Rating: 
Summary: You should hear this!
Review: Once again, Jim Dale delivers an excellent adventure! Complete with all the voices, Jim does a superb job of bring the world of wizards and muggles to life. The tape set, longer then the first three Harry Potter Books-on-Tape set, due to the length of the novel, is an enchanting way to introduce a younger audience to the world of Harry Potter. I find, after listening to all four stories on tape with my students, that when I sit to re-read the adventures, I hear his voice in my head. His voice has the ability to really bring the story to life, and along with J.K.'s ability to write such colorful imagery into her stories, you can really picture all the places and characters in these stories as real. What a gift these two creative people have given to the imaginations of children and adults everywhere. Buy it quick!
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Summary: The Keystone of the Series
Review: The Harry Potter story sequence is a coming of age for a young boy, set in a boarding school milieu against a fantastic background of wizardry and witchcraft.Amazingly, J. K. Rowling maintains the quality she set in the first three books throughout the entire 700+ pages of "Goblet." Her characters are expertly drawn, consistent, very much alive. Her plot points function like clockwork: there are no awkward deux machina or loose ends. Her themes are noble: love, loyalty, fairness, and the common struggle against fear and the unknown. Can you enjoy this book without having read the first three? Perhaps not. Rowling seems obligated to fill one in on details, and she does this well. But I came into Goblet admiring the characters. I can't say that a new reader would be able to do that. In fact, this volume might lose some loyal readers. It has dark overtones. The party is over and it's no more Mr. Nice Wizard. Because of Rowling's insistence on sticking to her original vision, I admire the book even more.
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Summary: The Book that has people just wanting more!
Review: As all the other Harry Potter books do this one keeps you on your seat. This is best far the first book series I will tell my childreen and how it had me begging for more. I became part of the book and was put in a world of fantesy and magic. This book was no different then the others. It had all of what the other books had to offer and more! Bigger and loaded with more information then all the other book with 743 pages of magic this book keep you in for longer. The Triwizard Tornament and lots of other events in this book that were newly introduced to the reader making them amazed at all the wonderful and not so wonderful things in this book. I have to give this book the best ratings ever for all the Potter books so far. I am now highly anticipating the new Harry Potter book because the end of this one (not going to ruin it) but was a huge clif hander witch is sure to pull lots more readers into the Potter series. This is the best book ive ever read. It is well worth the money and time to read it and then once you are done (like myself) you will be begging for more!
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Summary: The Best!
Review: The newest installment of Harry Potter is definetly the best of the now four. It is darker than the first three but even more thrilling. All in all this book is superb.
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Summary: The book where curiosity and the cat stay friends
Review: One of the reasons I read this book was curiosity.I had to find out whether, after all this hype, this book was worth it. I was full of hopes that I didn't have to liken it to such hyped up disasters such as "Godzilla" or even the Titanic. I came out of reading this book having sufficietly answered my question. And I would have to say "yes" this book was worth the hype preceding it.This book at 640 pages is the longest children's book ever printed. However, this is only one among multiple records that Harry, along with his friends at Hogwarts have broken. This book comes in the middle of Harry's education at Hogwarts, and also the middle of Rowling's proposed series of seven books depicting Harry's education and life at Hogwarts and in the magical world (one book for each year of his education at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizadry). And this book, where Harry is 14 signalls the turning point for this series.This is the book where Harry discovers hormones (and Ron discovers that Hermione is a member of the opposite sex)and where the death of a well established character comes to pass. This book dfinitely stands out from the previous three volumes of Harry Potter. The first three books all followed the pattern where the fist chapter tells us how Harry is getting on with the Dursleys (a muggle family that harry is most unfortunately related to)and how he has managed to get by during the long two summer months spent with them. And where the last chapter always closes with Harry very happy after another year full of triumphs over evil at school. If you were expecting to find a similar pattern in this book, you may be surprised. I will not reveal the plot except to say that it is more intricate than ever before and less fairytale-like (in the sense that they live happily ever after)than the other books.This truly is a book worth reading. However, This book left me feeling rather depleted in a way none of the other books did. This is probably because the conclusions that I had drawn as to who was the "baddie" were proved to be very wrong or possibly because I had invested so much of my time into reading it and had become so entwined in the wonderful world of Harry Potter that I felt at a loss of what to do next when I found the book to be finished. I cannot wait until the arrival of the next book in a years time and hope that, as the others have got lengthier as they went on (the first book being 223pages long, the second 251 and the third 317)that the next book will exceed 640 pages. Hope springs eternal!
