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Summary
Summary
Dark times have come to Hogwarts. After the Dementors' attack on his cousin Dudley, Harry Potter knows that Voldemort will stop at nothing to find him. There are many who deny the Dark Lord's return, but Harry is not alone: a secret order gathers at Grimmauld Place to fight against the Dark forces. Harry must allow Professor Snape to teach him how to protect himself from Voldemort's savage assaults on his mind. But they are growing stronger by the day and Harry is running out of time.
These new editions of the classic and internationally bestselling, multi-award-winning series feature instantly pick-up-able new jackets by Jonny Duddle, with huge child appeal, to bring Harry Potter to the next generation of readers. It's time to PASS THE MAGIC ON ...
Author Notes
J. K. (Joanne Kathleen) Rowling was born in Gloucestershire, U. K. on July 31, 1965. She also writes fiction novels under the name of Robert Galbraith. Rowling attended Tutshill Primary and then went on to Wyedean Comprehensive where she was made Head Girl in her final year. She received a degree in French from Exeter University. She later took some teaching classes at Moray House Teacher Training College and a teacher-training course in Manchester, England. This extensive education created a perfect foundation to spark the Harry Potter series that Rowling is renowned for.
After college, Rowling moved to London to work for Amnesty International, where she researched human rights abuses in Francophone Africa, and worked as a bilingual secretary. In 1992, Rowling quit office work to move to Portugal and teach English as a Second Language. There she met and married her husband, a Portuguese TV journalist. But the marriage dissolved soon after the birth of their daughter. It was after her stint teaching in Portugal that Rowling began to write the premise for Harry Potter. She returned to Britain and settled in Edinburgh to be near her sister, and attempted to at least finish her book, before looking for another teaching job. Rowling was working as a French teacher when her book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in June of 1997 and was an overnight sensation.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone won the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Award, and received a Commended citation in the Carnegie Medal awards. She also received 8,000 pounds from the Scottish Arts Council, which contributed to the finishing touches on The Chamber of Secrets. Rowling continued on to win the Smarties Book Prize three years in a row, the only author ever to do so. At the Bologna Book Fair, Arthur Levine from Scholastic Books, bought the American rights to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for the unprecedented amount of $105,000.00. The book was retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for it's American release, and proceeded to top the Best Seller's lists for children's and adult books. The American edition won Best of the Year in the School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Parenting Magazine and the Cooperative Children's Book Center. It was also noted as an ALA Notable Children's Book as well as Number One on the Top Ten of ALA's Best Books for Young Adults. The Harry Potter Series consists of seven books, one for each year of the main character's attendance at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. All of the books in the series have been made into successful movies. She is number 1 on the Hollywood Reporter's '25 Most Powerful Authors' 2016 list. She has also written Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard. She won the 2016 PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award. In 2016 she, along with Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, published the script of the play Harry Potter and the cursed child. It became an instant bestseller.
Rowling's first novel for an adult audience,The Casual Vacancy, was published by Little Brown in September 2012. She made The New York Times Best Seller List with her title Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination. She published two bestselling fiction novels under the name of Robert Galbraith: The Cuckoo's Calling and The Silkworm.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Year five at Hogwarts is no fun for Harry. Rowling may be relying upon readers to have solidified their liking for her hero in the first four books, because the 15-year-old Harry Potter they meet here is quite dour after a summer at the Dursleys' house on Privet Drive, with no word from pals Hermione or Ron. When he reunites with them at last, he learns that The Daily Prophet has launched a smear campaign to discredit Harry's and Dumbledore's report of Voldemort's reappearance at the end of book four, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Aside from an early skirmish with a pair of dementors, in which Harry finds himself in the position of defending not only himself but his dreaded cousin, Dudley, there is little action until the end of these nearly 900 pages. A hateful woman from the Ministry of Magic, Dolores Umbridge (who, along with minister Cornelius Fudge nearly succeeds in expelling Harry from Hogwarts before the start of the school year) overtakes Hogwarts-GrandPrE's toadlike portrait of her is priceless-and makes life even more miserable for him. She bans him from the Quidditch team (resulting in minimal action on the pitch) and keeps a tight watch on him. And Harry's romance when his crush from the last book, Cho Chang, turns out to be a major waterworks (she cries when she's happy, she cries shen she's sad). Readers get to discover the purpose behind the Order of the Phoenix and more is revealed of the connection between Harry and You-Know-Who. But the showdown between Harry and Voldemort feels curiously anticlimactic after the stunning clash at the close of book four. Rowling favors psychological development over plot development here, skillfully exploring the effects of Harry's fall from popularity and the often isolating feelings of adolescence. Harry suffers a loss and learns some unpleasant truths about his father, which result in his compassion for some unlikely characters. (The author also draws some insightful parallels between the Ministry's exercise of power and the current political climate.) As hope blooms at story's end, those who have followed Harry thus far will be every bit as eager to discover what happens to him in his sixth and seventh years. Ages 9-12. