To be quite honest, I had not heard of Harry Potter until the day it was announced in the news that Daniel Radcliffe was chosen to be him in the movie. I steadfastly swore off reading or watching anything so mainstream; if it made this much of a fuss, chances are I wouldn't like it.

My husband wore me down one day, about the time that the 2rd movie came out. We were at our local video store and couldn't find anything to get, when he stumbled across the 1st movie. He bribed me with ice cream (hey, I'm a cheap date) if we could watch it.

Shortly thereafter Book 5 was coming out, and a friend wanted to go to the midnight release. I figured, if I was going that far, I might as well read the books, since I'd seen a few of the movies by then.

I found the book sucked you in very quickly. The characters are all well written and easy to relate to. The book has more of a 'filled out' feel than the movie, but that's to be expected. There's a nice collection of supporting characters also.

I think Rowling does a very nice job of creating a magical world that sort of slides in next to the Muggle world. An excellent job was done coming up with a sort of magical 'language': Quidditch, Muggles, magical spell incantations, etc. There's a fantastic history in the book; you almost feel like you could call up a travel agent and book a weekend's vacation in Diagon Alley - I know I'd love to!

The story line flows well; Harry goes through all sorts of things one might expect he would getting tossed into a new world: the learning curve, teasing from other students, new friends, new subjects to struggle and excel at.

My son is just about 8 years old now. He's seen most of the movies, and I'm hoping to get him into reading this book soon. He's expressed interest in it, but he's steadily working his way through his Pokemon chapter books and also the Boxcar Children series.

I think what I love most about this series is how much it can appeal to both children and adults. Growing up, I didn't have any books that I could share and talk about with my parents, so this seems to be such a wonderful gift. I like to be involved with what my kids are doing; this makes it so much easier, since I enjoyed it too!


From the back of the book:
Harry Potter has never played a sport while flying on a broomstick. He's never worn a cloak of invisibility, befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon. All Harry knows is a miserable life with the Dursley's, his horrible aunt and uncle and their abominable son, Dudley. Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years.
But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by own messenger: a letter with an invitation to a wonderful place he never dreamed existed. There he finds not only firneds, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him...if Harry can survive the encounter.