Rating: 
Summary: Who Needs to Be Convinced?
Review: Should Quaker kids be reading Harry Potter stories? As you no doubt know, Harry is a wizard in a world of dragons, warlocks, magic spells and battles. Reasons why Quaker kids should read Harry Potter: * The Harry Potter books are wonderful for getting kids interested in READING. * Most Quaker adults are Muggles, and the books teach kids how to deal with Muggles * There are too few books out that interest boys in reading - the Potter books get boys AND girls interested in reading. * There are too few books out that parents enjoy reading with their kids. * Harry probably has Quaker routes - he's interested in social causes, the rights of the underdog, and general fairness to all. He even leans toward non-violent solutions to most problems. This book especially touches on the social causes, as Hermione fights for the rights of the House Elves. I have to confess, I found the beginning of this book simultaneously boring (too much Quidditch), and questionable as there was some brutality. I was also saddened toward the end of this book at a death that could have been better handled. But in the big picture, the sports theme is of interest to boys (girls, too), we can read and talk together, and my son's reading interest has gone up 100% since going through all 4 of these books. The only downsize here is that we don't know what to read until the fifth book comes out!
Rating: 
Summary: A real disappointment
Review: This book, unlike the previous 3, is slow and taxing. Rowling gets caught up in the details and there isn't enough interesting aspects to the story to sustain all the words, a sort of Stephen King disease. Her literary style becomes too apparent and a drain. This book desperately needs an editing pass and a return to the wittiness and drama of her previous books. I read the previous Harry Potters to my 7 year old (now 8) and he'd beg for another chapter, and I would read ahead after he fell asleep. This book puts him to sleep after a couple of pages, and I am happy just to put it down to the night. Cannot recommend this one at all. Just to qualify this, we are only through about 1/3 of the book. Maybe it gets better but I doubt we'll find out.
Rating:
Summary: Defending Harry Potter!
Review: The Harry Potter Series is an excellently written set of books. Theyare very imaginative and are an amazing story from problem toresolution. This is the first set of books that have an ending thatis actually many times more exciting than you would think. Also, theyare completely unpredictable.Now, there are some parents whoabsolutely forbid there children to read them. Some say that theyattempt to promote witchcraft and Satanism. These books are filled tothe cover of magic and magical teachings. Harry and his friends learnabout the history of the magical world, the art of potion-making, thetransfiguration (changing one thing into another) and apparition(disappearing from one place and reappearing in another) processes,the magically botanical studies of Herbology, the care of magicalcreatures, Charms (spells that allow you to move objects, protectyourself, as well as change the physical appearance of things),Divination (a.k.a. predicting the future; Harry and his friends do notin anyway excel in this subject and believe that very few wizardscarry this talent), Astronomy, and last and most important, DefenseAgainst the Dark Arts.It is fun and exciting to read about all ofhis classes, but let's think for a minute about one in particular,Defense Against the Dark Arts. People go on and on about the evilDark Lord in the books and about the dark spells and curses that arefeared by Harry and his friends and teachers. But if Harry takes aspecific class to learn how to defend himself against these eviltopics, how can anyone say that these books promote evil witchcraftand wizardry. All of the magical people in the books are fearful ofthe Dark Side and are fighting against it. Against it? Hmm...Doesthat really sound as though these books were written to promote theDark Side? Absolutely not! These books were written and areintended to be read for the entertainment of the reader by enjoyingHarry's many adventures at his magical school. How can learning abouthistory of magic, potion-making, transfiguration, divination, charms,astronomy, the caring for/of magical plants and animals, and DefenseAgainst the Dark Arts (there's that word again) be sac-religious,satanic, or even promotional to violence and slander. If you ask me,most of these parents haven't even read these books to know enoughabout them, and even if they have, they probably have so much freetime that all they care about is having something gripe or complainabout to consume time.Also, I understand that some parents arespeaking out against the Harry Potter Series because of what they haveheard about it, and are trying to protect their children from aChristian point of view. Well as a life-long Christian that grew uparound the church, I would just like to say that I have no objectionsabout reading the Harry Potter Series. As I have said before, thecharacters in these books battle against the evil Dark Side. Nowthere are those students who believe in the magic in these books.Those students are the types that more than likely have no Christianbackground. I have also heard that there are some kids who wereChristians but now say that magic is the only way and that the Bibleis nothing but a terribly ruly book of stories and rules. Thesestudents have already got problems if they actually believe in thismagic. J.K. Rowling