The Magic of Harry Potter and How I’ve Come to Love the Book Series

I admit that I’m extremely late getting to the Harry Potter Party, but I recently began reading the book series. When Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone came out I was a busy single mom of three young children with a ton of responsibilities and reading just never seemed to fit into the schedule. When the movie was released, I took my youngest son to see it and I was in total awe. Sure, it was long, particularly for children, but it was truly magical.

Now that I have more time to read for my own enjoyment I find myself happily gravitating to children’s books and the Harry Potter series was a natural choice. I decided to read the series, in order of course, and have completed the first two books – the aforementioned Sorcerer’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets.

Regarding Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, at first I wasn’t all that impressed with J K Rowling’s writing – that is, the mechanics of her writing. What I do think is she’s an amazing world-builder and that’s what makes this series so phenomenal. Readers become completely engrossed in the magical world of Hogwarts, Magic and Muggles. Sure, there are some glaring plot holes that adult readers might find glaringly obvious, but when we remember that this is a children’s book series these things are easily forgivable. And the author's writing improves tremendously as the series progresses.

There’s no denying that J K Rowling’s success with the Harry Potter series has probably far surpassed anything anyone could have ever imagined. It’s not often that a book is turned into a movie, but an entire book series being spun into a movie series is quite an awesome feat. And let’s not forget that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios continues to break visitor records year after magical year. A clear indication that there's no short supply of Potterheads in the world. Affection for the series shows no signs of waning anytime soon.

Would I recommend reading the series? Absolutely! The books are fun, fast-paced, non-wordy, and spectacularly glorious. Readers can quickly find themselves immersed in the tales of Harry, Ron, Hermione and the rest of J K Rowling’s characters. If you read for the sheer pleasure of it, then I encourage you to begin the series. If you read the Harry Potter books as a child, I encourage you to revisit as an adult. You’ll be seeing things through an entirely different perspective.

A Wonderful Book to Teach Children About Making and Keeping Friends - Knife and Fork by Gita V. Reddy

Knife and Fork is a chapter book geared towards children, grade level 8 thru 10. In this Gita Reddy story, readers meet Bholu the monkey who lives deep in the forest. The forest was all Bholu knew until one day a little bird told him about the world outside his forest. No longer content to simply swing from branches and play games with his friends, Bholu leaves the forest in search of worldly adventures.

This book is separated into six brief chapters. Readers are taken through a fun and engaging retelling of Bholu’s travels from his forest into a city several days from his home. Bholu experiences a variety of encounters during his adventure and he exhibits both positive and negative reactions to them.  Bholu finds himself having to deal with many new feelings and he doesn’t always handle things in the best way. This makes Bholu’s character easily relatable and sympathetic to youngsters.

As with Ms. Reddy’s other books, there are plenty of lessons to learn here. Friendship and pride are at the heart of Knife and Fork. This would make a wonderful book to read to children when explaining what it takes to make and keep friends.

I love books that teach children valuable lessons while entertaining them at the same time and as usual Ms. Reddy does a wonderful job of doing just that. The vocabulary in this book is suitable for its intended age group, but Ms. Reddy makes a point of providing the definitions of the very few words that may not be familiar to older youngsters. I could also see this book being read to younger children at bedtime or anytime!

5 of 5 Stars, Review by Susan Barton

*THIS BOOK IS CURRENTLY FREE ON AMAZON UNTIL JULY 1st!