A World So Much Better Than Our Own - Harry potter (Contains Spoilers) (Harry Potter Series - J. K. Rowling in general)

Member Name: faders321

Product:	Harry Potter Series - J. K. Rowling in general
Date:	29/06/08 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: There are 3407 pages of it!!! It's a really good series!

Disadvantages: It might be a little too long for younger children

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows was written by J.K Rowling. Joanne Kathleen Rowling on July 31st 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire. She was bought up near Bristol with her parents and younger sister Di until she was 9 years old when they moved to a village called Tutshill near Chepstow in Wales.
In 1983 Miss Rowling finished school and went to the University of Exeter to study French. After finishing University she worked for Amnesty International in London.
In 1990 she moved to Manchester with her boyfriend, it was on a train between Manchester and London that she had the inspiration for the Harry potter series. She began writing the first book that very evening.
Unfortunately in December 1990 J.K Rowling's mother died, she had been suffering from multiple sclerosis, a disease which makes the immune system attack the central nervous system for almost 10 years before.
J.K Rowling then moved to Portugal and married a Portuguese man. In 1993, although her marriage didn't work out, her daughter Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes was born.
In December 1994 she returned with Jessica to the U.K to live in Edinburgh. J.K Rowling married a man called Neil Murray in December 2001. In March 2003 she had a son, David Gordon Rowling Murray and then January 2005 she had another daughter, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray.
J K Rowling has been voted author of the year in 1999, won the Booksellers Association Author of the Year in the years 1998 and 1999. She won the WH Smith Children's Book of the Year for 2000 and, the WH Smith's Fiction Award in 2004 and the Winner of the Nibbie's (Children's Book of the Year) in 2006.

The Harry Potter series has so far been translated into 67 languages and more than 400 million copies have been sold.

The Harry Potter series follows the lives of a teenage boy, Harry potter who became an orphan and had to live with his nasty aunt, uncle and cousin after an evil wizard murdered his parents. Harry is the only person to have ever survived when the evil wizard, known as Lord Voldemort tried to kill him. The books then focus on Harry and Voldemort's many attempts to kill each other and all the other pressures that Harry and his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger encounter along the way.

The first book in the series is "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" which was published in June 1997. In this book we are introduced to Harry Potter whose parents, Lily & James Potter have been murdered by Lord Voldemort, Harry is sent to live with his aunt, uncle and cousin where he is treated very badly.
On his 11th birthday he finds out he's a wizard and has been accepted to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He soon makes friends with Ron & Hermione and settles into life at Hogwarts which he really enjoys. During the book he & Ron rescue Hermione from a troll. Then towards the end of the book they discover that Voldemort is after the Philosophers Stone which will make him immortal and go to try and protect it. To reach it they have to go through a series of magical puzzles and finally Harry finds himself going up against Voldemort, who has taken the form of an extra face on the back of one of his teachers heads. However when the teacher, Professor Quirrel touches Harry he is killed and Voldemort vanishes. This is because Harry's mother died to save him so her love is now protecting him from Voldemort.

The second book is "Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets" which was published in July 1998. Harry is living with his aunt, uncle and cousin for the summer holidays when a house elf called Dobby appears and warns him that if he returns to Hogwarts for the next school year he will be in grave danger. Harry, however still wants to go as he thinks of Hogwarts as his home. Ron Weasley and his brothers, Fred and George rescue Harry from his uncles house and take them back to "The Burrow" where their family lives.
When Harry & Ron try to get onto platform 9 and ¾ they find the barrier is blocked so they borrow Mr Weasley's flying car to get to school.
At Hogwarts students are being attacked, it is thought that this is because the Chamber of Secrets has been opened which has released a terrible monster in. Harry learns that he can speak Parseltounge the language of snakes and seeing as the chamber of secrets can only be opened by the heir of Slytherin house who also spoke Parseltounge, Harry is accused. Hermione gets attacked and then Ron's little sister Ginny is taken by the monster so Harry & Ron find the entrance to the chamber of secrets and go down there to kill the monster.
Harry finds out that it was Voldemort who opened the chamber of secrets by coming back to life from an old diary. He sets the monster, a basalisk onto Harry who kills it and then destroys the diary with the Sword of Gryffindor thus killing that form of Voldemort. All the attacked people recover and Harry is once again a hero.

