I definitely don't want to just wrote
one book review for the whole Harry Potter series, because I feel
they deserve more than that, so I'll just write about a particular
thing relating to the series having to do with one of the reasons I
enjoy it so much. Actually, a couple things, another thing just
occurred to me.
I enjoy reading/listening to young
adults books, I really do, but one thing I don't like about most of
them is the fact that they almost always make out adults to be dumb
or to be mistrusted. I suppose this is just catering to the fact that
most of the audience are teenagers, so maybe this is how they feel
toward/about adults, but you don't have to do so much to reinforce
these feelings.
In contrast, though in the Harry Potter
series there are a lot of awful adults (Voldemort, Harry's aunt and
uncle, Bellatrix, etc., etc.), there's also Mr. and Mrs. Weasley
(with their fierce love for a boy not their own), Mrs. McGonnegel
(with her strict but loyal heart), Dumbeldore (with his trust and
belief in Harry and his abilities), Haggrid (with, well everything
that makes up Haggrid), Professor Lupin (with his patient wisdom),
and some others as well. Harry sneaks around, gets into trouble, goes
where he shouldn't go, and sometimes the adults don't trust him with
as much information as they should, but there are adults that he can
depend on, that he can ask advice to (if he's willing to ask), people
who are proud of him, and want what's best for him. There are adults
who love him and he loves them back.
The other thing I love about the series
is that, as much as it promotes Harry being an independent and strong
person, it also very deeply promotes friendship, companionship and
love and, also, being willing to accept help from friends. As much as
Harry so often wants to go out on his own, he has friends who are
determined that he shouldn't have to face those trials by himself.
That's one of the biggest differences between Voldemort and Harry,
Harry has the ability to have loving connections with people.
Ruthless people always seem to think (at least in fiction) love makes
you weak, it is true that it gives you some weaknesses, some new ways
in which others (those loved and enemies) can hurt you, but it can
also give and lend strength. Love can give you allies whom you can
trust far more than the trust you can have with allies who are ruled
by fear.
On a side note, I wish the friendship
trio would have been better friends with Luna Lovegood. I love her
and wish I could have her as one of my friends, oddball though she
is, or maybe mostly because she's such an oddball...but she's so
loyal and wise (when she's not completely mad). I also would have
liked to get to know Ginny and Neville better, especially since
Neville comes close to being one of my very favorite male characters
in literature. I love how he grows and changes.
I will end by saying, I know because
they have been out for so long there's really no need to write
reviews on any of them, but I still think I want to the next time I
read the series. If you haven't read them, I encourage you to do so.
I mentioned this in another review but, for the most part, the series
gets better and better as it goes along. If you read the first one
and think it's too amateurish and beneath your “reading level,”
keep in mind the series kind of grows up as Harry does. This is also
something to keep in mind when you recommend these to a kid/teen,
too. When the series was first written, it was perfect, the kids who
read and loved the first book developed as the series developed/was
published but now, well, even though the first one is okay for a
10-year-old to read, it may not be okay for them to read the last
few. The last few get into some pretty heavy stuff, have more
detailed violence and death, and are just a little more “grown-up.”
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