Book Journal - Harry Potter 3-7

I have finished reading the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.  These books were very well written and are relatively long.  

“The Order of the Phoenix” is 870 pages if I remember right.

The third book is called “The Prisoner of Azkaban”.  It’s about a murderer named Sirius Black who escapes Azkaban which is a prison for convicted wizards and other magical people.  The prison is guarded by the dementors which are creatures who steal and feed on human joy.  They are mostly controlled by the Ministry of Magic to guard Azkaban as well as Hogwarts during this book. 

It is suspected that Sirius is after Harry Potter, so Hogwarts receives the extra protection of the dementors.  Harry and company must now add trying to stay safe from a murderer as well as the dementors.

It’s a lot of fun reading about how they get through their school year.  Tensions grow between Harry and Hermoine, Ron, and their classmate Draco Malfoy as well as Professor Snape.

It was sometime during this book that I suspected that Snape is not as evil as he seems.  This is only due to the amount of trust that Dumbledor puts in him.

This book, just as each of the other books, ends with unseen twists and is once again building to the unavoidable war with Voldemort.

 

The fourth book, “The Goblet of Fire” is a lot of fun and was great to read too.  We are introduced to students from other countries as they gather for the Triwizard tournament.  Harry and his friends are one year too young to enter, but somehow Harry’s name gets passed to the magical defenses of the Goblet of Fire and it chooses him as one of the champions to compete in the tournament.  Harry has to battle dragons, survive under water and rescue hostages from the merpeople.

This book takes the story into a darker plot twist and we also see one of the main characters lose their life to an evil madman.

 

The fifth book is “The Order of the Phoenix”.  Now that Lord Voldemort is back, a resistance is reforming.  Harry and his friends now face ridicule and humiliation from the media and most of their school for believing that Voldemort is back. 

Dumbledore seems to be pushing Harry away, and frustrations boil over as Harry faces his future of having to someday battle Voldemort and his army.

This book continues the descent into darkness as evil continues to rise and starts its control over much of the magic world. 

The final battle of the book reveals a lot.  Harry finally faces his inner demons and also loses another close friend to an evil murderer.  But now alliances are formed, and Harry begins to build his own army. 

Through each book, Harry’s mysterious past comes to light a little more.  We get to see Harry and his friends grow up and come of age.  In this book, Harry figures out that girls exist, and he has his first relationship.  I’m not approving of the girl, but that’s because I’m rooting for someone else!

 

The sixth book is “The Half-Blood Prince”.  Now we find Harry having to have private lessons with his least favorite professor, Professor Snape.  He must learn to close his mind to Voldemort before Voldemort figures out a way to use their connection against him again.

Snape has finally been given his dream job as the Defense Against Dark Arts teacher.  Because Snape is no longer over the Potions class and because Potter has some help from notes that are in his used Potions textbook, he is now excelling in the class.  The notes were written in the text book years earlier by a very smart but mysterious student who referred to himself as "the half-blood prince".

Harry and Dumbledore bond while Potter receives one on one training from the headmaster.  Once Harry is ready and he completes a task, the headmaster confides in him how Voldemort can finally be defeated.  They are even able to go on a mission together which turns out to be what seems like a horrible turn of events. 

Harry finally starts to get close to who I think he should be with, but (spoiler alert!) the book ends with him still being single.

By the end of this book, my guess about Snape seems to be resolved, but I’m not telling you if I’m right or wrong though 😊.  You should read it!  And, once again a main character and one of Harry’s closest friends meets their end at the hand of evil….or did they?

 

The seventh and final book is called “The Deathly Hallows”.  After an attack from Voldemort’s army, Harry and his friends have to flee.  Now, separated from the rest of the Order of the Phoenix, Harry and those he trusts must find their own way to figure out how to defeat Voldemort.

Everything goes wrong for so long before anything goes right.  Evil has taken over the whole world.  Magical people as well as muggles are being killed or kidnapped every day as they build their kingdoms. 

Many more main characters lose their lives as Harry has to figure out on his own the sacrifices that he has to make in order to take down Voldemort.

The final battle of this story is epic!  I can’t wait to see it played out in the movie.

 

The way that J.K. Rowling captures the imagination is great.  I’m usually good at predicting endings and spotting clues, but she is very good at creating unforeseeable plot twists all while answering questions and resolving most of the issues.

I will not give away the ending or even give you clues as to how it all goes, but it’s good.  The only question I have is….what was with the weird baby-like creature in the last book and why didn’t Dumbledore explain it to Harry?

UPDATE: I did figure out the answer to this question, but I won't spoil anything by revealing the answer!

Once I finished the Harry Potter series, I started on a new series called Quantum Prophecy.  It’s a nine-book series which follows young superheroes as they battle against super villains.  After I read the first book, I was not impressed at all, but then I noticed the “ages 9-11” on it, LOL.  I plan on eventually finishing the series and once I’m done, I’ll write about it.  If you have pre-teens, it will fun for them. 

Love y’all!