting. But in the context of redemption, the thematic content is not threatening to our morals, ambitions, or self-image. These books are not an exploration of good and evil. Harry is a cardboard character, and we like him because even though he is meek, we know that he will inherit the earth, just as we ourselves hope to. Who then is Voldemort? Is he evil? He kills and tortures for pleasure, and even more appallingly, he tortures for pleasure, and then kills for boredom. But this Voldemort knows a greater, more visceral fear than anyone else in the chronicles (see the "Goblet of Fire"), and apparently, what this is "All About", is that Voldemort wants only one thing, immortality, he is afraid to die, and in his quest for immortality, he must create a hell on earth for all otherwise living creatures. Only Albus Dumbledore , the brilliant and enigmatic Headmaster of Hogwarts School, is significantly in his way, as is Harry Potter, who may pass for Everyman of courage, justice, and peace. The rest of the planet lives in fear of Voldemort as "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named". Having taken us this far, having engaged the entire world, I pray now that Ms. Rowling will inform us of who we are and of our place in the scheme of things. There may be much to be learned from these books and, as a sequel, may I suggest the Old Testament Prophecy of Daniel?
Rating:
Summary: Muggles
Review: Not to say that I'm not a muggle but I just think that who ever has the nerve to come in here and just dish on Harry Potter gots to go get that book and read it before they pass judgement. In my 21 years of life, I have never found a book so out there that makes me feel, "Gosh, I wish I was at Hogwarts too, and that Harry is soooooooooooooooooo cool". I had read all the 4 books in one month because I can't stop wondering what going to happen next. I use to wonder why on earh is everyone over Harry Potter, and now I know why. Harry Potter and The Fire of Goblet, is wonderful, I felt that I was there, and every time Potter thinks that he is being watch, I kept thinking He knows that I'm looking at him. This book as all the unimaginable plot that makes you what on earh is going on. But if makes you heart beat faster and faster, because you want to know who's doing what. I feel in love with Potter the first time i got these books for my sibling. They insist that I buy I for them. I really didn't bother at first, but after having nothing to do and waiting to go back to school I picked it upd was amazed at it for the display it had and names it provides. I don't understand how people who are so called christans and God believers felt that a book like Harry Potter can do anything to their children. What rubbish, and it makes me just want to send them in the book and see how scared they be if they encounter a big giant, ghost, witches, warlocks, and the famous villians in the book. They got to understnad that in Harry Potter can only brighten their day as well as their lives. Right now all i'm waithing for is the 5th book that is out next year. Which i think is a bummer, I was hoping it comes out today or something. AAAAAhhhh Muggles we can never really understand that we just have to sit back and wait. ahhh yeah, If i'm 21 and find this book to be the moster fabulous book on earth, imagin children when they read this.:)
Rating:
Summary: Written in the spirit of CS Lewis
Review: The Harry Potter books are not only wonderful for children but great for adults. I know many christian organizations are banning this book, but I beg to differ. I'm christian and they are written with the same intensity as the Narnia Chronicles written by C.S. Lewis. He was also a christian. As long as children are reading 700 page books and not playing video games or watching TV, I'm all for it. Can't wait for the next book. The world is full of danger and we should let our kids read books that will help them deal with those fears and feelings. Great book series, and read the Chronicles of Narnia if you like Harry Potter.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent story - but perhaps overlong?
Review: This is the fourth book in the phenomenally successful Harry Potter series about a schoolboy wizard. I and many other fans eagerly waited for it, and I am pleased to say that it does not succumb to the law of worsening sequels (as is so often the case with popular franchises) and it is as good, if not better than, the first three books.
This fourth story has a darker, more complex tone than before. Harry Potter is now fourteen years old and in his fourth year at Hogwarts School, with his friends Ron and Hermione. He is growing up and maturing - gone is the wide-eyed, annoyingly precocious youngster from the first novel and film in the series. In this fourth book we meet a sullen, often angry teenager who is frightened and confused (especially about girls) and haunted by nightmarish visions of death.