The third book is "Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban" which was published in July 1999. In this book Harry loses his temper whilst spending the summer at his uncles house and ends up storming out. He gets picked up by the Knight Bus, which takes him to safety. On the way he learns that a notorious mass murder named Sirius Black is on the loose.
On the train to Hogwarts some Dementors, creatures that suck out your happiness and your soul came aboard the train looking for Sirius Black and made Harry pass out. Harry is attacked by the Dementors whilst playing quid ditch and falls off his broom and out of the sky, luckily Professor Dumbledore slows him don before he hit's the ground.
The Weasley twins give Harry the marauders map which allows him to see who's in Hogwarts and where they are at all times this allows him to sneak off to Hogsmeade, a nearby village where he learns that Sirius Black is his Godfather and that he was the one who told Voldemort where his parents were.
Scabbers bites Ron on the hand and then runs off, a large black dog grabs Ron's leg and drags him away. Harry & Hermione try to save him but the black dog shape-shifts into Sirius Black. We find out that he isn't really a murderer and that it was actually Peter Pettigrew, who had been pretending to be Ron's rat scabbers who told Voldemort where Harry's parents were. Unfortunately the Dementors attack Harry & Sirius and although Harry saves them Sirius is still locked up to have his soul taken from him. Harry & Hermione go back in time to try & redo the events of the evening, they manage to help Sirius escape to safety and get back to their normal time without anybody knowing.

The fourth book is "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" which was published in July 2000. This book begins by showing us Voldemort & Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail) trying to work out how to kill Harry, whilst doing this they murder a caretaker. Harry, Hermione, Ron and the rest of the Weasleys all go to the Quidditch World Cup. However a group of Death Eaters, these are Voldemort's followers, get into the camp and cause mayhem and destruction setting Voldemort's sign, the Dark Mark in the sky.
This year Hogwarts hosts the Triwizard Tournament which consists of three tasks, the contestants are Fleur Delacour, Viktor Krum, Cedric Diggory and even though there are only meant to be 3 people and he didn't put his name in, Harry Potter. The first task is to get past a dragon to take a golden egg. The second is for each competitor to rescue somebody precious from the lake, which will take one hour. Dobby give Harry some gillyweed so that he can breathe underwater and Harry not only rescues the person he was meant to, Ron but also Fleur's little sister, Gabrielle.
In the third task Harry must navigate his way around a giant maze, he and Cedric both reach the trophy at the same time. Unfortunately it's a portkey which takes them to a graveyard where Cedric is killed. Voldemort is then brought back to life using a drop of Harry's blood, and many other gruesome ingredients. There is then a magical duel between Harry and Voldemort which Harry wins, he takes Cedric body and gets back to Hogwarts through the portkey. Harry is then taken by his teacher Professor Moody who it turns out is not actually Moody but a death Eater pretending to be him. He then tries to kill Harry seeing as Voldemort failed but Professor Dumbledore comes in just at the right time and saves him.

The fifth book is "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" which was published in June 2003. Whilst out with his cousin Dudley during the summer holidays, the pair are attacked by two Death eaters, Harry fights them off but Dudley is badly shaken by the experience.
At Hogwarts a new teacher has arrived, Dolores Umbridge. She is given the power to evaluate and sack teachers by the Minister of Magic. She starts making a lot of horrible new rules whilst punishing students by making them right lines with their own blood and sacking teachers, she also bans students from actually practising defensive magic in their defence against the dark arts lessons.
Hagrid tells Harry, Hermione and Ron that he has a half brother, a giant who is living in the forest. They decide to start up a group called the D.A (Dumbledore's Army) where Harry can teach other students how to actually use defensive magic. However Umbridge finds out about the D.A and Dumbledore takes the blame before disappearing completely. Umbridge makes herself head of Hogwarts and things begin to get even worse for the students so the Weasley twins leave.
Harry sees Mr Weasley being attacked by Voldemort's pet snake and tells Dumbledore who acts quickly enough to save him. Harry has to start taking lessons to learn how to block Voldemort from seeing into his mind but after just a few lessons he and his teacher Snape, who hate each other have an argument and he stops taking the lessons.
Harry sees Sirius being attacked by Voldemort at the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna & Neville all go off to the Ministry of Magic to save Sirius only to find out that it's a trap. They find a prophecy with Harry's name on it and are subsequently attacked by a lot of Death Eaters who also want the prophecy. The Prophecy gets broken in the fight. Just as it looks like they might all die, the Order of the Phoenix who have been training to fight the Death Eaters arrive and help Harry and his friends out, unfortunately one of the Death Eaters kills Sirius who falls back through an archway. Harry goes after Bellatrix Lestrange, the one who killed him but she gets away when Voldemort turns up to kill Harry. Dumbledore however comes to the rescue and he and Voldemort battle. Voldemort, in an attempt to win, possess Harry but Harry fights him off and he and Voldemort disappears.

