Harry Potter is a story about magic. When you’re reading, it’s like taking a step so far outside the box that you’re out of the old box and into a totally new box, full of endless beauty and surprises. It feels so whimsical, so freeing, to the point wanting to fly to Hogwarts on your Nimbus 2000, and never, ever leave. You want to become part of the book. It’s for those of you who love thinking outside of the ordinary—for all of you who seek the vicarious thrill of the impossible. But t’s definitely NOT the book for you if you don’t like using your imagination, or if you don’t want to be shocked an amazed by the wonders of wizardry.
The Harry Potters are a book series consisting of 7 books about a boy named Harry Potter (You’d never guess, right!) who finds out that he’s a wizard, and a famous one at that. He was orphaned as a baby as a result of losing his parents to You-Know-Who (Voldemort), and these books detail his encounters with everything from flobberworms to boggarts to hippogriffs.
Though all of the books (based on what I’ve read so far) are totally different, they all have the same general road map. Harry starts out at the Dursley’s, then gets jerked away by someone or something, and goes away to Hogwarts, the school for witches and wizards. From there, things usually stay pretty average, or rather as average as a school for wizards can be, when some outrageous twist occurs, eventually causing a run-in between Harry and He-who-must-not-be-named, resulting in an epic battle of good vs. evil. But, if you zoom in on your viewfinder, each book has its own elaborate plot, complete with its own shady and at-the-time supposedly meaningless events, creating 7 entirely different stories. I would explain in more detail, but it’s not my job to spoil the books for you.
Something very interesting in the books would be the voice, as it’s a third- person limited omniscient narrator, giving us all the play-by-play on all things Harry. The narrator has a very fun, different way of conveying their thoughts, and often forces me to read in a British accent (LOVE!!). Not just that, but the Divination teacher at Hogwarts, Professor Trelawney. ‘Divination was Harry’s least favorite class after Potions, which was due mainly to Professor Trelawney’s habit of prediction his premature death every few lessons.’(Rowling, pg. 236) Though this passage from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix gives a pretty good idea of the Professor, it doesn’t show that she isn’t out to kill him, but instead, not the best at telling fortunes.
What makes me wonder is why they never wonder. By ‘they,’ I mean all those included in and affected by the wizarding world, and by ‘wonder,’ I mean why they never question the fact that they can do magic; they just accept it (with the exception of the Dursleys, of course, who won’t even permit Harry to say the ‘M word’ in front of them), and move on. Although some people would go to extremes to find out, that might ruin the uniqueness of the book. But it’s really cool to see how much the characters undoubtedly trust their powers, and most of them can’t live without them.
The Dursleys are somewhat interesting to read about their reactions to magic. ‘“Watching the news. . .” he said scathingly. “I’d like to know what he’s really up to. As if a normal boy cares what’s on the news—Dudley hasn’t got a clue what’s going on, doubt he knows who the Prime Minister is! Anyway, it’s not as if there’d be anything about his lot on our news—“’ (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Rowling, pg.2). This quote, said by Harry’s Uncle Vernon, shows very well how they feel about Harry being a wizard. Did you see that? ‘His lot.’ This shows exactly the way they treat Harry, all the time. As much as everyone hate them, they’re extremely important to the storyline. Plus, they offer a possible muggle reaction to magic, shedding some light on why Wizardry isn’t exactly out in the open.
One of the best things, in my opinion, about the series is that there was nothing like it before it came out. Of course, because of its insane success, now we’re seeing stories about wizards and such left and right, making Harry Potter seem less and less, but at the same time, more and more unique. How is that possible? Well, the more of something there are the more common and cliché it becomes, making the stories stereotypically boring. Yet, somehow, Harry’s particular story stands out above all the rest. That’s because the plots, and how intense and well thought out they are, while still being so free-spirited and lighthearted, and overall, so much fun. Not many books can manage to include bizarre characters with crazy names and still be wildly loved, let alone understood. When you have names like ‘Albus Dumbledore,’ or ‘Kingsley Shacklebolt,’ you’d think the book would be a failure, but as it’s commonly known, Harry Potter is probably the complete opposite of failure—Riddikulus success.
What don’t I like? Hmm, tough question. Sometimes it’s easy to mix up characters, and Potter-heads sometimes accidentally give spoilers, which make the books so much less suspenseful. But even when they do that, it doesn’t give you the same effect actually READING the books do. So what grade does the 7 book series get on it's OWL’s? Definitely, without question, an O, for outstanding.
What don’t I like? Hmm, tough question. Sometimes it’s easy to mix up characters, and Potter-heads sometimes accidentally give spoilers, which make the books so much less suspenseful. But even when they do that, it doesn’t give you the same effect actually READING the books do. So what grade does the 7 book series get on it's OWL’s? Definitely, without question, an O, for outstanding.
