Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Before I write my blog post (which will be short this time, I'm sorry) I want to tell you all Happy New Year!  I hope your Christmas holiday was fantastic and that the new year brings you and yours all the happiness and great surprises you can hold!



For my blog post, I have an observation to make and a question to ask. The young adult market is swarming with paranormal stories (which I love, don't get me wrong). But I've seen a few historicals popping up, and I'm very interested in those. I love stories about ancient egypt and medieval/renaissance periods. The next story I have brewing will be a historical  and a bit of a change for me, which should be nice.

My question is: what do you wish you could see more of in the YA/MG world?  What time period? What draws you to or repels you from historical fiction?

Please leave a comment and tell us!

Don't Forget the Teens!

Yesterday, I noticed almost all the paper stars left on our community gift-giving tree were for teens in need. Guess it's more fun to buy toys for little kids.  Please remember the Teens this holiday season.  A good book can help a teen believe he or she can triumph over the adversities in their young lives. Here's a link to all the YA and MG books we're reviewed here to give you ideas!  Young Adult at ER  and  Middle Grade at ER

Kimber Jr.’s BOOK OF THE YEAR!!!!!!

Well, okay, that title isn’t totally honest. I’m actually doing my whole Top Ten, but my Number One is my Book of the Year, OK? .

What a year for books, too! Scott Westerfeld’s Behemoth (sequel to LEVIATHAN), Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay (the conclusion to the Hunger Games trilogy,) and Rick Riordan’s Lost Hero, (The new Percy Jackson series, called the Heroes of Olympus) came out this year, just to name a few. There is also a bunch of movies based on books- Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, and my personal favorite, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I, just to name a few.

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So here’s my Top Ten. Some are true newbies; others are old favorites; but all are worth the read.
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In the Number One Place and also taking my Book of the Year honor is…..
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(Drum roll please!!)

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS BY J.K ROWLING!!!

Bet you saw that coming, huh? This is my absolute favorite book of all time and I seriously doubt that will ever change!!

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One of my favorite things about this series is that it seriously keeps you on your toes with plot twist and villain redemptions and stuff like that. Deathly Hallows is even more so. For one thing, you don’t have the stable platform that is Hogwarts anymore. Anything can happen, and in general, everything does. Hermione and Ron have their traditional fights, and Harry contemplates the problem of Horcruxes vs. Hallows. Professor Umbridge reaches new heights of pure nastiness, Luna is her usual helpful self, and Ginny wants to get together with Harry again. Not to mention the movie’s out and it’s probably the most accurate-to-the-book one yet!!
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This is perhaps the most explosive Final Battle I’ve ever read. I won’t give away the ending, though. But I promise, this book did not get my Book of the Year honor for nothing!!!
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And now for the rest of my list. In Number Two place I have-
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PENDRAGON NUMBER SIX: THE RIVERS OF ZADAA BY D.J MACHALE
This book is my favorite in the Pendragon series for several reasons. First off, this one you see a lot of Loor, who is my favorite heroine in this series and had been practically absent in the last book. Second off, Loor and Bobby have that…..thing…..I was telling you about in my review. Third, there are at least two HUGE mysteries in this book. I figured them out, of course, but it took a while.
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Fourth, something I never, ever, in a million years expected to happen happened. A bad guy saved a good guy’s life!!! I’ll tell you, I had a time figuring out that it WAS the bad guy, but when I did I was literally reeling with shock. I’ve heard of good guys saving a bad guy’s life, but never the other way around!!!!
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I think of the Rivers of Zadaa as a bit of a transitioning book. Before, Bobby was saving worlds to keep Saint Dane at bay. The end wasn’t in sight. Also, Saint Dane had weird powers that the rest of the Travelers didn’t. What was up with that?
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Now, we find out something else is going on. Strange things are happening, not the least of which is Saint Dane saving Courtney’s life. Bobby is beginning to realize something bigger than anything he can imagine is going on. But what?
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That’s for you to figure out.
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And that’s why PENDRAGON # 6: THE RIVERS OF ZADAA is my number two favorite book!!!
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And in third place we have-
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BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA BY KATHERINE PATERSON
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This book is really sad but wonderful. There’s also a movie, so it’s pretty cool. The main characters are Leslie and Jesse, two fifth-graders who band together in the face of school bullies and other threats. They create their own fantasy world called Terabithia, which they rule together as they become closer and closer. But when an unforeseen event forces Jesse to stand alone, will he realize what he’s really learned from Leslie?
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I almost cried when I first read this. It’s weird because I knew it was coming. I even had a rough guess where it would be. But when it actually happened, it caught me totally off guard.
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And that’s why Bridge to Terabithia is my number three favorite book!
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And scoring an honest fourth is-
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ANIMORPHS NUMBER NINETEEN: THE DEPARTURE BY K.A APPLEGATE
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Animorphs #19: The Departure is my favorite Animorphs basically because I think it’s the funniest and it stars my favorite of the crew, morphing extraordinaire Cassie.
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Animorphs is this cool series where these five kids-Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Marco, and Tobias-have the ability to turn, or “morph”, into any animal they can touch. This power was given to them by a dying Andalite prince because the evil Yeerks are coming. Yeerks are these really weird aliens that literally slither into your brain and possess you. They have come to take over Earth. And the only thing standing in their way is-you guessed it-the Animorphs.
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In The Departure, peace-loving Cassie has reached the end of her rope. She’s had it with battles and lies and all the things that come with war. So she quits the Animorphs.
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But no sooner has she done that then she meets Karen, a small girl infected with a Yeerk named Aftran. Aftran now knows Cassie is a human, not an Andalite like the Yeerks currently think. If she tells, it’s all over. But will Cassie’s gentle ways be enough to change Aftran’s mind?
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And that’s why ANIMORPHS: The Departure is my Number Four!
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Scoring Number Five is:
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PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS NUMBER THREE: THE TITAN’S CURSE BY RICK RIORDAN
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Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan’s Curse is my favorite of this series because it introduces three of my favorite heroines: Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Bianca, daughter of Hades, and Zoe, huntress of Artemis.
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In The Titan’s Curse, fourteen-year-old Percy Jackson is gearing up for battle. The evil Kronos is rising thanks to Percy’s old friend-turned-enemy, Luke. He is getting stronger.
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Then one day, Annabeth is captured and forced to take the Titan’s Curse. She is imprisoned along with the goddess of the hunt, Artemis, and must be rescued.
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Percy, Grover, and their new friends Thalia, Bianca, and Zoe must rescue them, but will the uneasy alliance between the campers and the Huntresses be enough to save the world?
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That’s why The Titan’s Curse takes the number five spot!
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And in number six we have:
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THE 39 CLUES BOOK SIX: IN TOO DEEP BY JUDE WATSON
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I’ll admit, I first got this book only because it involves Amelia Earhart. But now I’ve been reading the others in the series and they’re pretty good.
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The two heroes, twelve-year-old Dan and his fourteen-year-old sister Amy, have been looking all over the world for the clues to the mystery of the Cahills, a family whose branches have been collecting the Clues to a thing that will help them rule the world. Now their search has pointed them to Australia and the mystery of a famous philosopher. But when they are trapped in a fire very much like the one that killed their parents, who will save them?
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It’s no one you expect, I’ll give you that!!
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In number seven, we have-
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THE INHEIRITANCE CYCLE #1: ERAGON BY CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI
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This series is as epic as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. Actually, I think it’s closer to the Lord of the Rings because Christopher Paolini literally made up languages for each of his peoples. It’s awesome.

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The story is about a common farm boy (or so he thinks) named Eragon who finds a strange rock in the mountains near his home. When it hatches into a baby dragon he names Saphira, it brings the forces of the dark king Galbatorix (who, in my opinion, bears a distinct resemblance to Voldemort) down on him. With the help of his new mentor, Brom, he must battle the forces of evil and save the world.
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Sound like your regular fantasy novel? It isn’t. Not by a long shot.
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In Number eight we have-
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THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA NUMBER FIVE: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER BY C.S LEWIS
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I chose this for number eight mostly because of the fact that its movie also came out this year, sometime this month in fact. It’s going to be awesome!!!
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It starts with the two eldest Pevensies, Peter and Susan, heading for America while their younger siblings Lucy and Edmund stay with their annoying cousin Eustace. But no sooner than Eustace gets on their nerves are they catapulted right back into the magical land of Narnia.
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They find themselves with their old friends Prince Caspian and Reepicheep on board the Dawn Treader, bound for lands unknown. Their mission: find seven missing lords that King Miraz exiled during his reign. What they find is far different: many magical lands with equally magical peoples, some friendly and some hostile. Will they be able to reach Aslan’s country, or will they founder on the way?
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I have three words for you: Read the book.
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And in Number Nine is-
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THE OPHELIA DAWSON CHRONICLES BOOK NUMBER ONE: SUGAR RUSH BY KIMBER AN
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I’m not biased at all for or against this book, so nobody yell when I say it’s cool. Not the most awesome book I’ve ever read in my whole entire life, but pretty good nonetheless.
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It stars Ophelia Dawson, a high-school diabetic in the remote town of Togo, Alaska. She’s one corner in a brutal love triangle involving her, the resident super-spoiled jerk boyfriend Martin Brynner and a yet unknown secret admirer. Her twin sister Bianca tries to help her, but there’s just no shaking Martin. But why is he holding on so tightly? Is he just your usual jerk boyfriend who is absolutely unable to get a hint, or is there some diabolical plot going on?
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Turns out it’s both. Sure, Martin is the ultimate jerk boyfriend. But he’s also a vampire,
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(((Kimber An here:  "Alien-Human Hybrid!"  Kimber Jr says: "If it quacks like a duck, it's a duck.  If it sucks blood...")))
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 no kidding. And he wants Ophelia for his own. Can Ophelia’s secret admirer, the secretly cute Adrian, and her new friend Brandon protect her and her family from the resident vampires?
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In short, a pretty good book of romance and vampires.
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And finally, in number ten, we have-
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THE TWILIGHT SAGA BOOK NUMBER ONE: TWILIGHT BY STEPHENIE MEYER

These books are awesome! Everybody’s so negative about them; they never get around to actually getting to know them. Though I will admit, if this was just a pure romance and it didn’t have the whole good vampire vs. bad vampire thing I wouldn’t read it. But the action is good in three out of four books, and the good vampires, the Cullen family, is awesome.
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It stars seventeen-year-old Bella Swan who’s had to move to rainy old Forks from her old home in sunny Phoenix. There she meets the charming Edward Cullen and immediately falls in love.