states in an interview that she has written herbooks for the enjoyment of the reader. Rowling herself does notbelieve in any of this. She simply wrote some stories for her own andeven what she thought would be the few people that would read them'sentertainment. Never did she guess that her writings would bepublished, much less become bestsellers. In this Interview,Rowling also states that her favorite author is C. S. Lewis.C.S. Lewis is a born-again Christian with many biblical teachings.Yet he wrote the Chronicles of Narnia. I don't know how many timesI've read articles explaining how different the Harry Potter Series isfrom the Chronicles, but still, how can an evil witch with deep darkmagic be so much different than the evil Dark Lord in the Harry PotterSeries. My own church family heard our preacher, Rev. Jeff Witcher,32, preach quote after quote from C. S. Lewis's teachings. Lewiswrites about the fight against the evil deep dark magical witch inNarnia, and Rowling writes about Harry's fight against the Dark Lordin the wizard world, yet C.S. Lewis is still looked up to for hisbiblical teachings so why is there so much fuss about Harry Potter?Both series are in the school libraries around the world and are evenused as English reading tools during class, and both have literatureand teaching materials used for teaching other forms of language arts.Both series' have a moral for each chapter. Both series' containbooks that have won awards such as the Parenting Book of the YearAward. So, I ask again, what is wrong with Harry Potter? So forthose students that are turning away from Christianity and areconverting to these beliefs, try to understand that J.K. Rowling didnot write these books to try to encourage Christians to believe inmagic. No human can magically do anything so why would anyone believein magic to be real. The purpose in these books were to entertain thereader.A writer from Beliefnet (www.beliefnet.com) says this:"There are some Christians who view these two activities as acontradiction--who think that Hogwarts is worse than hogwash, and thatthe magical scenarios of J.K. Rowling's imagination are inherentlyun-Christian. I would counter that, instead, these books have thepotential to be profoundly Christian if readers can see past themedium (magic) to the novels' deeper messages about self-sacrifice,the triumph of good over evil, and the glorious possibility of humanredemption." Just two weeks ago, at my school, the specialeducation teacher was telling the school secretary while I was workingin the front office as an eighth grade office-aid that one of herstudents that she had been having problems with trying to keep himcalm, quiet and attentive had found the first book in the series andwas silently trying to interpret the words on his own. She thoughtthat if this book appeared to be that interesting to him, maybe sheshould read it to him and use his interest in this particular book asa tool to assist her in teaching him how to read and learn better andeasier. So if even students that are in some way disabled can read,understand, and enjoy these books, why can't everybody try or at leasthave the chance to read, enjoy, and understand them. For as I havestated before, those that come to believe that magic is real and aretaken to the Dark Side because of these books, are in lessunderstanding before they have read them than after because everyoneshould know that none of these things that we read and enjoy readingabout are true.Now let's focus on another of Harry's subjects,Divination. Many believe that the act of trying to predict the futurein the Harry Potter Series should not even be written. But onceagain, Harry does not in any way excel in this subject and believes asHermione said 'that it is a very imprecise branch of magic'. In fact,during Harry's third year at Howarts, Hermione disagreed with theirDivination teacher, Professor Trelawney, and quit taking the class.Now that is saying something because Hermione is the most clever ofthe three main characters, Harry, Ron Weasley, and herself. She alsostated at the beginning of the year that 'if foolish guesswork andpretending to see death omens is what it takes to become a truesee-er, then I'm not sure I will be taking this class much longer.Just because Rowling writes about Divination, doesn't mean that shebelieves in it nor is she trying to encourage her young readers totake on this foolish practice. So if Harry and his friends believethat Professor Trelawney is as they say continuosly an "oldfraud", Hermione quit taking the class, and Ron is alwaysperforming stupid imitations of her, then how can anyone say thatRowling is trying to promote this strange practice, and like I saidbefore, anyone who actually believes in this practice or any otherform of magic, is already as Ron believes, the headmaster, ProfessorDumbledore is, 'off his rocker'.WoW! Can you believe it! Thatbrings up another topic, Professor Dumbledore. I've heard othercomplaints about some of Dumbledore's wise sayings. One, for example,is when in the third book, after Harry tells Dumbledore that hethought he saw his father, but it was really him, Dumbledore answersby saying that, although he may not have actually seen his father, hemay have simply found him inside himself. Many argue in reply to thiswise saying, that your parent's or any other ancestor's spirits do notremain inside you after they are deceased. I agree on this thought.No, the dead's spirits do not remain inside us (only Jesus's doesthat, whenever we ask him to), but the memories that we have of them,however, do.
