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Showing posts with label Harry Potter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harry Potter. Show all posts
12 September 2015
Title
| Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince |
Author
| J K Rowling |
Publisher
| Bloomsbury Children's |
Publication Date
|
July 2005
|
Pages
| 560 |
Genre
| fantasy, children's |
Description (from Amazon)
When Dumbledore arrives at Privet Drive one summer night to collect Harry Potter, his wand hand is blackened and shrivelled, but he does not reveal why. Secrets and suspicion are spreading through the wizarding world, and Hogwarts itself is not safe. Harry is convinced that Malfoy bears the Dark Mark: there is a Death Eater amongst them. Harry will need powerful magic and true friends as he explores Voldemort's darkest secrets, and Dumbledore prepares him to face his destiny.
My thoughts
The 6th instalment in the Harry Potter series, and it just gets better and better. I have to say it again - I was not a great fan of HP when they first came out, because I just simply was not into children's book. But what a wonderful story teller JK Rowling is. The plot now thickens, and everything comes together, or gets unravelled even further. The Dark Lord is back - that much is confirmed, and all hell seems to break loose, though some still deny it initially. And yes, a major character dies in this book which I shall not reveal here, for all those who have not yet read the book nor watched the movie. I had seen the movie, but honestly, reading the book is just a completely different experience.
JK Rowling is simply a master in weaving her plot (and this over several books), and all the characters are unique. We are talking about a fantasy world, but they still face the same problems like us (or like us Muggles shall I say) and thus are completely believable. It is a skill to create characters which appeal both to a child/teenage audience and also to adults. Also, all the magical creates are so well drawn out - even if you have not seen the movies, it is easy to form a picture in your imagination, and this is what reading is all about.
By the way, Stephen King has the Harry Potter Books in his recommended list of books to read if you want to be a writer.
9 June 2015
Title
| Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter 4) |
Author
| J K Rowling |
Publisher
| Bloomsbury |
Publication Date
|
July 2000
|
Pages
| 636 |
Genre
| Fantasy |
Description
The Triwizard Tournament is to be held at Hogwarts. Only wizards who are over seventeen are allowed to enter - but that doesn't stop Harry dreaming that he will win the competition. Then at Hallowe'en, when the Goblet of Fire makes its selection, Harry is amazed to find his name is one of those that the magical cup picks out. He will face death-defying tasks, dragons and Dark wizards, but with the help of his best friends, Ron and Hermione, he might just make it through - alive!
Book 4 marks for me a slight change from the previous 3 books. I felt that books 1 to 3 where mainly aimed at children, and this is reflected very much not only in the story line, but also in the writing (repeating information, explaining concepts, often telling rather than showing) and choice of words. But with book 4, I think J K Rowling now gets much more grown up with this series. This, of course, also cleverly reflects Harry and his friends growing up and facing more 'grown-up' tasks. And, of course, the book is much longer than the previous ones.
The same formula of course still works. Harry is spending the summer holidays with the dreadful Dursleys but of course returns to Hogwarts for his forth year, together with his best friends Ron and Hermoine. New challenges await him. This time, a tournament takes place at Hogwarts with two other wizard schools coming to Hogwarts as guests for the year and a host of new characters and student wizards. The tournament is dangerous and students have been known to get killed. But Harry is too young to enter. But then is name appears in the Goblet of Fire as being chosen to compete the tournament. While it is an honour, it is also very dangerous. Maybe someone wants him to be in danger?
Rowling has previously addressed stereotyping and discrimination (against the none-pure wizards with Muggle blood). Here, she takes it further when Hermoine starts a campaign to help house elf who have to work long hours and receive no pay. Also, Hagrid is revealed as 'one-half' giant, and giants are seen as brutes. Hagrid is of course, anything but a brute and tries to hide his heritage, knowing the negative stereotyping.
Finally, with book 4, I got into Harry Potter and can't wait to read book 5 now.
8 July 2014
I'm sure you might have all seen the news today about about JK Rowling writing a bit of an update on her website about what Harry is up to now. I guess she just can't just put Harry aside and hey, it's great to get a bit of an update - I for one was waiting for this and think it's great to see what Harry is up to now, in fact I would love to read a whole book on this!
What do you think … good she updated and you would love to see what Harry looks like now, or us or should she have just left it with book 7 and left us with the picture of Harry & Ginny and Ron & Hermoine dropping their kids off to Hogwarts (which I thought was actually a brilliant ending to this epic series). I have just asked my 20 year old son (who grew up with Harry Potter) and he said: 'Yes, I would love to read an update on 30+ Harry, but only if exciting stuff happens, like, maybe they are now fighting Voldemorts apprentices. Not if Harry turns into a boring old fart.' So, JK Rowling, you've read it here first…
This is the article taken from Guardian Books:
Harry Potter, last seen waving his children onto the Hogwarts train at the end of the seventh and final novel in JK Rowling's record-breaking series, has just made his first appearance in seven years as a 34-year-old with "threads of silver" in his black hair.