The sixth book is "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" which was published in July 2005. Things are getting bad in the wizard community, Voldemort is terrorising people, the Minister for Magic has had to resign and Harry has seen Draco Malfoy, a pupil in Slytherin house, going into a shop that is well known for it's evil objects. However on the bright side Dumbledore is trying to gather as many people to the good side as he can and Harry discovers that he has inherited all of Sirius's possessions.
At school, in his potions class Harry discovers that his textbook has been written all over with notes from somebody called "The Half-blood Prince", these notes are very useful and help him to become top of his potions class. Two students are attacked although it seems that the attacks were meant for Dumbledore rather than being aimed at the students.
Harry starts taking private lessons from Dumbledore so that he can learn how to defeat Voldemort. He finds out that Voldemort has split his soul into 7 pieces called Horcruxes. One of these was the diary which he destroyed in the first book, another one is still in Voldemort himself and one in a ring which Dumbledore has destroyed.
Harry and Ginny start dating, he has had feelings for her for a long time. Harry begins to grow suspicious of Malfoy's strange behaviour around the school.
Harry and Dumbledore retrieve another Horcrux, a locket, however to get it Dumbledore has to drink a poisonous potion which leaves him very weak and dieing. They return to Hogwarts to find the Dark Mark above the astronomy tower so go to investigate, however they are ambushed by Malfoy who admits to being the one attacking Dumbledore and has let a lot of Death Eaters into the school. Draco however can't manage to kill Dumbledore so Snape does it instead, the only reason Harry has been safe throughout this is that he was wearing an invisibility cloak. Members of the Order of the Phoenix and various students battle with the Death Eaters but Harry doesn't escape instead he goes after Snape who admits to being the Half-Blood Prince but manages to escape before Harry can kill him.
The school year ends with Dumbledore's funeral and the sad news that Hogwarts may not be open again the next year, so Harry finishes things with Ginny and he Ron & Hermione vow to finish destroying horcruxes as soon as they can rather than returning to school.

The seventh and final book is "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" which was published on the 21st July 2007. The book begins with Voldemort and his Death Eaters planning to kill Harry, they've worked out that the best time to do so would be when Harry leaves his aunt and uncle, the Dursleys home for the last time because this is when the spell that protects him will break. The Order of the Phoenix have to put the Dursleys into protection so that Voldemort won't go after them.
Seven members of the Order of the Phoenix and 6 of his friends arrive to help escort him safely to the burrow without Voldemort killing him. To do this 6 people drink some polyjuice potion and change their clothes so that they look exactly like Harry. Harry and each of the decoys team up with another person and each pair flys off in a separate direction to confuse the Death Eaters. Unfortunately, Hedwig, his owl, and Mad-Eye Moody are both killed by Death Eaters. George Weasley also loses an ear and most of them have various cuts and bruises. Voldemort flies next to Harry to try and kill him, but it doesn't work and Harry destroys the wand Voldemort is using.
Whilst they are all safely at the Burrow they are given what Dumbledore had left them in his will, Harry was given the Snitch that he caught at his first Quidditch game and Godric Gryffindor's Sword which had to be kept in Hogwarts. While Hermione was given The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a wizards fairytale book and Ron was given the Deluminator which can take the light from anything and then return it.
Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour get married, unfortunately at their wedding reception they find out that the Ministry of Magic is now under Voldemort's control and Death Eaters approach to attack the party guests. Harry Ron & Hermione disapparate to get away, they end up taking refuge in number 12 Grimmauld Place, which used to be Sirus's house. Harry works out that the horcrux locket he and Dumbledore found belonged to Sirius's brother who switched it with a fake one and got killed in the process, the real locket is now with Umbridge. They manage to get it back but can't return to Grimmauld Place because it's no longer safe.
They get a tent and decide to camp in various places around the country whilst trying to find more horcruxes. They learn that the Sword in Hogwarts is a fake, they decided that they need to find the real one because it's one of the few things that can destroy a horcrux, like it destroyed the diary in the second book.
Harry and Ron have a massive argument because Ron is sick of harry not knowing where the next horcrux will be even though he has no ideas himself. Ron leaves and Hermione gets very upset.
Hermione and harry decide to carry on their search without Ron and head to the town where Harry was born, they go into the house of a resident because they believe that she might have some information that could help them. However they soon find out it is a trap and that the resident is actually Voldemort's snake, who summons him. In an effort to save the pair of them Hermione sends a Blasting Curse around the room which unfortunately breaks Harry's wand but does give them time to jump out the window and dispparate, saving their lives.
Whilst at their next camping spot Harry is lead to a freezing cold pond where the real sword of Gryffindor is. Harry almost dies though and has to be saved by Ron who has managed to get back to them using the deluminator. Ron then destroys the horcrux.
They soon learn that a doodle drawn above a fairytale from Hermione's book is actually a symbol and that it means the Deathly Hallows which are said to be the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak, the last of which Harry has had since he was 11.
Harry accidentally gets them found by using Voldemort's name. The three of them are imprisoned in Malfoy's house while they wait for Voldemort to come and kill them. They are not the only ones to be taken prisoner, Luna, Dean, Ollivander the wand maker and Grip hook a goblin are also stuck with them. Dobby the house elf from the second book appears and apperates Luna, Dean and Ollivander to Bill & Fleur's house whilst Harry & Ron go to rescue Hermione from where she's being tortured. Harry manages to take Malfoy's wand which is very useful seeing as he couldn't use his own. Dobby then comes back to rescue them as well but gets hit by a knife and dies as soon as they reach safety.
Voldemort gets hold of the Elder wand from Dumbledore's tomb. In the mean time Harry, ron & Hermione break into Gringott's bank and find Hufflepuff's cup which is another horcrux. Harry also learns from Voldemort's mind that there is another horcrux hidden in Hogwarts although they now have no way of destroying them as they lost the sword.
In Hogsmeade Dumbledore's brother Aberforth help the three of them to get into Hogwarts through a secret passageway and they go looking for Ravenclaw's lost diadem which they believe is the fifth horcrux. Hermione destroys the cup with a basilisk fang and then the three of them go into the Room of Requirement to look for the diadem. They're attacked by Malfoy, Goyle & Crabbe who starts a Fienfyre spell which destroys the diadem and kills him.
The younger students of Hogwarts and the house-elves etc have all been evacuated but the Order, the older students and hundreds of other people have arrived to help in the fight. During the fight Fred Weasley is killed. Harry realises Voldemort is in the Shrieking Shack so the three of them go there only to see Snape being murdered by Voldemort, Harry is given Snape's last memories which show that Dumbledore was going to die anyway and therefore wanted Snape to kill him, that Snape was the one who showed Harry where the sword was and that Harry is the sixth horcrux so he'll have to die to defeat Voldemort.
Harry realises what he has to do and goes into the place where Voldemort is waiting for him, it is at this stage that the Snitch opens and he finds the resurrection stone inside it, he uses it to bring the spirits of his parents, Sirius and Lupin who has just been killed back to give him strength.
Voldemort uses the killing curse on Harry, who wakes up to find himself in a place he thinks resembles Kings Cross Station. Dumbledore is there and explains to him that the fragment of Voldemort's soul that was in him has been destroyed now he is just Harry so he should go back and help his friends as he is the true master of the Elder Wand.
Harry regains consciousness but pretends to still be dead whilst he is carried out in front of his friends etc. Neville then destroys Voldemort's snake which was the last horcrux except the one in Voldemort himself.
The fight soon moves inside to the Great hall where all the villagers of Hogsmeade join in to help fight the Death Eaters. Molly Weasley manages to defeat Bellatrix.
Harry & Voldemort finally duel where Voldemort sends a killing curse at Harry which rebounds off him and kills Voldemort!!
There is a final chapter which tells us all about what happened to the characters 19 years later but I'll leave that to you to read.


