This book is a MUST for ages 9 and up, and perhaps some 7 and 8 yr olds. I do NOT recommend this as a read-aloud for younger children. In addition to some obvious scary or upsetting material, Arts & Crafts table lamps. it sets terrible behavioral models for young children, for whom the line between fantasy and reality is blurry. The story is based on an educational system that removes children from their parents at an early age and leaves them relatively unsupervised. Harry and his friends disregard rules, ignore the warnings and advice of adults, and assume it is better to take things into their own hands. The interactions between students are often disrespectful and violent. This is hardly a good example for 4- and 5-yr-olds who may be struggling to learn how to follow rules and get along with their peers. Arts and crafts lamps.

I got into the Harry Potter books a few years ago. My mother had bought it, hearing it was a good book, and thinking I would like to read it. I was thoroughly unconvinced, for at that point, I would read books about horses only,(which I now realize was a very boring decision) and Harry Potter definitley did not fit that description. One day, when I was unbeleiveably bored, I decided to give the book a go. After reading two pages, I could not put the book down! My parents had to force me to let go of the book so I could get some sleep.

Here is a breif description of the book: Harry Potter (a 10 year old boy who, though miserable with his hateful relatives, beleives himself an ordinary kid) starts to receive letters. Readers already have an idea what is going to happen thanks to the first chapter, which is similar to a prolouge. Finally on the eve of his eleventh birthday, he finds out that not only is he a wizard and going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but he is a famous one at that. At Hogwarts, he finds friendship, magic where ever he goes, Quidditch (a sport played on flying broomsticks), and a destiny he never imagined.

J.K. Rowling spins along this rich, funny, imaginative, action filled novel. The characters all have uniquely different personalities, and it is all too easy to beleive that they are real. Rowling writes the novel so that you feel exactly the same as Harry nearly all the time. I feel bad for anyone who does not read the book. The story stops you beleiving that it is uncool to read. Crafts lamp.

I have read all of the books, and they only get better as they go along. I admit that after reading the first book I couldn't help but hope that maybe, just maybe, I was a witch and could go to a magical school like Hogwarts.