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As things go on, she meets the rest of the Cullens, including the true kick-butt heroine of this series, Alice. Bella’s no wimp, that’s for sure, but Alice is the true kick-butt heroine, period. Then there’s the jealous-of-Bella’s-still-being-human Rosalie, the tough brothers Jasper and Emmett, gentle Esme, and the head of the family, Dr. Carlisle.

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There’s also the nice guy Jacob, but he really only gets super-important in the next book.

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But then she meets the bad vampires, led by James, a super-mean vampire with a deep-set grudge against the Cullens. He is followed by Victoria, a rare female villainess, and Laurent, their henchman. Together, they trap Bella. Will the Cullens be able to rescue her? Or is it the end of the line for everyone?
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Oh, yeah, and there’s also a movie, and it should be good because the guy who played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Robert Pattinson) also plays Edward. I can’t wait to see it!
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There’s my Top Ten, everybody! But before I sign off, I’d like to do an Honorable Mention of the TV series:
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BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER!!!!!!!!!!
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This is possibly the coolest vampire series out there. It stars Buffy Summers, a sixteen-year-old girl who just happens to be the Slayer, a person who has to fight vampires. Along with her Watcher, Giles, her vampire boyfriend Angel, and her buddies Xander and Willow, she protects her home town of Sunnydale against the forces of evil. But will it be enough?

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Though the vampires aren’t the coolest-looking, overall it’s a really cool series and deserves its spot as an Honorable Mention!!!!
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Until next year, good-bye and happy hippogriffs to you!!

PENDRAGON #1: The Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale

These books are awesome!! On my top ten favorite books list, it’s second only to Harry Potter. You’ll see why…..right now!

The story opens with a kiss. That’s right, a KISS! Now, that’s uncommon! It’s between our hero, Bobby Pendragon, and his girlfriend, Courtney. It’s right before the big game that Bobby is a big part of, blah blah blah.

But then, right in the middle of Bobby and Courtney’s kiss, Bobby’s Uncle Press shows up and tells Bobby that he needs his help. A bunch of people are in trouble-no kidding-and he needs Bobby’s help for some reason.

Bobby tags along somewhat reluctantly to a deserted subway, where we meet our villain-Saint Dane.

I just want to say something about this guy. Saint Dane is about the smartest villain I’ve encountered so far. Compare him to Voldemort. Voldemort is smart enough, but he focuses on the big huge take-over-the-world plot rather than work out all the kinks in his kill-Harry plots. Saint Dane isn’t like that….mostly. Sometimes he’s stupid and Bobby is able to use his mistake so to speak, but he does it a lot less often than Voldemort and the rest of them. Bobby and his friends have their work cut out for them with this guy!

Then Bobby gets flumed. Literally. See, Uncle Press and Saint Dane decide to duel it out. Saint Dane, naturally, decides to get a start on his kill-Bobby plot and tries to do just that. Just in the nick of time, though, Bobby jumps into this thing called a flume and gets transported to another dimension.

That dimension just happens to be called Denduron. Bobby finds himself dumped there, alone. Luckily, Uncle Press soon drops in and they set off.

Unluckily, Saint Dane has a little surprise for them, in the form of these creatures called quigs. They take different shapes on different territories, but for now, on Denduron, they’re these weird bear-dog beasts.

The only way to get past them is to sled. Luckily, Bobby is able to fend them off with a very high-pitched dog whistle thingy. Unluckily, though, almost as soon as they reach their destination, Uncle Press is captured by these guys called Bedoowan knights. As he gets dragged off, Bobby blacks out and the journal ends.

But the adventure isn’t over just yet. Back on Earth-actually, it’s technically Second Earth-, Bobby’s best friend Mark is having adventures of his own. He is visited by a mysterious woman who gives him a weird ring with equally weird powers-it delivers Bobby’s journals from Denduron straight to him!

However, there are even more pressing problems than oddly magical jewelry on Mark’s mind. The Pendragons have literally gone missing-not just Bobby, his mom and dad and sister Shannon too! It’s downright abnormal, provoking the police into mounting a full-out search for the missing Pendragons. They find-nothing! Literally. It’s as if the family never existed. No records, no grades, no nothing. It’s truly mindboggling.

Meanwhile, Mark confronts Courtney, who hasn’t seen Bobby since Uncle Press walked in on their kiss. The two go to Bobby’s house, only to find that it’s gone too! Weird. And, as if to underline it, Bobby’s next journal arrives and the adventure continues.

Back on Denduron, Bobby wakes to find himself in the company of two of my favorite heroines anywhere anytime, Uncle Press’s buddy Osa and her daughter, Loor. They may be a mother-and-daughter duo, but these two have complete flip personalities. Loor constantly wants to beat up on anything and anyone who strays in her way-including Bobby. (Don’t worry-they get along later. It even gets interesting at one point, to say the least. But forget I said that, OK?) Osa, on the other hand, is much calmer and constantly wants to stop Loor beating up on Bobby. They both have one thing in common with Bobby and Uncle Press, though-they’re both Travelers, though they aren’t native to Denduron, but another territory called Zadaa.

We then get to see what, exactly, is up on Denduron. The problem is the Bedoowan-remember the guys who took Uncle Press? They’re not the only people on Denduron. There are also the Milago, who are very good at mining a certain material-a mineral called glaze. The Bedoowan have enslaved the Milago, forcing them to mine more and more of the stuff, while they live in luxury.

And that isn’t the least of it. Saint Dane has taken over as the chief miner and has begun a very cruel practice-he force the Milago to mine enough glaze to balance a guy on a scale. If it’s enough, good for them. If it’s enough, the poor guy doesn’t live to see the sunrise.

Fortunately, not all the Bedoowan are bad. After an embarrassing episode involving Bobby, Loor, and a river, we meet the Traveler from Denduron-the Bedoowan knight Alder. And it’s just in time, too-not long after, Bobby, Loor, and Osa are pursued by more of the Bedoowan, and Osa is shot to death with a bunch of arrows.

That’s right. Osa is dead.

And that’s just the beginning.

The battle has barely started, and already Bobby has had second thoughts. All he wants is to go home. He isn’t even sure if he wants to try and save Uncle Press.

But Osa’s death has put things back into perspective for him. He can see that it’s not just Uncle Press’s life at stake. It’s all of their lives, from the highest Bedoowan to the lowliest Milago. You don’t know it yet, but it also has at stake the fate of everything, everywhere, that has ever been or ever will be. That’s the whole basic plot of the Pendragon series, essentially. But that gets explained later. In the meantime, it’s time for some action!

However, Bobby can’t save everything everywhere all on his own. He enlists Loor and Alder to help him rescue Uncle Press. He also enlists Mark and Courtney, who send him a bunch of stuff from Second Earth that Bobby uses to set Uncle Press free.

I have two words for you, Bobby: Bad idea!!

And boy was that a big bad idea. See, you’re not supposed to mix things between territories. We find out why when one of the Milago gets hold of one of Bobby’s batteries and uses it to set a time bomb.

On Denduron, the Milago have one big weapon: an extremely volatile mineral called tak. They were planning to use it to defeat the oppressive Bedoowan once and for all, but there’s a problem: when it explodes, it blows up just about anything, including the nearby Milago village. But thanks to Bobby, the Milago now have a way to time the bomb so the Milago can get away in time.

It’s about to get messy. Bobby, Loor, Alder, and Uncle Press get caught by the Bedoowan and sentenced to death by quig. In the middle of the execution, though, one of the Milago show up hauling a bunch of tak-rigged glaze, prepped and ready for explosion.

Will Bobby be able to figure out a way to deactivate the tak, get the Bedoowan and the Milago to work together again, defeat Saint Dane, and get all his friends out alive to boot? That, my friends, is the question. I know, but I’m not going to tell. You’ll just have to make like Hermione and get the book!



Well, that’s why I like the Pendragon series! And this isn’t the only one, either-it’s got a full ten books! The next one is called Pendragon Book #2: The Lost City of Faar. I’ll probably review it next, OK? Hey, I never said I was going to abandon you until next July! Well, see you then and happy hippogriffs to you!