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate, Middle School) This review is much like the proverbial tree falling in an uninhabited forest: unlikely to make a sound. But for the record, HP5 is the best in the series since Azkaban, and far superior to the turgid HP4. With Rowling once again following the formula of giving Harry's day-to-day troubles and preoccupations the same weight as the larger battle of good vs. evil, Harry, now a sullen fifteen, finds himself in the role of outsider. The adult wizards in the Order of the Phoenix prepare for the return of Voldemort without him; at Hogwarts, he is ignored by Dumbledore, banned from Quidditch, and--thanks to slanted press coverage--generally regarded as a liar and a ""weirdo."" A new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, backed by a Ministry of Magic in Voldemort-denial, begins taking over Hogwarts one repressive educational decree at a time, providing Rowling with the opportunity for some sharp-edged satire. This is one of the funniest of the books, with comic set pieces starring Uncle Vernon and Hagrid, and with Fred and George Weasley outdoing themselves in wickedly funny asides. But it is also one of the most unpleasantly aggressive: adults snarl at one another; Slytherins and Gryffindors seem perpetually to be insulting each other, and even come to blows. The plot doesn't bear close scrutiny, and the climactic confrontation between ""Dumbledore's Army"" (a group of Hogwarts students led by Harry) and a horde of Death Eaters is a banal shoot-'em-up scene with a little magic thrown in. The concluding wrap-up, though, in which Dumbledore explains it all to Harry (and to us), contains a revelation regarding Neville Longbottom that should keep fans fizzing with wild surmise until the next installment. HP5 remains a highly passive reading experience, with all the work done by the author and none required of the reader (viz. those omnipresent, ambiguity-leaching adverbs: ""'I'm not staying behind!' said Hermione furiously""). But tally the book's strengths and weaknesses as you may, the fact remains that Rowling has once again created a fully-fledged world, and for the experience of being there with Harry, HP5 can't be beat. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
No, you can't put it down, but believe me, you'll wish you could. This is not an easy book to lug around. Its worldwide hype aside, the fifth installment in Harry Potter's saga should be judged on the usual factors: plot, characters, and the quality of the writing. So how does it fare? One thing emerges quickly: Rowling has not lost her flair as a storyteller or her ability to keep coming up with new gimcracks to astound her readers. But her true skills lie in the way she ages Harry, successfully evolving him from the once downtrodden yet hopeful young boy to this new, gangly teenager showing all the symptoms of adolescence--he is sullen, rude, and contemptuous of adult behavior, especially hypocrisy. This last symptom of the maturing Harry fits especially well into the plot, which finds almost all of the grown-ups in the young wizard's life saying one thing and doing another, especially those at the Ministry of Magic, who discredit Harry in the media to convince the citizenry that Voldemort is not alive. Rowling effectively uses this plot strand as a way of introducing a kind of subtext in which she takes on such issues as governmental lying and the politics of personal destruction, but she makes her points in ways that will be clearly understood by young readers. To fight for truth and justice--and to protect Harry--the Order of the Phoenix has been reconstituted, but young Potter finds squabbling and hypocrisy among even this august group. And in a stunning and bold move, Rowling also allows Harry (and readers) to view an incident from the life of a teenage James Potter that shows him to be an insensitive bully, smashing the iconic view Harry has always had of his father. Are there problems with the book? Sure. Even though children, especially, won't protest, it could be shorter, particularly since Rowling is repetitious with descriptions (Harry is always angry ; ultimate bureaucrat Doris Umbridge always looks like a toad). But these are quibbles about a rich, worthy effort that meets the very high expectations of a world of readers. --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2003 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4 Up-Harry has just returned to Hogwarts after a lonely summer. Dumbledore is uncommunicative and most of the students seem to think Harry is either conceited or crazy for insisting that Voldemort is back and as evil as ever. Angry, scared, and unable to confide in his godfather, Sirius, the teen wizard lashes out at his friends and enemies alike. The head of the Ministry of Magic is determined to discredit Dumbledore and undermine his leadership of Hogwarts, and he appoints nasty, pink-cardigan-clad Professor Umbridge as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and