I am a massive fan of the Harry potter series, they're my favourite books and I've always been one of the many thousands of people who count down the minutes until the next book comes out. I think they're really good books because they provide an alternative world for the reader to visit which in many cases is actually a lot nicer and a lot more interesting than the real one.
Once I picked up the first book I couldn't put it down and in my opinion the books have got better each time one has been released, I've spent many days in the world of Harry Potter than the real one. The anticipation of the next book was always high because, I like many other people just couldn't wait to read what happened next to Harry Potter. Now that the series has ended I actually feel quite disappointed, what else am I going to queue at midnight outside book stores for?
J.K Rowling's style of writing is brilliant, she knows exactly how to capture a reader and make sure she puts in enough but not to much detail. I absolutely loved this series and recommend it to anybody and everybody. It's suitable for all ages, kids to adults and seeing as to buy the books new they cost under £10 now, it's not going to break your bank either. These are my all-time favourite books and I will be sure to re-read them again and again.
I know that these books may not be liked by everyone, some people find them too repetitive and too easy to second guess but personally I think they're great.
J.K Rowling has managed to turn around a whole generation to make them read more, many kids would never have started reading books if they hadn't been so captured by the Harry Potter series in the first place.

The first five books have now been turned into movies, the first e was released in November 2001, the second was released in November 2002, the third was I June 2004, the fourth was released in November 2005 and the fifth was released in July 2007. The films are very well made with great graphix but they do tend to miss out a lot of the story.

The Harry Potter series has been the recipient of a host of awards including four Whitaker Platinum Book Awards, three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes, two Scottish Arts Council Book Awards, the inaugural Whitbread children's book of the year award and the WHSmith book of the year. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won Best Novel in the Hugo Awards.


Fun Facts:

The success of the Harry Potter series has made J.K Rowling the highest-earning novelist in history.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was the book which took the shortest time to write at just under a year.

If a muggle spotted Hogwarts, they would just see an old ruin with a sign "Keep out, dangerous building".

J.K Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe who plays Harry Potter in the films have the same birthday which is the 31st July.

Summary: The best books in the world!!!!