The Guardians of Ga'Hoole "The Capture" by Kathryn Lasky

Here's the link to the movie trailer-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_lMihSKkgA
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Countdown to Legends of Ga’Hoole: Guardians of Ga’Hoole Book 1: The Capture by Kathryn Lasky

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WHOOOO----HOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about an awesome year for kid’s book movies!!!! First Percy Jackson, then Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and now this!!!! And it comes out this month!!!
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Okay, so I’m doing sort of the same thing that I am for the Deathly Hallows: reviewing the books! Now I’m betting that they’re going the merge the first six or so into one movie, so that’s what I’m gonna do: review the first six! And no complaints if I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am, ‘cause I have concrete evidence: they show the bad guy in the preview, and he really doesn’t show up till the end of the third book!!
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So here we go, and see you at the movie!
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The story opens with our hero, Soren the Barn Owl, watching as his new baby sister Eglantine hatches. Nearby are his mother and father, his slightly sinister older brother Kludd, and his family’s nest-maid snake, Mrs. Plithiver. Soon, Eglantine is out of her egg and eating her first bug. Ahh, the joys of a happy family.
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But soon that is ruined for Soren when he falls out of the nest! Mrs. Plithiver tries to get help, but before she can, Soren is swept away by a mysterious owl to an equally mysterious stone labyrinth.
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Soon, we find out that the labyrinth is called St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls, though it’s better known as St. Aggie’s. There Soren meets a new friend: Gylfie the Elf Owl, and finds out the strictest rule at St. Aggie’s-no questions! That’s right, no questions! Yikes!
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Between them, Soren and Gylfie figure out what’s going on at St. Aggie’s-they’re brainwashers! Using a combination of giving them a number instead of a name, something called moon blinking and repeating their old names over and over and over so it becomes just another sound, they’re slowly turning all the owlets-including Soren and Gylfie!-into brainless zombies!
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Luckily, they manage to find ways around their efforts-for example, they start saying their number instead of their name and staying in one place during the sleep marches so that they stay away from the moon’s glare, they manage to keep their brains unwashed. But the question is, how long can they keep this up? They desperately need to escape.
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But there’s one problem.: the only way out is to fly out. And neither Soren nor Gylfie are ready to fly.
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Yeah. Really.
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So in the meantime the unlikely duo decides to investigate just what St. Aggie’s is really up to. So Gylfie gets the twosome positions in the pelletorium, where owls peck apart the small pellets that all owls throw up (or yarp, as the owls in the Guardians of Ga’Hoole universe say). But why? Soren eventually finds out that they’re looking for flecks-tiny pieces of metal embedded in pellet that have many magnetic qualities. But why are Skench and Spoorn, the two head owls here at St. Aggie’s, after the flecks?
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Not long after, the two are promoted to work in the eggorium, where snatched eggs from all over the owl world are sorted and given to broodies, who sit the eggs until they hatch. Soren sorts the Barn Owl eggs, and Gylfie the Elf Owl eggs. But they aren’t figuring anything out.
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Soon, Soren meets an owl named Hortense, or number 12-8. She’s a broody, like Soren is at that point. Her nest is located high up, overlooking the canyon-a perfect place for Soren and Gylfie’s first flight. But more than that, Hortense turns out to be un-moon blinked, like them! See, she was born near a river that had lots of flecks in it, and it gave her a peculiar resistance to moon blinking. Now she’s living at St. Aggie’s, but is she really all she seems? Not by a long shot, as Gylfie discovers one night. She’s actually an infiltrator, smuggling away the very eggs she keeps warm by giving them to a large bald eagle that comes every so often to take eggs.
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Hortense agrees to let them meet the bald eagle but, that very night, they are discovered! Aunt Finny, a pit guardian, and Skench and Spoorn try to take the egg back, but in the ensuing fight Hortense is shoved off the edge by none other than Finny, who we thought was rather nice but now we know as a person who really hates children! (I think she’d probably get along well with Professor Umbridge!)
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Well, overall, things aren’t going well. They get worse when Soren and Gylfie see what happens to pretty much all the flight-age owls at St’s Aggie’s-they get bitten by vampires! And they aren’t even the awesomely-cute Twilight type! (Aw, man!!) They’re actually vampire bats, and what they do is take out the vital supply of blood that helps the owls’ flight feathers grow. No blood, no growth, no flight, no escape.
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And the bats always come at the new moon. (Hmmmm. Does that ring a bell or is it just me?) Soren and Gylfie have to get out of here before then or they can kiss any hopes of escape good-bye.
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The truth is, Gylfie has some suspicions about one of Skench and Spoorn’s top lieutenants, Grimble. So they go and talk to him and discover he isn’t moon blinked, either! He’s been resisting it too, all these years since he was taken, as an adult owl, to St. Aggie’s. He’s astonished that Soren and Gylfie have discovered a way to resist it. Luckily, though, he agrees to help Soren and Gylfie learn how to fly.
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Well before the next new moon, Soren and Gylfie are ready. Grimble says he’ll arrange it so they can take off from the library, which is the highest point in St. Aggie’s besides where Hortense’s nest was. But then, somehow, they are discovered! Skench bursts in with full armor and battle claws on. But somehow, she is pulled back and slams into the walls, giving Soren and Gylfie just enough time to get on the wing and escape St. Aggie’s at last!
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They fly through the night, until they are far away from the stone walls and seriously non-cute vampires of St. Aggie’s. But still, they don’t have anywhere to go to. They try Soren’s hollow, but when they get there, Soren’s parents are gone, and with them Eglantine and even Soren’s slightly sinister brother Kludd. Now what are they to do?
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Soon after, they meet their new friend Twilight, a huge Great Gray, who was snatched at birth by St. Aggie’s but somehow managed to escape and has lived on his own ever since. The trio decides to head to Kuneer to see if they can find Gylfie’s family. There they meet Digger, a Burrowing Owl whose family was discovered and snatched by-yes, and again-St. Aggie’s. But when the four owls are attacked by two huge Long-Eared Owls, Jatt and Jutt, will they be able to fight them off? Will Soren ever see his family again? And will the four owls-now known as the Band-ever reach that group of noble owls, the Guardians of Ga’Hoole?
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Sorry, but I really don’t want to give it away, so you’ll just have to wait for the next review. But I will say that it should be pretty soon. I want to get the first six done before the movie’s release on the 24th. That means I’ll have to do a few a week. Any complaints? Good. Next up is number two, The Journey. I’d look for it this weekend, OK? Good. Until then, see you at the movie!

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX by J.K. Rowling

Countdown to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Month Three-Book Five-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