High Inquisitor of the school, bringing misery upon staff and students alike. This bureaucratic nightmare, added to Harry's certain knowledge that Voldemort is becoming more powerful, creates a desperate, Kafkaesque feeling during Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts. The adults all seem evil, misguided, or simply powerless, so the students must take matters into their own hands. Harry's confusion about his godfather and father, and his apparent rejection by Dumbledore make him question his own motives and the condition of his soul. Also, Harry is now 15, and the hormones are beginning to kick in. There are a lot of secret doings, a little romance, and very little Quidditch or Hagrid (more reasons for Harry's gloom), but the power of this book comes from the young magician's struggles with his emotions and identity. Particularly moving is the unveiling, after a final devastating tragedy, of Dumbledore's very strong feelings of attachment and responsibility toward Harry. Children will enjoy the magic and the Hogwarts mystique, and young adult readers will find a rich and compelling coming-of-age story as well.-Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Guardian Review
So, is this a childish phenomenon or an adult one? One may be arrested, as I was, by the image, during a break in the TV coverage of a cricket match, of an MCC member about a third of the way through The Order of the Phoenix (this some 12 hours after the book's publication); but the truly extraordinary thing about it is that it is not all that extraordinary. One became used, long ago, to the spectacle of adults reading JK Rowling's work in all kinds of public places, unembarrassed about being seen immersing themselves in a world of spells. It is a phenomenon that one struggles to imagine the more austere cultural critics commentating on without perplexity. What would Walter Benjamin have had to say about it? Or Karl Kraus? That its popularity was a symptom of a mass regression to infancy, perhaps? It may constitute a desire for a temporary flight from adulthood, but that isn't exactly the same thing. And besides, what highbrow critic ever dismissed Wagner because of his use of magical elements? (" Tristan is rubbish because it has a love- potion in it. Discuss.") Still, much of the criticism levelled against Rowling does seem to fall under the heading "category error". To complain about her, shall we say, conservative imagination, her somewhat stilted dialogue, or, as one critic cruelly put it, her "mumsy and artless prose", is in a sense to miss the point. The target audience, semi- officially, is in the nine-to-12 age range, and on those terms, the books are infallible. They deliver. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix also delivers more of the same, a shade more grown up, with extra explanation of the back story. I can't imagine anyone who is already happy with Rowling's world being disappointed with its latest manifestation (quidditch has never done it for me, but the kids seem happy enough with it). Rowling has not been asleep at the wheel in the three years since the last Potter novel, and I am pleased to report that she has not confused sheer length with inspiration. The book's prodigious size has proved an asset rather than a handicap. Aalthough my heart does go out to all those parents who will be obliged to read the book aloud, Phoenix can be raced through fairly quickly by the solitary reader, which is itself a testament to the fluency of Rowling's narrative. As for "mumsy and artless" -that was my line, in this paper, when I compared Rowling unfavourably with Ursula Le Guin, who also wrote a series of books beginning with a young would-be adept being sent to wizard school in order for him to enhance and discipline his power, and learn to confront his destiny. But reading this book has made me now realise that the comparison is specious - the two authors are barely involved in the same process at all. All children's authors have to take their worlds immensely seriously, and that is about all that Rowling and Le Guin have in common, once you have noted the superficial similarities. Le Guin writes seriously; Rowling writes just the way an 11-year-old would ideally like to write. That said, the learning process throughout Potter is slow. We have lapsed behind real time now; Harry is 15, in the fifth year, while his readers have aged two extra years since his last appear ance; and one may wonder at Harry's continuing amazement when an abandoned phone box turns out to be a lift leading to the Ministry of Magic, or a derelict department store turns out to be a front for the wizards' hospital, St Mungo's. (Would that, incidentally, be the Muggle St Mungo, also known as the apostle of Cumbria, or a magical Saint Mungo? And who ordains sanctity? And, while we're at it, is anyone's birth celebrated when Hogwarts celebrates Christmas? How does the carol "God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs" go on? And is this getting too picky?) Harry's amazement is Rowling's anticipation of her ideal reader's, and so as such, seems a little too voulu , a self-conscious attempt to work up our awe. It is one of the curious features of the series that Harry's speeches almost always sound stilted and gawky. There is an unavoidable element of redundancy to them, as the whole sequence is already chiefly about the processes of his mind. The people to watch out for and relish are Harry's friends the Weasley twins and Hogwarts' headmaster, Dumbledore. The twins' appetite for practical jokes has neither diminished nor - to my surprise - become tiresome. "I think we've outgrown full- time education," says Fred, at a moment of supremely conceived anarchy in Phoenix , and only the extremely churlish would