Harry and his friends sixth year at Horgwarts. Lord Voldemort is back, the world is in panic, death eaters and dementors are on the loose... The daily Prophet brings news of death and mayhem everyday. Harry is the quidditch team captain and Ron and Hermione are prefects. Bill is getting married to Fleur. Harry and Co are 16 now, the tone of the book has changed-- romance tends to throw a different light on things and friends :). Malfoy has a mission and Snape makes an Unbreakable Vow. All in all an eminiently readable 650 pages.JK Rowling, she is one the most masterful kids story writers in my humble opinion. Soccer’s stone was first published in 1998, by a single mom who had a story to tell. In less than a decade she has become one of the most celebrated authors of kid’s literature the world has ever seen.
The books do not talk down to kids and she does not present the world in clean clear light, she does not hide the ambiguity and grayness. Harry goes thru the most terrible conflicts and self doubts, trying to figure out good from evil and learning most times that both reside in the same place. There are no idols, Dumbledore is the closest to one, but he too says "I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being- forgive me - rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger".
It has the elements of fantasy and unbridled imagination... I love the way she takes ordinary things and translates them to the wizard land. The fireplace transport, the moving people in the paintings and photographs, the crazy candy, Hogwarts express from platform number 9 3/4. The house elves, the pumpkin Juice, the sorting hat, the subject-- Divination, Potions, Charms, Herbology... I love the way the normal things from school have been extrapolated to this wizard world. Fifteen inches of parchment on werewolves! The curses lumous, accio, Expelliarmus, Petrificus Totalus .. and the names Albus, Remus, Minevera, Severus, Sirius... She sounds like she is having a blast, poking fun at all those adult things like discipline and rules and latin that kids find tedious-- as she teaches the kids who read about the things in life that are truly important- loyalty, friendship, love, trust...
And not to forget, the game, quidditch.
I have a couple male friends of mine complain about that game... "it is stupid, how can you not have better rules and how can you just end the game if the snitch is caught?" And as I sat there listening to the two grown men crib about why quidditch was a stupid, I started laughing. This was brilliant. This was a game created by a woman, of course it was going to be a fast paced game that she could end as soon as the snitch was caught( while letting potter being the hero cause he could be the seeker:))
Did I say that I enjoy the books most of all because Joanne Kathleen Rowling seems to write like she is enjoying herself immensly?
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