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Finally, it’s time for The Order of the Phoenix! It’s the thickest yet at over seven hundred pages, but well worth it! And remember after this, there’s only the Half-Blood Prince and then……well, you should know what I mean by now.
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The story opens with Harry trying to find out whether there’s any news about Lord Voldemort on the news. However, he is quickly distracted by a cracking sound not far away. (Read your Chamber of Secrets!) The resulting uproar from the Dursleys sends Harry away to the nearest playground, where he runs into everybody’s favorite-bully-who-really-does-not-like-Harry-and-that’s-not-good person, Dudley.
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However, there are much worse things out there than even Harry’s bullying cousin. One of those just happens to be dementors. Two of them corner Harry and Dudley down a dark alley (which is exactly where you don’t want to meet dementors). Luckily, Harry is able to repel them with a Patronus, and we meet up with an old friend, Mrs. Figg. Turns out she’s really a Squib (a person with magical parents but no magical abilities), and has been watching over Harry ever since he was first sent to Privet Drive way back when. We also learn that Harry had been being watched ever since he returned to Privet Drive. One of those watchers is a slightly odd person named Mundungus Fletcher, who had just happened to wander off just before Harry ran into those dementors.
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As a result, Harry had to use a Patronus, which is magic, which means he’s in very big trouble now! He’s been summoned for a hearing. If he wins, he gets to stay at Hogwarts. If not…..well, let’s just say that wouldn’t be a very good situation to be in.
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On the upside, however, Harry does get to leave the Dursleys early. He’s rescued by a bunch of people, including everybody’s favorite ex-Defense against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Lupin and the real Mad-Eye Moody, who we thought was the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher last year but really wasn’t….ooops, forget I said that. We also meet some new faces, including everybody’s favorite so-clumsy-she’s-utterly-hilarious Nymphadora Tonks (word of caution: don’t call her by her first name!!), the very cool Kingsley Shacklebolt, the slightly familiar Dedalus Diggle, and several other interesting characters.
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In no time, Harry’s out of the house and landing in front of number twelve, Grimmauld Place, the temporary headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. There we meet up with the Weasleys (minus Percy) and Hermione, who quickly fill Harry in on what’s been happening and what’s up with the Order of the Phoenix. We also find another familiar face: everybody’s favorite so-unexpected-we-thought-he-was-a-villain-like-Harry-doesn’t-have-enough-of-them hero, Sirius Black!
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Yep, he’s here, happily enough! However, the happy reunions are quickly overshadowed by Harry’s looming hearing. All too soon, Harry’s going to his hearing accompanied by Mr. Weasley.
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Luckily, Harry has a good judge, Mrs. Bones. Unfortunately, though, Fudge has decided to attend as well, and ever since last year when Harry told him Lord Voldemort is back, he’s had a very low opinion of Harry and would like nothing better than to convict him.
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Fortunately, though, Harry has one last thing on his side: Professor Dumbledore has shown up to support Harry, along with Mrs. Figg as a witness. With more than a little trading of info and Fudge’s bringing up Harry’s past endeavors (including his Aunt Marge incident, which, I may add, he let Harry off for,), Harry is, once again, off the hook! (Yay, yay!!) However, it is not before we meet another, very annoying character: Professor Umbridge.
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It isn’t until Harry, Ron, and Hermione make it back to Hogwarts, however, that we find out just how major a character Professor Umbridge is. Well, long story short, she’s the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, and she, like her boss Fudge, is no fan of Harry’s.
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But more of that later. In the meantime, Harry, Ron, and Hermione meet up with one of my favorite characters, Luna Lovegood. She may be a little crazy, but she’s very nice and quite important as a character.
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Professor Umbridge may be a big fan of the color pink, but she soon shows her true colors: a kid-torturer! Not to mention, she shares Fudge’s opinion about Harry’s saying Lord Voldemort is back: she thinks he’s lying, as if! Combine the two, and Harry’s in detention before you can say “Voldemort”. And this is no ordinary detention, either! Professor Umbridge is so mean; she makes Harry use this quill that writes using Harry’s own blood! Ouch! I know, I don’t like her either.
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But more than that, Fudge has decided that the kids shouldn’t be learning defensive magic anymore, which is simply leaving the door wiiiiiiiiiiide open for Lord Voldemort. So Harry, Ron, and Hermione decide to start up a Defense against the Dark Arts group. They meet in the Hog’s Head, a rather suspicious bar in Hogsmeade, to gather members. Some people who show up include the twins, Ginny, Luna, (yay, yay!), and Cho Chang, remember her? Neville also shows up, along with Seamus, Dean, and a bunch of other kids from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. There’s no one from Slytherin, though: they’re all big supporters of Professor Umbridge, big surprise there!
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The only problem is, where are they going to meet? That problem is solved by an appearance from our old friend Dobby the house-elf, who tells Harry of the Room of Requirement. The Room of Requirement is a magical room that’ll produce whatever you really, really need-like a room to practice Defense Against the Dark Arts! Soon Harry’s teaching the kids to use spells like Expelliarmus, the Disarming Spell, Stupefy, the Stunning Spell, and even Patronuses like Harry’s. To name a few, Hermione’s is an otter, Cho’s is a swan, and Ginny’s is a horse. (At least, it is in the movie; I don’t think it says in the book. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Rewind!
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There we go. Okay, so it’s the last meeting of Dumbledore’s Army (that’s what Harry, Ron, and Hermione name it: it fits well, don’t you think?). But that’s not important. What’s really, awesomely cool is what happens right after.
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Cho corners Harry after the meeting ends. At first, he thinks she just wants to talk about everybody’s favorite super-extra-ultra-cute-guy Cedric. But then she turns the whole thing by doing something I probably shouldn’t say in case any boys are reading this right now.
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(pssst…..hey, girls, you guessed right. Harry and Cho do kiss. And it’s awesome!!)
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The whole oh-awesome-I-have-a-girlfriend is ruined that night, however. Harry dreams that he is a snake, slithering down an all-too-familiar corridor somewhere deep within the Ministry. The snake comes upon Mr. Weasley (don don dawww!!) and attacks him viciously! In no time flat Harry, Ginny, Ron, and the twins are at Sirius’s waiting to see their dad at St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
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The next day the Weasleys and Harry go to visit Mr. Weasley, accompanied by none other than our three favorite Aurors, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley. While there, Harry and Ron come face-to-face with another old friend-Gilderoy Lockhart, everybody’s favorite totally not-very-good-at-magic-in-general-except-memory charms-ex-Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
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Skip forward to after the holidays. Professor Umbridge is eviler than ever (if that’s possible), and, to add to Harry’s miserable state of mind, Professor Snape has been doing Occulmency with him.
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See, turns out what we suspected all along was true-Harry really is reading Lord Voldemort’s mind. And lately, the connection’s been getting stronger and stronger (hence those funny dreams), and Dumbledore’s worried that Voldemort might figure out he’s got a direct link to Harry’s mind (which he does). So he’s had Snape start to teach Harry Occulmency, which should keep Voldemort out and Harry in control.
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Maybe.
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And that’s not all. The very next D.A meeting is crashed by (whom else?) Professor Umbridge, who was tipped off by none other than Cho’s friend Marietta Edgecombe. Fudge quickly manages to blame Dumbledore and tries to send him to Azkaban. What he doesn’t count on is Fawkes, who whisks Dumbledore off to safety, leaving Professor Umbridge free to take over as headmistress.
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Soon, Harry is heading to talk his career options over with good old Professor McGonagall. He wants to be an Auror, but Professor Umbridge decides to play killjoy and says Harry will never be employed as one (which, I admit, was a predictable response from her. You know, she really hates children).
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Harry gets his comeuppance a little late, though, when another of my favorite Harry Potter scenes play out. Fred and George decide, hey, we don’t wanna stay here with little miss I-really-like-pink-so-much-it’s-utterly-disgusting, so let’s blow the coop! So they do in typical Fred and George style, setting off a bunch of fireworks and completely blowing Umbridge off her feet!
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All too soon, however, Harry is enduring the dreaded O.W.Ls!! As usual, I’m not telling you how he does (you don’t really know until the next book anyway), but I am going to tell you what happens during History of Magic.
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Harry falls asleep during the immensely boring lesson, and no sooner is he asleep than he dreams that Voldemort has everybody’s favorite so-unexpected-we-thought-he-was-a-villain-like-Harry-doesn’t-have-enough-of-them hero, Sirius!
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Before you can say, “Harry, wait! Don’t believe a word Kreacher says!”, Harry’s been caught by Umbridge trying to talk to Sirius. Hermione, Ron, Neville, Ginny, and Luna are also caught.
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The next thing you know, everybody thinks Hermione betrays them (but she really doesn’t, so quit punching the screen), and we find out that it was really Umbridge who set those dementors on Harry!!! (It took me like ages to figure that out, so I hope you’re a more observant reader than I am, or you’ll miss a lot.) Hermione tells Umbridge that Dumbledore’s set up some sort of secret weapon in the Forbidden Forest (which he really hasn’t), so Umbridge takes Harry and Hermione out into the forest where, with a little help from our old friends the centaurs (minus Firenze: he’s the new Divination teacher) and Grawp, Hagrid’s all-giant half-brother, they manage to shake off Umbridge and get back to Hogwarts in one piece.
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Meanwhile, back at the school of magic, Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Luna manage to get rid of their Slytherin guards and give Harry and Hermione back their wands. Now for the difficult part: how to get to the Ministry? One slightly hilarious conversation later, Luna comes up with a solution that she really had all along: Thestrals!
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Thestrals are these really cool skeletal horses that are sort of creepy because they can only been seen by those who’ve seen death (like Harry and Luna, for instance), and they eat meat, but they have wings and a really good sense of direction. So the next thing you know, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Luna are mounted on Thestrals and headed for the Department of Mysteries.
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There they find a bunch of doors like the ones in Harry’s dreams. Eventually, after seeing a bunch of really cool stuff, they find the right room-a room full of glass balls that have prophecies in them. That’s right-prophecies!
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And one of them just happens to be the reason why Voldemort decided to go kill Harry’s parents (and try to kill Harry, too, but we know that didn’t work out. For the most part, anyway,) all those years ago. And it’s the reason why Voldemort used the connection to lure Harry here, to the Department of Mysteries. That’s right. Sirius isn’t here.
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But a bunch of Death Eaters, including Draco’s dear daddy Lucius Malfoy and the woman-who-tortured-Neville’s-parents-into-insanity (and Sirius cousin, by the way), Bellatrix Lestrange, are.
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And that’s not good.
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One by one, the others are knocked out-Hermione’s hit by a mysterious curse that leaves her unconscious, along with Ginny and Luna, and Ron’s knocked silly and almost strangled by a bunch of brains-until only Neville and Harry are left. It’s looking pretty bleak until the Order of the Phoenix arrives, including Sirius! Luckily, none of the Death Eaters are able to snatch the prophecy from Harry. Granted, Neville has to kick it and completely demolish it, but it’s better than the alternative.
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Things seem to be going pretty well. Dumbledore arrives, and all seems saved-until Harry turns around and watches as Bellatrix Lestrange uses the Avada Kedavra on Sirius, and he topples behind a nearby mysteriously whispering veil.
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That’s right. You heard me. Everybody’s favorite so-unexpected-we-thought-he-was-a-villain-like-Harry-didn’t-have-enough-of-them hero, Sirius Black, is dead.
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Harry only pauses a moment, then dashes after Bellatrix, who beats a hasty retreat. Only a short time later, Voldemort comes in person, duels with Dumbledore a bit, then does something we were pretty sure would happen all along.
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He possesses Harry. Like, control possesses. Controls him. You know what I mean.
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Can Harry fend off Voldemort once more, or will he finish what he started fourteen years ago (not to mention last year in that graveyard, but that’s too recent)? Will Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, and Luna be okay? Will Tonks be okay? And will Fudge finally figure out the truth: Voldemort is back!! And Harry is right! And Professor Umbridge is an absolute toad of a teacher! And Professor Dumbledore is awesome! And-well, I could go on awhile. But you know the drill. You’ll just have to make like Hermione and get the book!
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So, that’s number five over and done with! Up next month we have Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and after that-well, suffice it to say you’d better not get me going on it, or you’ll be here awhile. Good-bye and happy hippogriffs to you until next time! (ha-ha, I made that up myself. Like it?)

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE by J.K. Rowling

Countdown to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Month Two-Book Four-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K Rowling


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Here we are, on book number four! Only three more books to go till The Deathly Hallows-and, better yet, the month its in-November, the release of the first half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the movie! Whoo-hoo!

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The story opens with this guy named Frank Bryce. He’s the housekeeper for the Riddles (does that name ring any bells to you people who’ve read The Chamber of Secrets? Hmm?), and, when the Riddles are discovered dead with no apparent cause of death (to the Muggles, at least), he is the prime subject. But he gets off and continues taking care of the Riddle mansion.