Lots of dangerous battles are fought (described in pretty violent detail) and as mentioned, he starts to take notice of the opposite sex (one girl in particular, called Cho Chang - catches his eye). For reasons I won`t go into here, this plot point struck a chord with me, as it contained some parallels with an all too brief friendship I had shared with a girl at college......
Plot points such as these make his character more realistic, and show us Harry is not just a `wizard`. He is also a regular teenager with human problems that everyone faces, relating to life, love and growing up, something the readers (depending how old they are) can relate to (I certainly can).
Lots of people say Harry Potter is just a kids` book, but I disagree. Like the best Disney cartoons and animated features, the book works on a number of levels - as well as being an exciting adventure, there are some references and funny jokes that will amuse older people. For instance, one character is called Rita Skeeter, who is a reporter for the Daily Prophet newspaper. She will do anything to get a good story, even if that bending the facts, exaggerating and lying. This allows Rowling to take humorous pot shots at the British media and newspaper journalists of the gutter press, a joke which adults and older children will understand but may well be missed by youngsters.
There are also some parts that could scare young children (for example, the rather grisly detail in which the fights are described).
I think the story is really exciting and the complex, unpredictable plot will keep you wondering what will happen next. It`s much longer than the last book (the British release has over 600 pages!) but the story is so good that once you start it, its really hard to put down.
That said, the book`s length does turn out to be an issue sometimes. Though I would be the first to criticize the early novels (Philosophers/Sorcerers Stone in particular) for perhaps being too light and kiddy, Harry Potter`s early appeal was combining fantasy elements with a classic school story, in one tightly plotted package. On the whole, Goblet of Fire is excellent but it does have a tendency to meander as we move away from that simple template.
I found all the nonsense about the Quidditch World Cup (a reference to the 1998 Football World Cup in France perhaps?) un-necessary after a while for example, which could have been cut out or at least shortened - and we would still have been left with a fine piece of work, without disrupting the flow of the story, in my opinion.
On the other hand, one must admire the author for trying to bring more depth to her characters and flesh out their personas, which draws the reader into Harry`s world, making it seem believable.
Overall, I think this is a truly `magical` story.
Rating:
Summary: A review from a very satisfied reader
Review: I am, as you might put it, a very good reader with a big appetite for books. Believe me when I say you can absolutley not put this book down! It is one of the best books this world has ever seen! At 735 pages long, every page is full of clever twists and turns, and unexpected outcomes. You have got to have this book...it is a must-have! You don't have to be a rocket scientist to read it...I, I just really can't put in to words how unbelievably amazing this Harry Potter is...you feel like you are actually there! You will be a very happy person if you buy this!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Out Of Them All
Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K.Rowling is about a boy named Harry Potter. Harry Potter is not just any boy, but the boy who survived an unforgivable curse by he-who-must-not-be-named. This curse had killed everyone it had hit before Harry. Harry meets two kids at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry named Ron and Hermione. While they're at Hogwarts, they find not only fun and schoolwork, but also lots of hard challenges which are a lot more than your ordinary end-of-year tests. Harry has an enemy in the school, a Slithern, who always annoys Harry, Ron, and Hermione. His name is Draco Malfoy, and his two "bodyguards", who hardly speak, are named Crabbe and Goyle. There is also a villain who wants Harry dead. Harry meets him three times in his lifetime. The dark lord, who everyone fears, almost got killed by Harry when he was a year old by a charm his mother put on him right before she died by the dark lord. The most important event in this book was when Harry touched the Triwizard Champion Cup. (I can't tell you why.) The most interesting part was when Harry had a duel with he-who-must-not-be-name. There were no boring parts whatsoever, and if there were, it would probably be when the Dark Mark was conjured. If you read this book for just ten minutes, I guarantee you will keep reading it, and reading it, and reading it, and the entire book seems real. The most exciting part in each chapter is the part that has all the action.
|