Rating:
Summary: I can't live without reading it!!!!
Review: This book is the exceptional,wonderful, book we have all been waiting for!I've seen people with all these phony stories about this book being bad for you but you know what ,their Lunatics cause this book is fiction and if they'd realize it that means (NOT REAL)So feel free to read these books of wonders thats a big comedy and has cool stories about a regular wizard teenager named Harry living a teenage life!=)Its cool and exciting and that will blow you away!!!And will thrill you!It has a plot that will make any body excited and supicious to who did what and the final answer to the story!
Rating:
Summary: It's not "just for kids!"
Review: Silly rabbits and people of all ages will enjoy this most recent addition to the Harry Potter serial. Staying with cereal (and homonym) analogies, I admit, like the guilty "grown-ups" who are still enraptured with Tony the Tiger's Frosted Flakes, that I love the Harry Potter books.I bought the unabridged cassette version (which is OK for me - because I'm OLD and am therefore not "cheating" on one of the great boons of the Potter series - which is captivating our children to READ) to listen to on long commutes. Mr. Dale does an excellent job as narrator and with voicing the characters. Then I got the book to also admire the work of "local girl does good" illustrator Mary Grandpre. "Try it you'll like it!" "Mikey likes it!"
Rating:
Summary: Best Book Ever!
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. It was extremely exciting, interesting and fun. I couldn't put it down. I wished the number of pages were infinite. J.K. Rowling always comes up with something clever and witty for each of her fantastic books. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, like the rest will keep you on the edge of your seat. The author injects much excitement suspense, magic, and much more. This is truly a wonderous book, made by a truly wondrous author. If you haven't read it yet, you're really missing something.
Rating:
Summary: Love Potion?
Review: Did J. K. Rowing mention something about love potion in her books? Love potion is something that makes someone loves the maker. It is undoubtedly that all her books are treated with this special potion before. How come someone without magic can write something that exciting and marvelous? J. K. Rowling must be the most beautiful and intelligent witch in the world!
Rating:
Summary: THANK YOU! J.K. Rowling is in good company...
Review: I cannot state in this space what hasn't already been said about the absolute brilliance and genre of J.K. Rowlings novel/novels. I'm completely sure, without a doubt, that 100 years from now, these books will find their home on an old, carved mahogany bookshelf next to the likes of A.A.Milne, Beatrix Potter, Frank Baum, Grimm Brothers, Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe, the Bronte Sisters, Madeleine L'Engle, John Steinbeck, H.G. Wells, George Orwell, Shakespeare (quite possibly!)etc...As readers we are truly lucky to have been a part of this literary whirlwind and excitement and will remember well, for generations to come, these masterpieces we lovingly call "The Harry Potter Books".
Rating:
Summary: 2nd best Harry Potter book yet
Review: I have Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and it was a great book. It was fun and interesting to read. I liked how Harry got to be in The Triwizard Tournament. I still think the second book was the best which is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The other two books were good too. I can't wait to read the other three Harry Potter books that will come out in the future. I definitly recommend the Harry Potter books.
Rating:
Summary: Indecribable
Review: Action packed, with wizards from 3 DIFFERENT WITCHCRAFT SCHOOLS all competing. Love story mixed in with an all around adventure. Harry's wand is locked up. He breaks out of the Dursley's, gets his stuff and -- can't spoil the story. MUST READ. Over 700 pages that can't be put down. It is magic on how good this book is.
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