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Fast forward over fifty years. Frank wakes up in the middle of the night, thinking a bunch of kids has gotten in and is messing up the Riddle mansion. It turns out to be something far less welcome-Lord Voldemort, his cowardly assistant Peter Pettigrew, and Lord Voldemort’s pet snake Nagini. Suffice it to say Frank does not get a warm welcome.

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Miles away, everybody’s favorite hero Harry Potter wakes up from a nightmare-incidentally, one of that very same scene that was just played out. Uncanny coincidence? Or is it that Harry’s just reading Voldemort’s mind? We don’t know for sure-yet. But more of that later.

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Turns out Harry’s pretty curious on what’s up with Voldemort and his scar, too. So he writes to his recently-on-the-run-with-Buckbeak-the-hippogriff-godfather, everybody’s favorite absolutely, positively, so-unexpected-we-thought-he-was-a-villain-like-Harry-didn’t-have-enough-of-them hero, Sirius Black.

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Then, at breakfast with the Dursleys, Harry finds out Uncle Vernon got a letter from (guess who!) Mrs.Weasley, inviting Harry along with Hermione and the Weasleys to go see the Quidditch World Cup match between Bulgaria and Ireland! Superbly awesome! Needless to say, the next day Mr. Weasley, Fred, George, and Ron arrive in a hilarious way. They try to use Floo powder (Read the Chamber of Secrets, people!) to get in, only to find that the Dursleys have blocked up their (electric) fireplace. Soon, stuff is flying and Harry is off to the Burrow!

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There he meets Bill and Charlie, Ron’s out-of-Hogwarts brothers, and they get ready to go to the World Cup. There they meet Amos Diggory, a colleague of Mr. Weasley’s, and his son, everybody’s favorite super-extra-ultra-cute-guy Cedric.

(((Kimber An here- Yeah, he's cute...for a brown-haired guy!)))
(((Kimber, Jr. here-   Mooooom!!!)))
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You should know the drill for Quidditch games by now, and the World Cup is no exception. I’m not telling you who wins. You’ll just have to make like Hermione and get the book for that! (And don’t bother with the movie for this either, they cut it out.) However, I will say that the Bulgarian Seeker’s name is Viktor Krum, and he turns out to be pretty important later on. .

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But after that something rather monumental happens that I will tell you about. All of a sudden that night, a bunch of followers of everybody’s favorite villain Lord Voldemort, otherwise known as Death Eaters, stampede through the grounds, levitating Muggles up into the air! And then, something quite awful happens-the mark of Voldemort, otherwise known as the Dark Mark, is cast into the air, chasing the rest of the rather cowardly (ring, ring!) Death Eaters.

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But who cast it? Was it Percy’s new boss Mr.Crouch’s house-elf (ring, ring! Read your Chamber of Secrets!) Winky, who was found at the scene of the crime, one of the Death Eaters, (quite unlikely, seeing as they all ran away when it was cast) or even Harry Potter (no way!), whose wand seemed to have been used to cast it? The mystery continues-well, until the end of the book, obviously. But more of that later.

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For now, it’s back to Hogwarts with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The trip is not made any easier by the fact that everybody’s favorite arch-school-enemy, Draco Malfoy, is dropping hints that something else really big is going down at Hogwarts. .

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We find out exactly what that thing is once Harry gets to Hogwarts. A big tournament called the Triwizard Tournament is going to be hosted by Hogwarts this year. Students from fellow magical schools Durmstrang and Beauxbatons will be arriving to compete. In the meantime, however, Harry, Ron, and Hermione meet the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, everybody’s favorite seemingly-grumpy-guy ex-Auror Mad-Eye Moody. In his classes, they learn about the three Unforgiveable Curses-the Cruciatus Curse (as according to everybody’s favorite cheer-on-able character, Neville Longbottom), the Imperius Curse, and the worst of all, Avada Kedavra: the Killing Curse. If you think back maybe four books, I think you’ll know just how significant this last one is to Harry.

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Finally, however, the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students arrive, and we learn a little about schools other than everybody’s favorite magical school, Hogwarts. We also learn what became of that Bulgarian Seeker, Viktor Krum-he’s come to enter for the Triwizard Tournament, surprise, surprise!

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Soon, the finalists for the Triwizard Tournament are in- everybody’s favorite super-extra-ultra-cute-guy Cedric Diggory for Hogwarts, Viktor Krum for Durmstrang (big surprise there), a girl named Fleur Delacour for Beauxbatons, and------Huh?! Now this is totally weird, I don’t think anyone anticipated this, (yeah, right,) but it looks like Harry is the fourth Triwizard champion!!! Not only is he underage, but there aren’t supposed to be more than three champions, one for each school! However, while we are left to ponder 1) who managed to fool the Goblet of Fire and put Harry’s name in and 2) why one would even try to do so, Harry is bound by magical contract to compete! Yikes!

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` One night not long after that, we find out what the first task is: dragons! Hagrid takes Madame Maxime, the headmistress of Beauxbatons, for a midnight stroll to see them with Harry under the Invisibility Cloak in tow.

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Then, during an encounter with Draco Malfoy, the mean Slytherin does something to get on Mad-Eye Moody’s bad side and, for all his trouble, gets turned into a white ferret!!! Haha, that is my favorite Malfoy scene after last book’s punch! Well, so far, anyway.

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Not long after that Harry is facing the first task. He has to somehow grab an egg protected by a very fierce, very protective, and very dangerous Hungarian Horntail dragon. So Harry pulls off an awesome flight on his new Firebolt to evade the dragon and grab the egg. Awesome!

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However, there is one “task” that Harry does not know about: the Yule Ball. It is the traditional Christmas party for the Triwizard Tournament. And for that, Harry needs a partner.

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Yeah. Really.

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What is it with boys anyway?! Harry and Ron wait until, like, the last second to get dates. Ron’s chosen partner: Fleur Delacour. Yeah, no offense, Ron, but dream on! Harry’s is a bit more realistic, shall we say: Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw Seeker, whom we met, last book (along with Cedric, I’m pleased to say). However, that doesn’t work out. Cho’s going with another guy. In the end, Harry enlists the help of the Patil twins, Parvati and Padma.

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You may be wondering: What about Hermione? Well, you’re about to find out. When the Yule Ball rolls round, Harry joins the champions. Turns out Cho’s been asked out by none other than everybody’s favorite super-extra-ultra-cute-guy, Cedric Diggory. Good for her! Then we find out just who Hermione’s gone with: none other than everybody’s favorite Bulgarian bonbon, Viktor Krum! (((Mmm!)))

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Yeah. Really.

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Then the boys reach a hurdle: um, how are we supposed to dance?

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Yeah. Really.

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Somehow, though, they figure it out with the helpof their rather-better-at-dancing girl partners, and they manage to avert a potential fiasco.

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A little later (or maybe a little earlier, I forget) we find out something you may have guessed about our big friend, Hagrid. Turns out that he’s-surprise, surprise!-half-giant! Some time later, a very annoying reporter named Rita Skeeter publishes an article on the subject- hereby turning the wrath of rather annoying people such as everybody’s favorite ex-Death Eater (?), Lucius Malfoy. That’s right, Draco’s dear daddy, though that shouldn’t be a surprise to someone who’s carefully kept an eye on him through the past three books. Now, Hagrid is disgraced by one bug of a reporter. (Literally!)

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The second task is looming. Remember that egg Harry had to take? Well, it’s a clue to the second task. However, Harry isn’t able to figure it out till a carefully placed clue courtesy of everybody’s favorite super-extra-ultra-cute-guy Cedric lands him in the prefect’s bathroom in the middle of the night.

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Déjà vu!!

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And, to complete the feeling of déjà vu, we’re reunited with an old friend: Moaning Myrtle from the Chamber of Secrets. Apparently, she’s been very naughty and spied on everybody’s favorite super-extra-ultra-cute-guy Cedric puzzling out the clue within his own egg. So now she’s helping out Harry-at the price of some hilarity of course, but the more the merrier! Eventually Harry figures it out: he’s got to rescue something from the merpeople in the Black Lake and get it back to the surface within an hour, or he loses. (don-don-dawwww!)

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The problem is: how’s he going to survive underwater for an hour? The solution comes when everybody’s favorite really-bad-at-saving-Harry’s-life-house-elf, Dobby, stealing a bit of an herb called gillyweed from Professor Snape’s stores and brings it to him. He says that it was give Harry gills to breathe underwater for an hour. Awesome!

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Second task dawns. The four champions take the plunge underwater. Harry uses his gillyweed, everybody’s favorite super-extra-ultra-cute-guy Cedric and Fleur both use the Bubble-Head Charm, and everybody’s favorite Bulgarian bonbon Viktor Krum Transfigures himself into a shark.

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That’s when we find out just what the merpeople took: people the champions hold dear! Harry’s is Ron (don don dawww!), everybody’s favorite Bulgarian bonbon Viktor Krum’s is Hermione (don don dawww!), everybody’s favorite super-extra-ultra-cute-guy Cedric’s is Cho Chang (don don dawww!), and Fleur’s is her sister Gabrielle. (don don daww!)

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Now Harry, the born hero that he is, heroically stays behind to make sure everybody is safe. When Fleur gets knocked out of the competition by a bunch of crazy octopeople called grindylows, Harry heroically risks running out of time to save both Ron and Gabrielle.

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In the end, though, Harry ties with everybody’s favorite super-extra-ultra-cute-guy Cedric for first! All that’s left is the third task and Harry’s home free! However, before we can get to that several big, huge, and quite monumental things happen. First off we meet up with everybody’s favorite absolutely, positively, so-expected-we-thought-he-was-a-villain-like-Harry-didn’t-have-enough-of-them hero, Sirius Black. He tells Harry, Ron, and Hermione about something quite alarming: Igor Karkaroff, the headmaster of Durmstrang, was a former Death Eater! Could he have put Harry’s name into the Goblet of Fire?