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Summary: Goblet of Fire = Worthy midpoint
Review: I was only recently introduced to the world of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. A wonderful friend who happens to be a 3rd and 4th-grade teacher convinced me to put down my usually more adult pursuits for a change of pace in the Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. I was instantly enamored with the simple, yet crisp dialogue. The first 3 books were extremely quick reads, yet they don't feel the least bit disposable. Even though I had only started with the books a month ago, I felt totally immersed, so I (and my friend) eagerly awaited the new, 4th book in the series. Rowling noted that this book would be darker than the others, including an actual death in one of its chapters, albeit to a rather peripheral character. This, in addition to the revelation that Goblet of Fire would be longer than 700 pages, may have scared some away, but most of the plot threads are very engrossing, compelling, and in the end, necessary to move the series away from potentially becoming formulaic. As I read most of the book on a public beach, I found numerous people asking me what the differences were between Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and the previous books. I explained the relative lack of Quidditch action, at which point I also mentioned the fact that "there are plenty of other types of action to keep your attention". Most readers can see certain threads developing as the main characters (Harry, Ron, Hermione) become older and more mature (teenagers), so it's nice to see the characters grow with many of the reading audience. It was nice to see less of the Dursleys, the Muggle family who raised Harry, because they were rather one-dimensional and predictable. Professor Dumbledore's role becomes more and more clear, as do the roles of some of the other Professors. However, there is a bit of fat in the story that could be cut. A sub-plot involving house-elves never really generated steam. The political correctness of it felt a bit out of place. The Quidditch action here isn't quite as captivating as it was in Prisoner of Azkaban. In the end, a very satisfying read, though it took about twice as long. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire answers quite a few questions, but poses so many more. It is a fitting midpoint for the series, and dutifully sets up the remaining 3 (according to Rowling) books. It works along the same lines as a certain episode in the Star Wars series. However, I would not recommend jumping straight into Goblet of Fire without reading the first 3 books, as readers of the entire will be richly rewarded with the various references and nods in GoF.
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Summary: You haven't read this yet?
Review: Harry Potter's 4th year at Hogswarth does not disappoint! As this new adventure begins, we find Harry's nemesis is at it again, trying to regain a foothold in the real world. The prediction of Madame Trelorne was actually correct, and Wormtail is definitely assisting him in attempt at a return to power. This is one of only hundreds of things that happen to Harry, Hermani, and Ron in this latest installment. Definitely an excellent read, for adults as well as children. I could not put it down, and had to fight with my son over who's turn it was to sit and read. The entire Harry Potter series has opened a whole new world of reading to thousands of children, my own included! Although the subject matter is a tad scary, and the book is very long, over 700 pages, it will not deter even the youngest fan of the series from reading it from cover to cover, no matter how long it takes! The only draw back to this book; that we will have to wait over a year to find out what happens to Harry at his 5th year in Wizarding School!
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Summary: Superb
Review: J.K. Rowling has come through again. Each book seems to get better and better. Harry and his friends are charming and delightful. Rowling has such a knack for reminding us what it was like to be young and imaginitive. I welcomed the 700 page book because the other books ended too quickly! I recommend this book (and all the other Harry Potter books) to people of all ages!
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Summary: J.K. Rowling Strikes Again
Review: Last night I finished reading my copy of the fourth installment of Harry Potter. It arrived from FedEx saturday afternoon...all 734 pages of it. That's right, I finished it last night, Monday night. This book was so engrossing that I literally couldn't put it down. I was worried about this book. I thought that with all of the recent hype surrounding the series that J.K. Rowling would stray from the formula that made Harry Potter a household name. To my great pleasure, this fourth installment is just as cleverly written as the first three. The characters are maturing before our eyes and the adventures are just as exciting and nerve-racking as ever. Please....read this book and savor it as much as I did. I am now anxiously awaiting the fifth installment ;)
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Summary: Socks - Knocked Right Off. Breath - Less.
Review: What has truly astounded me about this series is that, as the characters mature, so do the plots. With this book, our heroes start to turn into teenagers, complete with moodiness, puppy love, and concern about what their peers actually think of them. Likewise, their awareness of the world around them continues to increase, and what appeared to be a simple, childish world of magic in the first book becomes a more sophisticated, intriguing place. I hope that this style of story telling will continue with the next three books- I think it is an excellent way to develop a series covering several years from a character's life, and will appeal to younger readers, who are growing up even as the characters are. I'm sure the backlash is already rising against this book, just because it has already been so successful. Ignore that. Read it. Then tell all the Muggles to jump in a lake.
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