Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling, takes us into Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  And I think you know by now that Harry and his friends will never have a normal school year.  The book starts us off at the end of the summer, when Harry is invited to go with Ron's family to see the Quidditch World Cup, the biggest sporting event of the wizarding world.  I mean, he plays on one of the school teams, so he can't NOT go.  The game is very exciting, but nothing compared to the events occurring during the night after the game is over:  although rather than a joyful excitement, it is the kind of excitement which involves a lot of screaming in terror and running for your life.  It seems some of Lord Voldemort's old supporters have decided to use this mass gathering of witches and wizards as an opportunity to have their own kind of fun, which is the opposite of fun for everyone who is not a total asshole.

By the time the kids are all back at school, shit has already been on a slippery slope to getting Real, but no one seems too concerned about it yet because everyone is all kinds of busy with the resurrection of the Triwizard Tournament, an international competition between students of various schools of magic that unfortunately resulted in the deaths of many of its competitors.  And although the ministry has claimed to do its best to keep the mortal danger to a minimum for this one, it seems someone is hoping against that, because someone has put Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire, the magical item responsible for selecting the champion who will be representing each school in the tournament.  I don't know why the idea of someone actively wanting Harry dead should come as any kind of a surprise for him or his friends or anyone who knows him, really, since he has been the victim of conspiracy and attempted murder in all his previous years at this school, too.  But anyway, having your name come out of this goblet is a magical and binding contract, so Harry has no choice but to compete, and the professors and government officials have no choice but to allow it.  

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (sometimes published with the shorter title The Wizard of Oz) is regarded as the first American fairy tale, and it is one of those stories that every American child would be familiar with, even if they haven't read the book themselves.  This is a story of self discovery:  young Dorothy lives on a farm in Kansas with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry; one day, a cyclone comes and picks up their house, with Dorothy and her dog Toto inside (she didn't make it into the storm cellar with her aunt and uncle).  Fortunately, she isn't hurt - rather, she gets bored or something after a while, goes to her bed, and falls asleep.  She wakes up when the house is set down none too gently in a strange and very colorful land full of strange little people.

The Good Witch of the North informs Dorothy that she is in the land of the Munchkins, and points out that Dorothy's house has landed on the Wicked Witch of the East, killing her.  Dorothy wants to get back to Kansas, and since with the death of the witch comes the munchkins' freedom, they are more than happy to help her.  They set her up with some provisions and the Witch of the North kisses Dorothy, leaving a mark of protection, then points her in the direction of the Land of Oz.  Dorothy decides her practical and worn-in boots are no good for a long journey on foot, and since the Witch of the East is dead and so will not be walking anywhere anytime soon, Dorothy loots the witch's pretty silver and (unbeknownst to her at the time) magic shoes.

As she travels along the yellow brick road, Dorothy makes a few friends who each desire something for themselves, and Dorothy assures each one that there is no reason this wizard of Oz shouldn't be able to give them what they want, even though she only just heard of the guy and knows nothing about this place.  She's very young, though, so I guess she can't really be blamed for making promises of other people.  The party gets into all kinds of trouble along the way, but miraculously, they make it through every danger completely unscathed.  Eventually, they reach the Emerald City and meet with the wizard, who says sure, he'll grant them each their respective wishes, but only if they go and kill the Wicked Witch of the West first.  She's the last wicked witch left, after all, and since Dorothy downed the other one, this one should be no problem, right?

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling is the third installment of the widely popular Harry Potter series.  Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione are in their third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and as per usual, their year does not exactly go smoothly.  Harry is not doing so well to begin with, though; his Uncle Vernon's sister comes to visit toward the end of the summer vacation, and things get a little out of hand.  Harry storms out of the Dursleys' house, set to run away and resigned to being expelled from school and living as a fugitive.  While wondering what to do first, though, he gets picked up by The Knight Bus, which gives rides to stranded witches and wizards, and he goes to London, thinking he may as well start off at The Leaky Cauldron pub.  He's met at the pub by none other but the Minister of Magic himself,  however, and thinks he's in for it.  Rather than be arrested, though, he's set up with a room and told to stick to Diagon Alley, and not to go wandering about in Muggle London.  He doesn't have too much time to ponder the strangeness of the leniency, though, as he's quickly caught up with being back in the wizard world, and soon enough he is joined by his friends, since everyone goes to Diagon Alley to get their back-to-school shopping done.

Just before getting back on the train to Hogwarts, Harry learns some startling news about a mass murderer - Sirius Black - who  has broken out of Azkaban, the wizard prison; the man is considered to be such a danger that even the Muggle law enforcement has been notified to be on the lookout for him and to exercise caution.  Extra security measures have been placed at school, and everyone is worried for Harry's safety especially.  This is probably for the best, since he and his friends seem to have a real knack for getting into life-threatening situations.  Despite all these precautions, however, events continue to unfold which lead Harry, Ron, and Hermione right into Black's path.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling is the second book in her wildly popular series about boy wizard, Harry Potter.  Harry and his friends, Ron and Hermione, are in their second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and I hope none of them thought this year would be more normal after all the danger and shenanigans of their first year, because if they did - well, they were sadly mistaken.

The book starts out, like the first, at Harry's aunt and uncle's house on Privet Drive.  They are still horrible people, but since they're afraid Harry will do magic on them, it is perhaps not quite as unbearable as before; and this summer, he had his friends from school to keep in touch with.  Or so he thought.  He hasn't actually heard from any of them all summer, and Harry's uncle never lets him send his owl out, so he hasn't been able to write either.  He also can't study, since all his school stuff is locked up in the cupboard that used to be his bedroom.  Being that he is around twelve years old, though, I seriously doubt he would have been spending his time actually studying, but I guess you never know.

Anyway, so one evening, the Dursleys (that is, his aunt and uncle) have Harry shut up in his room while they have company over, when a house elf shows up and gives Harry some cryptic warnings about how he shouldn't go back to school, because bad things are going to happen there.  Obviously, this house elf was not aware of the events of the previous year, or he would have realized that Harry has been there and done that as far as "bad things" are concerned.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Today I finished re-reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, the first in the Harry Potter fame train. I know very few people who have not yet read these books, so I'm not entirely sure what to say about it, but I'm going to try very hard not to accidentally give away any spoilers!

Harry is a ten-year-old boy who has lived almost his whole life with his relatives - the Dursleys - who treat him like a second-class citizen. His bedroom is a cupboard underneath the stairs. He only has his cousin Dudley's old clothes to wear (even though they are much too large for him). And his aunt and uncle are constantly punishing him for strange things that he couldn't possibly be responsible for. On his eleventh birthday, however, his whole life changes. On his eleventh birthday, Harry finds out he's a wizard.

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, we follow Harry through his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry makes his first real friends (back home, kids were too scared of Dudley's bullying to hang around with him), and their experience is anything but ordinary, even for a wizard school. Shit is about to go down, but none of the teachers Harry and his friends have told believe them. Time is running out, so they take matters into their own hands. The Sorting Hat clearly didn't put these three in Gryffindor House for nothing.