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Then, during a chat with everybody’s favorite Bulgarian bonbon Viktor Krum, Harry discovers none other than everybody’s favorite paranoid Ministry member, Mr. Crouch. This time, though, he’s gone somewhat crazy. Harry runs for Dumbledore, but by the time help arrives, Mr. Crouch is dead.

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But, why? That’s what everyone is pondering lately.

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Then Harry dreams (okay, it’s definitely getting suspiciously uncanny now) about Voldemort (who else? Seriously!) and Wormtail. Wormtail did something wrong, and now he’s getting the brunt of the Cruciatus Curse. I know, I know, Wormtail’s a bad guy, but I still think Voldemort should go a little easier on the poor guy.

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Then we find out just why Mr. Crouch is so significant: he had a son. Just one. That one son was sent to Azkaban for being a Death Eater. As a matter of fact, Karkaroff put him in. He died there, soon after.

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Or did he?!

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Harry finds this all out when he finds a special stone bowl called a Pensieve, full of thoughts and memories. It’s quite cool, actually. It’s one of the principle forms of time-travel throughout the Harry Potter books. If you think about it, he’s done time-travelling in all of the books except Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. It was Tom Riddle’s diary in the Chamber of Secrets, Hermione’s Time-Turner in the Prisoner of Azkaban, and the Pensieve in this book. He also uses them in the next three, but I’m not saying how.

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Now, finally, though, Harry faces the third and final task, a maze leading to the ultimate prize, the Triwizard Cup!

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Early on, it’s only Harry and everybody’s favorite super-extra-ultra-cute-guy Cedric still in it. Everybody’s favorite Bulgarian bonbon Viktor Krum is Imperiused by an unknown person and is knocked out, and Fleur is taken by an unknown villain. After a riddling session with a sphinx and an attack courtesy of one of Hagrid’s pet spiders, Harry and everybody’s favorite super-extra-ultra- cute-guy Cedric are locked in a race for the Cup. They decide to take it together, but receive a shock when it turns out the Cup is a Portkey-an object that is bewitched to take them somewhere! And this Portkey turns out to take them to a random graveyard out in the middle of nowhere.

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Then Wormtail shows up and does something really, really, awfully bad. He kills eveybody’s favorite super-extra-ultra-cute-guy CEDRIC!!!!!!!! That guy is in serious trouble with me now!!

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Then, something we knew would happen, even if we didn’t know it could happen, happens. Voldemort rises again! Yipes!

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Soon, a bunch of Death Eaters show up, including certainly-not-ex-Death Eater Lucius Malfoy! And yes, I’m totally serious about that, pun intended.

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Can Harry get away this time in one piece, or will Lord Voldemort finish what he started thirteen years ago? Well, sorry, but I’m still not in the give-away-the-ending mood, so you can stop holding you breath and make like Hermione and get the book!



Well, there’s number four for you! Next up in September we’ll have Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, so if you can’t wait you’ll have to make like Hermione and get the book. After that, though, there’s only two books left- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!!!!!!! See you then!

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN by J.K. Rowling

Countdown to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Month Two-Book Three-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K Rowling


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Welcome to Month Two! This month we shall review Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire! Then next month……well, I’m sure I’ve hammered it into your head enough, and if I haven’t go look at the previous review, I’m tired of saying it. Well, in any case, here’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban!

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The story opens with Harry attempting to do his homework in the dead of night.

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Yeah. Really.

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See, the Dursleys would really rather their neighbors not know that Harry exists, much less is a wizard. So they’ve locked away his books, broomstick, wand, etc. But Harry managed to steal some of it back, so he can do his homework.

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Yeah. Really.

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So, anyway, then Harry’s horrible aunt comes to visit and decides to insult Harry’s parents. So, anyway, one inflated aunt (ha-ha) and an encounter with some sort of very scary dog later, Harry’s on the seriously weird Knight Bus on his way to the Leaky Cauldron.

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By this point you’re probably thinking, “Hey, whoah, slow down. Isn’t Harry going to get in trouble for this?” My thoughts exactly. But when Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, (uh-oh) meets Harry, he lets him off easy. Now in my opinion Fudge is just a little bit of a wimp. I don’t mean to give anything away, but he’s the one who makes Harry look bad in The Order of the Phoenix. They practically had to shove Voldemort under his nose to make him believe……ooops. Forget I said that. Anyway, let’s just say I have a very low opinion of him. On the bright side, though, he lets Harry off easy due to the fact there’s a murderer on the loose.

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Whoah. Back up here. We need some background info on this. According to Mr. Weasley, the murderer’s name is Sirius Black (it’s pronounced serious- well, at least it is in the movies. Otherwise it’s sy-rus. I know, I was confused, too. Seriously!) and he’s the one who betrayed Harry and his parents’ whereabouts to Voldemort! And not long after that, he supposedly blew up a whole street, killing dozens of Muggles and one supposedly heroic wizard named Peter Pettigrew.

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Oh, yeah, and he’s Harry’s godfather.

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Yeah. Really.

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Anyway, Sirius Black is now on the run. He somehow managed to escape from the wizard prison, Azkaban, and is on his way to Hogwarts, supposedly to try and kill Harry.

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So drastic measures have been taken. For the year, Fudge has sent dementors to guard Hogwarts.

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Dementors. These are creatures you’d really not want to meet down a dark alley, trust me. They live off all happy thoughts and feelings, all things good and bright. They can suck these things right out of you like a smoothie. But the very worst thing they can do is kiss you. Believe me, besides the obvious yuck factor of kissing a dead guy, there’s the fact that when they do, they suck out your soul.

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Yeah. Not pretty.

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But that’s exactly what they plan to do with Sirius Black if they catch him. But in the meantime, they decide to search for him onboard the Hogwarts Express, and here Harry gets his first face-to-face encounter with a dementor, and it’s not pretty, to say the least. But luckily, the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lupin, is able to drive the dementor away. Probably the only good thing about dementors is that the antidote is chocolate, so that’s cool.

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(((Psst, Kimber An here. Lupin is my favorite professor!)))

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However, the fact that there’s a bunch of really mean dementors hanging around Hogwarts is only one of the new things this year. Another is the new subjects Harry, Ron, and Hermione are taking. One in particular is very odd. It’s Divination, and as if that’s not totally weird on its own, the teacher’s named Professor Trelawney and, as they soon find out, her favorite pastime is predicting Harry’s death.

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Yeah. Really.

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However, there’s another really cool one that’s called Care of Magical Creatures, and that’s just awesome. And guess who teaches it! If you guessed Hagrid, you’re right!

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Unfortunately, though, the class is taken with the Slytherins, including our favorite ASE (arch-school-enemy) Draco Malfoy, and as we all know by now, that’s going to lead to trouble.

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It does. The very first lesson (a very cool one on hippogriffs, which are big half-griffin, half-horse creatures), Malfoy manages to offend a hippogriff named Buckbeak. Now, hippogriffs are very proud creatures, and, as a result, Malfoy gets slashed in the shoulder and blames it on Buckbeak’s being vicious- puh-leeze!!! We’ll have to see how that turns out.

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Meanwhile, it’s time for Professor Lupin’s class, and it turns out to be hysterical! It’s on boggarts: shapeshifting creatures that turn into whatever scares you the most. In Harry’s case, it’ a dementor. And that’s not good. As a matter of fact, it’s quite bad.

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But then, as if Harry didn’t have enough on his mind to begin with, Sirius Black comes to Hogwarts and slashes the Fat Lady’s portrait! As a result, all the kids are sent to the Great Hall for the night and the castle is searched, but no further sign of Sirius Black is found.

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Then something really not good happens. It’s the first Quidditch match of the season, and Harry is flying against the Hufflepuff team and their Seeker, Cedric Diggory. But before Harry can catch the Snitch, a bunch of dementors come onto the field and make Harry fall off his broom from fifty feet up in the air!

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Yeah. Not pretty. .

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When Harry wakes up in the hospital wing, it’s to learn that 1) Hufflepuff won and 2) that his Nimbus Two Thousand flew into the Whomping Willow and was reduced to nothing but a bunch of sticks. Ooops. .

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So, all in all, it’s kind of a disappointing year so far. Harry can’t even go to this place called Hogsmeade, which is this all-wizarding village that has candy shops and joke shops and stuff like that. However, just before the Christmas Break visit, the Weasley twins Fred and George give Harry a magical map that shows several ways to Hogsmeade! Six of them won’t work, but the seventh leads right into Hogsmeade’s local candy shop, Honeydukes.

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Finally, things start looking up. Harry receives a new broomstick for Christmas, and it isn’t just any broomstick-it’s the newest model, the awesomely awesome Firebolt!

But who’s it from? Of course, everyone suspects it’s from Sirius Black, and we all know what he’s after. But then, just before the next Quidditch game, Harry gets it back from Professor McGonagall, who was checking it over, and it’s really cool!

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But meanwhile, Harry’s dementor problem is kind of getting worse, so he’s enlisted the help of our friend Professor Lupin to learn a spell to repel (hey, that rhymes!) them. It’s called a Patronus, and it’s basically a shield of happy things so to speak that will protect you from the dementors. Really handy, I know. But it’s also really advanced. Will Harry be able to learn it in time?

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Then it’s time for Quidditch! This time it’s against Ravenclaw, and boy is it intense! And no, I’m not saying who wins!