fail to be delighted at the manner of their departure from the school (as this happens near the 600th page, the churls would anyway have parted company with the book long before). If one pole of Rowling's imagination is the comic mayhem of the Weasleys, the other is Dum-bledore. She has to be very careful with what he does and says. On his authority rests the authority of her entire structure, just as is the case with Aslan in the Narnia books, or Gandalf in Tolkien's world. It is important for such characters to be like ideal fathers: they are by no means without a sense of fun, but their word is ultimately law - even when the world turns against them. Dumbledore spends a good deal of time in The Order of the Phoenix as a fugitive - he is sacked as headmaster - and this expulsion from Eden is an almost inevitable development for Rowling, as it is for Potter and the reader. Tellingly, Hagrid, the half-giant who teaches "care of magical creatures", is absent for much of the novel, and it occurred to me that one of the conditions of maturity is having to leave such lovable grotesques behind. The Potter books are already stacked with Pucks and Calibans; and Dumbledore is a Prospero figure if ever I saw one. Something quite upsettingly dramatic is going to have to happen to him by the time the seventh book is over, you mark my words. One of the matters that Rowling addresses here is the establishment of first principles, as important as plot-lines in magical worlds. When you have magic in operation, and non- metaphorical magic at that, the attentive child is going to be very keen to ask: "If they can do X, then why can't they do Y?" and expect a satisfactory answer. Le Guin, Tolkien and CS Lewis all ultimately had to connive in the dismantling of their own magical worlds, but this may not be an option open to Rowling. We do, though, get good enough explanations as to why some people die and never return, and some do return, but as ghosts, and why Harry still lives with the Dursleys. One question that had bothered me as much as anything else was whether these Muggle relatives were ever going to be granted a shred of humanity. In this book one of them is, if fleetingly; and so, interestingly, is Snape, whose cinematic incar-nation in the supremely charismatic form of Alan Rickman tells against his charmlessness in the novels. So Rowling is pacing herself very well, then, and on her own terms. She may be taking a swipe at the media with her depiction of the muck-racking Daily Prophet, but she still has time for the alternative press - Hermione's cunning manipulation of Harry's fame saves the day at one point. The pressures Rowling is under, both to deliver and not to crack up, are almost inconceivable. This may give her a sympathetic push when describing Harry's trials. (The critic Robert Winder suggested to me that one of Harry's punishments in Phoenix is strikingly reminiscent of Kafka's "In the Penal Colony". I won't spoil either story for you by saying which.) But however she's managed it, she's still on form. You have to hand it to her. To order Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for pounds 14.99 plus p&p call Guardian book service on 0870 066 7979. More on the Harry Potter books at guardian.co.uk/books/harrypotter Caption: article-potter.1 As for "mumsy and artless" -that was my line, in this paper, when I compared [JK Rowling] unfavourably with Ursula Le Guin, who also wrote a series of books beginning with a young would-be adept being sent to wizard school in order for him to enhance and discipline his power, and learn to confront his destiny. But reading this book has made me now realise that the comparison is specious - the two authors are barely involved in the same process at all. All children's authors have to take their worlds immensely seriously, and that is about all that Rowling and Le Guin have in common, once you have noted the superficial similarities. Le Guin writes seriously; Rowling writes just the way an 11-year-old would ideally like to write. If one pole of Rowling's imagination is the comic mayhem of the Weasleys, the other is Dum-bledore. She has to be very careful with what he does and says. On his authority rests the authority of her entire structure, just as is the case with Aslan in the Narnia books, or Gandalf in Tolkien's world. It is important for such characters to be like ideal fathers: they are by no means without a sense of fun, but their word is ultimately law - even when the world turns against them. Dumbledore spends a good deal of time in The Order of the Phoenix as a fugitive - he is sacked as headmaster - and this expulsion from Eden is an almost inevitable development for Rowling, as it is for [Harry Potter] and the reader. So Rowling is pacing herself very well, then, and on her own terms. She may be taking a swipe at the media with her depiction of the muck-racking Daily Prophet, but she still has time for the alternative press - Hermione's cunning manipulation of Harry's fame saves the day at one point. The pressures Rowling is under, both to deliver and not to crack up, are almost inconceivable. This may give her a sympathetic push when describing Harry's trials. (The critic Robert Winder suggested to me that one of Harry's punishments in Phoenix is strikingly reminiscent of Kafka's "In the Penal Colony". I won't spoil either story for you by saying which.) But however she's managed it, she's still on form. You have to hand it to her. - Nicholas Lezard.
Library Journal Review
Just in case you missed it in all the media, the fifth installment of the Harry Potter series is flying your way on June 21. It's one-third longer than Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Dumbledore promises to tell all. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.