Rowling's millions of fans will pounce on the glimpse the novelist has provided of the wizard's adult life, which sees Harry reunited with Ron, Hermione and their friends at the final of the 2014 Quidditch World Cup in a 1,500-word piece for her website Pottermore. The article is written in the voice of Rowling's vicious gossip correspondent Rita Skeeter, and reveals that not only has Harry's hair begun to go grey, but Ron Weasley's "famous ginger hair appears to be thinning slightly".
Vicious gossip ... JK Rowling. Photograph: Debra Hurford Brown
"About to turn 34, there are a couple of threads of silver in the famous Auror's black hair, but he continues to wear the distinctive round glasses that some might say are better suited to a style-deficient twelve-year-old," writes Rowling/Skeeter of Potter.
Rowling has also given Harry a mysterious cut on one cheekbone, which Skeeter – a journalist for the magical world's newspaper, the Daily Prophet – surmises could be a result of his work as an Auror. Aurors are an "elite unit of specialist officers trained to apprehend Dark Wizards", said Pottermore.
Skeeter ponders if "the Chosen One" is "embroiled in fresh mysteries that will one day explode upon us all, plunging us into a new age of terror and mayhem", or if his wife has "perhaps cursed him", as "cracks [begin] to show in a union that the Potters are determined to promote as happy".
Ginny Potter, Ron's sister and now Harry's wife, also attends the match, as does Hermione, the straight-A student who was a key part of the battle against the evil Voldemort, and who is now Ron's wife. The friends – who called themselves "Dumbledore's Army" as they fought the forces of evil in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – are also joined by their former schoolmates Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom, and by their children.
Ron Weasley is revealed to have worked for the Ministry of Magic along with Harry, only to have left after two years to "co-manage the highly successful wizarding joke emporium Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes". "He shows no obvious signs of mental illness from a distance, but the public is not allowed close enough to make a proper assessment. Is this suspicious?" asks Skeeter.
Hermione Granger, meanwhile – described as "the femme fatale of the group" – is currently deputy head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and is "now tipped to go even higher within the Ministry", writes Skeeter. Longbottom is a herbology teacher at Hogwarts, and apparently enjoys "a little more Ogden's Old Firewhisky" than "most of us would expect from custodians of our children", while Lovegood is married to Rolf Scamander and "still delightfully eccentric".
Skeeter also writes sniffily about a "prolonged period of what, in my young day, was called 'snogging'" between two younger members of the party.
The article is part of a series of pieces written by Rowling about the 2014 Quidditch Cup for Pottermore. The final article will be published on 11 July, and will see Ginny Potter, now a journalist, cover the cup final, between Brazil and Bulgaria.
30 June 2014
Title
| Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
Author
| JK Rowling |
Publisher
| Bloomsbury |
Publication Date
|
1998
|
Pages
| 251 |
Genre
| Fantasy |
Blurb:
The Dursleys were so mean and hideous that summer that all Harry Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.
And strike it does. For in Harry's second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockheart, a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girl's bathroom, and the unwanted attentions of Ron Weasley's younger sister, Ginny.
But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble beings, and someone--or something--starts turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects...Harry Potter himself.
And strike it does. For in Harry's second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockheart, a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girl's bathroom, and the unwanted attentions of Ron Weasley's younger sister, Ginny.
But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble beings, and someone--or something--starts turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects...Harry Potter himself.
Mini review
I didn't read the HP books when they first came out, but only in 2013, after I've seen all the movies, so I do knew the story of course. But that doesn't really matter - its the beauty and incredible drawn fantasy world of the books.
As before, the 2nd book in the series is, in my opinion, written with children readers in mind. At the beginning, Rowling skilfully re-caps the important bits from book 1 in her familiar style. Anyone wanting to write for a younger age group should read her first chapter and can learn how it's done.
Apart from the imaginative constructed fantasy world - nicely woven in with the 'real world' (= the muggles), I feel that the other real strength of the story lies in the great characters. Not too over the top, and still what we expect from a proper baddy (i.e. Malfoy) or the posh impostor (Lockheart), the poor Weasleys, the mean Dursleys.
I personally still prefer the later, darker HP books. The greatest contribution of the books for me is the fact that it brought children back to reading books who wouldn't have otherwise picked a book up and in fact, got a whole new generation reading.
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