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But before you can say, “Where’s Sirius Black?” he turns up-right in the Gryffindor boys’ dormitories! Yipes! So once again the kids stay up all night while the castle is searched, but once again Sirius Black vanishes. Seriously (pun intended), this is getting annoying!

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But when Harry is discovered in Hogsmeade and nearly gets the map exposed by our old friend Professor Snape, we find out about four key people named Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Luckily, though, Professor Lupin gets Harry out of hot water and we’re all fine. But then Hermione bursts in and we hear about what Malfoy has managed to pull off.

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Buckbeak had to have a hearing, and he lost.

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He is going to be executed. .

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Yeah. Really.

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And that is a problem.

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So then, when Harry, Ron and Hermione run into Malfoy gloating over his victory, they pull off my absolute favorite scene in all of Harry Potter.

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Hermione slaps Malfoy!!!!!!

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Hahahhah! Take that, Draco!

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Anyway, then it’s the Quidditch finals finally! The game is against everyone’s favorite House, Slytherin, and in case you don’t know, Malfoy is Slytherin Seeker. He hasn’t managed to beat Harry at it yet, but we know he’s going to give it a good try.

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You know the drill by now. I’m not telling who wins, since it’s so utterly obvious!!

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Soon after, it’s time for exams. I think by now everyone suspects that Professor Trelawney isn’t all she says she is. But when it’s Harry’s turn to take the exam, Professor Trelawney does something no one expects.

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She makes a prophecy! .

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It’s something about Lord Voldemort rising again with the help of a returned servant……needless to say, Harry assumes the returning servant is Sirius Black. And he’s not happy about that. So when they go down to comfort Hagrid before Buckbeak’s execution and a giant black dog drags Ron and his rat Scabbers into the tunnel under the Whomping Willow, they quickly follow to find that the dog is Sirius Black-he’s what’s called an Animagus. Animaguses can turn into an animal-in Sirius Black’s case, a huge black dog.

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So imagine their surprise when Professor Lupin turns up and tells them that Sirius is innocent-it was their supposed friend Peter Pettigrew who betrayed Harry’s parents to Voldemort! Peter Pettigrew is the same person who supposedly stood up to Sirius Black when he blew up the street and killed all those Muggles-but it wasn’t Sirius at all, it was Peter Pettigrew! We also find out who Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs were-Moony was Professor Lupin, Wormtail was Peter Pettigrew, Padfoot was Sirius Black, and Prongs was-guess who!-Harry’s dad!!! They were all Animaguses-well, except for Professor Lupin, but we find out what he was later.

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But no sooner have we found that out than several really bad things happen. One, it happens to be a full moon that night. What mythical creature do we know that always turns savage on the full moon? If you guessed werewolf, you are correct! That is exactly what happens to poor Professor Lupin, and Sirius is forced to fight his old friend as a dog. But that isn’t the worst thing that happens. Harry, Hermione, and Sirius Black are stranded on the lakeside with hundreds of dementors on their tails. But then something good happens-someone who looks an awful lot like Harry’s dad casts a Patronus and chases the dementor. But is it really?

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Some time later, Harry wakes up to find that Sirius has been locked up and is awaiting the dementors, who are going to give him the worst thing they can do-the Dementor’s Kiss! It’s up to Harry and Hermione to save the day. Can they save Sirius and maybe even Buckbeak too and make sure this story has a happy ending? Oh, yeah, and solve the mystery of just who cast that Patronus? (It’s really sort of obvious, actually,)

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Well, let’s just say that’s for you to figure out. I’m not telling!
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Well, that’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban! Later this month we’ll do Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but that’s the last of the two-a-month ones. But don’t worry; I intend to have at least three books each month-one Harry Potter and two others. But until next time, bye-bye!

HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS by J.K. Rowling

Review by Kimber, Jr.
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Countdown to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Month One-Book Two-Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K Rowling
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Next up we have the Chamber of Secrets, number two in the Harry Potter series! Here we go!
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The story opens to find Harry back with the Dursleys, who, as usual, are ignoring his birthday. What a life! What with the Dursleys telling him to pretend he doesn’t exist and Dudley bullying him at every turn, Harry is desperate to get back to Hogwarts.
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That’s when a strange thing happens. A house-elf named Dobby turns up in Harry’s bedroom! Between hitting himself over the head with Harry’s lamp, he tells Harry that there will be horrible things going on at Hogwarts and that Harry must not go back! Then, to prove his point, Dobby decides to drop a cake on a person whom Uncle Vernon had been trying to drive a deal with, thereby landing Harry in his room with bars on his window and no way to get to Hogwarts.
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Luckily, however, his friends haven’t forgotten (and neither have his enemies, either, but that’s irrelevant right now) him! One night, Harry happens to wake up to see Ron and the twins Fred and George hovering outside his window in a flying car! Not your typical school bus, maybe, but it does the trick, and they manage to get Harry out of there and to their own house, the Burrow. Needless to say, Mrs. Weasley isn’t happy that Ron and the twins borrowed the car, so some funniness ensues, topped off by Mr. Weasley interrogating Harry about the strange workings of Muggles.
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Then on the first day of school, things start going wrong from the time Harry and Ron step into King’s Cross, the railway station! First off, the gateway to Hogwarts Express seals itself so that Harry and Ron can’t get on! Then, when the boys decide to fly Mr. Weasley’s flying car to Hogwarts, it pretty much completely flops. I mean, sure, they get there, but some Muggles spot them, so they get in trouble. But more than that, when they land, they don’t land-they crash-land! Add to that they do it right into a very cranky tree called the Whomping Willow, and you can see why it’s not a good idea to fly a car to Hogwarts!
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Luckily, though, they don’t get expelled, so you can stop holding your breath. But other problems soon crop up! First off, you’ve got the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lockhart. Not only is he a lousy teacher, he’s a lousy teacher who thinks he’s the awesomest teacher in the world just because he (supposedly) beat all kinds of Dark creatures.
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Then there’s two little first-years, Colin Creevey and Ginny Weasley. Ginny is Ron’s sister, and she is like, whoah about Harry. As in whoah. Colin is just generally in awe of Harry, and is always bugging Harry for a signed picture, which leads to some sticky situations involving a jealous Malfoy and a persistent Professor Lockhart.
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But then, at Halloween, a new and much bigger problem shows itself. While going back to their dormitory, Harry, Ron, and Hermione come upon a surprising sight: Filch’s cat Mrs. Norris, hanging as though dead, next to a threatening message about something called the Chamber of Secrets opening once more.
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Remember Dobby? Well, he’s not done with Harry yet! In the next Quidditch game, he tampers with a Bludger so that it follows Harry, and only Harry, around. The end result? Harry ends up in the hospital wing with a boneless arm! The moral of this particular dilemma? 1): never let Professor Lockhart try and fix your arm, or it will definitely and literally flop, and 2): try to stay on Dobby’s bad side, or else he’ll try to save your life, which can result in broken-or completely gone, if you decide to ignore my advice about Professor Lockhart-bones! Oh, yeah, and I’m not telling who won. Once again, it’s waaaay too obvious!
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That’s when Harry finds that poor Colin has been Petrified, just like Mrs. Norris! What’s doing this? Who’s to blame? Has it happened before? These are the questions Harry, Ron, and Hermione are determined to find the answers to. So they brew up a batch of Polyjuice Potion, a potion that will temporarily give them the appearance of another, and go interrogate Malfoy as Slytherins. Well, at least Harry and Ron do. Hermione accidentally uses a cat hair instead of a Slytherin’s, and for a while she’s stuck in the hospital wing with a cat’s face and tail!
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Soon after, Harry, Ron, and Hermione join a dueling club, where, in a duel between Harry and Malfoy, a snake crops up, and we all figure out that Harry is what’s called a Parselmouth-in other words, he can talk to snakes! This doesn’t do much good for his reputation, however, as, for one; Lord Voldemort is also a Parselmouth! Yipes!
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Soon after this, Harry discovers a diary, thrown away by someone in the girls’s bathroom. It’s dated fifty years ago, when the Chamber of Secrets was last opened! The only problem is nothing appears to be written in it! But then Harry discovers that if you write in it, a guy named Tom Riddle writes back! He tells Harry that the last time the Chamber was opened, a girl died!
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But before Harry, Ron, and Hermione can figure out where the Chamber is, Hermione is Petrified! Yeah, you heard me right. Hermione is Petrified!!!!
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However, with a little help from Hermione’s research, Harry and Ron figure it out: the monster in the Chamber is a Basilisk. Harry been hearing it through the walls because he’s a Parselmouth, and the Basilisk is basically a big serpent, that’s been using the plumbing to get around! It kills by looking people in the eye, but no one’s looked it in the eye, so no one’s dead! And the girl that died last time it was set free is still at Hogwarts-the ghost-in-the-bathroom, Moaning Myrtle! And the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets? It’s in her bathroom!
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That’s when Ginny is taken into the Chamber, and Harry and Ron decide to go get her, with the (unwilling) help of Professor Lockhart, who ends up at the wrong end of Ron’s malfunctioning wand and has his memory wiped! Ooops.
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So Harry (Ron is trapped behind a rockfall when Professor Lockhart accidentally wipes his own mind and sets it off) reaches the heart of the Chamber of Secrets, only to find Ginny, unconscious, and almost dead.
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Then he meets Tom Riddle, and finds out he’s the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets and set it on all those people fifty years ago! He’s the one who’s been possessing poor Ginny all this time, making her set the basilisk on the people and Mrs. Norris! He’s the one who grew up to become………..LORD VOLDEMORT!!!!!!!!!!!
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Yeah. Really.
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Not to mention he’s a Parselmouth, too, so he summons the basilisk to try and kill Harry. But before he can, two things come to help Harry-Dumbledore’s pet phoenix, Fawkes, and the Sorting Hat! Not much against a basilisk, you say? Think again! With Fawkes’s help, he kills the basilisk with Godric Gryffindor’s legendary sword, pulled out of the depth of the Sorting Hat. Then, with a fang pulled out of its mouth, he stabs Tom Riddle’s diary, thereby getting rid of the teenage-Voldemort and saving Ginny’s life.
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Then, with Fawkes’s help, he gets everyone out of there and gives the sword to Dumbledore.
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And yes, he survives. What’d you expect? “Oh, yeah, Harry’s dead, uhmm, so there’s no more books.” Well, sorry, but not by a long shot! Everyone’s fine, and they go home from Hogwarts safe and in one piece.
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For now!
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So that’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for you! Next month we’ve got two again, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. After that, though, it’s back to one book a month until we get to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! But until next month, see you later!

HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE by J.K. Rowling

Reviewed by Kimber, Jr., Heiress to Kimber An's Book Reviewing Throne.
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Countdown to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!-Month One-Book One-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K Rowling

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Yeah, I know, it’s only July and the movie isn’t out until November, but this is going to be cool. What’s going to happen is I’m going to review one or two of the Harry Potter books each month, and I’m going to coordinate it so that my review of the Deathly Hallows happens in November, right before the movie comes out! Right now I’m gonna start at the very beginning, with the Sorcerer’s Stone. Then there’ll be the Chamber of Secrets later this month, and in August there’ll be the Prisoner of Azkaban and the Goblet of Fire, and so on until we reach the Deathly Hallows! So, with no further ado, here’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K Rowling!
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The story starts in a quiet street somewhere in Britain, with a wizard called Professor Dumbledore. Soon he is joined by a witch called Professor McGonagall, a rather large guy named Hagrid, and a small boy named Harry Potter, who is, as of that night, an orphan, his parents killed by the dread villain Lord Voldemort! The strange group then leaves Harry on his Muggle (that’s non-magic people, by the way) relatives.
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Almost eleven years later, we find Harry living with the Dursleys-his horrible Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, and spoiled cousin Dudley. He isn’t in the comfiest of predicaments, that’s for sure!
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One interesting incident that doesn’t much affect the story line of this (note: this) story is when Harry goes with the Dursleys to the zoo for Dudley’s birthday. There he meets a snake, and he accidentally sets it free! How? Well, let’s just say that he learns how he did it in this one. Why he did it is a whole other question, one that is answered in the Chamber of Secrets.
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Back on track, however. Just when life gets back to normal, a letter arrives. Uhhhhmm, excuse me, you’re probably thinking. Why’s a letter all of a sudden so important?
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Well, the thing is, Harry has never gotten a letter for him before! Unfortunately, however, Uncle Vernon steals it before Harry can open it! But the letters persist, and Uncle Vernon has had enough! He takes them to a little island, way out at sea, where he thinks they can never find them!
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Wrong! That very night (incidentally, it happens to be Harry’s eleventh birthday) a giant knocks on the door! Unfortunately, it turns out to be the kind of knock where you (accidentally, of course) knock in the door! Not pretty, but when you’re dealing with the likes of the Dursleys, it does the job.
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In any case, the giant turns out to be the very same giant named Hagrid who helped deliver Harry to the Dursleys! But before we find that out, he decides to drop the bomb: Harry’s a wizard! He also tells Harry how his parents died (the Dursleys just told him they died in a car accident) and that the letters had been about his acceptance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the finest school of magic in Britain!
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The next day, Hagrid takes Harry to Diagon Alley, home of all things magic! There he buys all his school stuff, including his holly-and-phoenix-tail-feather wand and Hedwig, his beautiful snowy owl. But just before that, Hagrid took out a small bundle from Gringotts, the wizard bank. What’s up with that, I wonder?
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Then, a bit later, on the first of September, he boards the Hogwarts Express on Platform nine and three-quarters! There he meets Mrs. Weasley, a kind but rather stern woman and her sons Percy, Fred, George, and Ron, who is also a first-year. He also meets his future best friend Hermione, clumsy but (eventually) heroic Neville, the twin’s friend Lee Jordan, and his arch-school-enemy Draco Malfoy and his henchmen Crabbe and Goyle! (His regular arch-enemy is, obviously, Lord Voldemort, but he has to deal with Malfoy a lot more often!)
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One boat ride across the Black Lake with Hagrid and the other first-years later, Harry is in the Great Hall waiting to be Sorted into his house. See, there’s four different Houses- Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Gryffindors are really brave, Slytherins are wily, Ravenclaws are brainy, and Hufflepuffs are hard workers. There’s this hat that decides which House you’re best suited for. Turns out Harry, Ron, and Hermione are all for Gryffindor, along with Neville. Malfoy? Easy. He’s in Slytherin, and so are Crabbe and Goyle.
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Lessons in magic come soon after that. Some of the subjects include Transfiguration, taught by none other than Professor McGonagall, Defense against the Dark Arts, taught by Professor Quirrell, and Potions, taught by Harry’s least favorite teacher and ex-Death Eater (maybe), Professor Snape.
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Then, some time later, Malfoy challenges Harry and Ron to a duel! Needless to say, it flops, and Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville end up coming face-to-face with a very bored and rather hungry three-headed dog named Fluffy.
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Yeah. Really.
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Anyway, that’s how Harry figured out where the little bundle Hagrid picked up from Gringotts went. That’s right: in a trapdoor guarded by a very bored and rather hungry three-headed dog named Fluffy.
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Then at Halloween, Hermione gets trapped in the girl’s bathroom by a very large and very scary mountain troll, and Harry and Ron have to save her. After that, she changes from her strict, rule-following self that thinks Harry and Ron are stupid to their best friend. Overnight.
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Yeah. Really.
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Then there’s Harry’s first Quidditch game-Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Quidditch is like this half-soccer, half-basketball game played on broomsticks. There’s four balls-one bright scarlet Quaffle, two hard iron Bludgers, and one little Golden Snitch. There’s seven players-a Keeper, who keeps the Quaffle from going in the goal hoops, three Chasers, who try to get the Quaffle through the rival team’s hoops, two Beaters, who try to keep the Bludgers away from their teammates, and a Seeker (Harry’s a Seeker) whose job is to catch the Golden Snitch. And no, I’m not telling who won, but I bet you can guess. It’s pretty obvious.
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Then Harry discovers this cool mirror called the Mirror of Erised that shows you the things you desire the most-in this case, it’s Harry’s parents! But then Dumbledore says that the Mirror is being moved to a new home. Where? And why? That’s what Harry is about to find out! To aid this, it seems, for Christmas Harry receives an Invisibility Cloak, inherited from his father! But who’s it from? Once again, I’m not telling because it’s waaay too obvious!
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Then, after learning about Dumbledore’s friend Nicolas Flamel and helping to release an ill-fated pet dragon of Hagrid’s, Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Malfoy end up in detention together. They, accompanied by Hagrid and his dog Fang, go into the Forbidden Forest. See, Hagrid found a dead unicorn, and another one is obviously hurt. They have to find it.
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Well, they do. Dead, and with a cloaked figure bending over it, drinking its blood! Yuck! Malfoy and Fang are with Harry at the time, and at the first sight of it promptly beat it, leaving Harry to face the thing!
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Luckily for Harry, a centaur named Firenze intervenes and chases off the thing! But guess what it was! No, really, guess. I’m not telling you. It’s waaaay too obvious!
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That’s when Harry overhears Professor Snape threatening poor Professor Quirrel. The kids think he’s going to try and steal the little bundle, which turns out to be the Sorcerer’s Stone, a magic stone that can turn anything into gold and makes the Elixir of Life, a potion that will make the drinker immortal! So the next thing you know, they’re play music to put Fluffy to sleep and use fire to defeat a Devil’s Snare.
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The next room is just too awesome! It’s a giant chess set, and they have to play across the room! Of course, they do, and they win, but in the process, Ron is taken and is knocked unconscious by the enemy Queen!
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The next room is an unconscious troll. It shows for sure that somebody has managed to get through to the Stone! So Harry and Hermione press on, until a room that requires only one to go on. Harry goes; Hermione has to get Ron and get help! So Harry continues alone, and when he reaches the room where he knows the stone is, he finds not Voldemort, but…..
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Professor Quirrell! He’s the one who’s let the bodiless Lord Voldemort take over his body! He’s the one who was plotting to take the Stone! He’s the one who very nearly kills Harry! Luckily, though, Harry is able to protect the Stone long enough for Dumbledore to get there and save his life. And it’s not for the last time, I can guarantee that! Oh, and as for the Mirror of Erised, it was moved there as the final and most difficult obstacle between anyone and the Sorcerer’s Stone!
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Harry’s fine, of course. What’d you expect me to say? “Uh, yeah, Voldemort managed to kill Harry, so yeah, there are no more books.” Not by a long shot! They’re all fine, in fact, except Professor Quirrell. He gets turned into dust just by touching Harry!
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So then its summer break, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione go back to their respective homes. But their time at Hogwarts isn’t over. Not by a long shot!
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So, that’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone! Next up I’m going to review Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. That’s going to be later this month, but I’m not saying when, so keep checking! Then we’ll have Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire-books number three and four, respectively, next month, then Order of the Phoenix-book five- in September, Half-Blood Prince-book six-in October, and finally Deathly Hallows –book seven-in November, so keep checking in until then! See you!