harry potter book review nyt

The New York Times

The learning network | teaching ‘harry potter’ with the new york times.

Teaching ‘Harry Potter’ With The New York Times

Update, June 26, 2017: We now have an all-new edition of this post .

“All was well.” Those are the final words in the last of the Harry Potter books. Since 2007 — when the seventh and final volume was published — we’ve known how the series ends. This Friday, legions of Harry Potter fans will witness his struggle to make all well again when “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” opens across the universe. …The series begins when Harry learns, at age 11, that he is not, by Muggle standards, normal. The beauty of the saga, in the search for a new normality, is discovering that what matters, among all the supernatural effects, are things that Muggles experience — happiness, peace, and good feeling among friends and family. J.K. Rowling’s wizardry has been to show us these truths in the most magical of places. — From “Long Live Harry Potter,” an editorial by Verlyn Klinkenborg published on July 10, 2011

To celebrate this beloved series, we’ve collected everything “Harry” we could find, from Learning Network lesson plans to archival Times articles and multimedia to resources of all kinds, including parodies , from around the Web. And we’ll keep updating this page, because we don’t expect Pottermania to end just because the movies and books have.

We’ve gone through 13 years of Times archives to choose content for you, but if you’d like to see everything The Times has ever published on Harry Potter, and sort it by “oldest first” or “newest first,” visit the Harry Potter Times Topics page .

Meanwhile, if you teach these novels, please tell us below about what you do, how and why.

Harry Potter Fill-In

Can you supply the missing 25 words from the 1999 book review of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” the first-ever mention of “Harry Potter” in The New York Times?

Learning Network Lesson Plans

On “Harry Potter”

Literary Wizardry: Re-Imagining a Day at School With a Dose of ‘Harry Potter’-style Magic (2000)

Making Magic: Incorporating Elements of ‘Harry Potter’ into Short Films (2001)

Get Set! Describing and Creating Sets for ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ (2004)

The End? Sharing Predictions for the Latest ‘Harry Potter’ and Writing Your Own Book Endings (2007)

Related Themes, Characters and Literature:

Imagine That! Using Fantasy Themes to Create a Role-Playing Game (2000)

Characters’ Coming of Age: Developing Older Versions of Child or Teen Characters From Favorite Works of Literature (2003)

Kid Lit Crit: Learning About Genres of Children’s Literature (2004)

Left to Their Own (Literary) Devices: Writing Scenes for Stories Using Devices From Lemony Snicket (2006)

Get Down and Book-ie! Sharing Favorite Books Through Presentations and Posters (2006)

We’re Booked: Sharing All-Time Favorite Books With Peers and Writing Reviews (2007)

It’s the Same Old Story: Finding Elements in the ‘Twilight’ Series Common to Classic Literature (2008)

Out Loud: Practicing and Performing Oral Readings (2009)

Join the Club! Supporting Independent Reading With Book Groups (2010)

Print vs. Digital: Analyzing and Designing Book Apps for Works of Literature (2010)

10 Ways to Celebrate Banned Books Week

10 Ways to Use The New York Times for Teaching Literature

Film in the Classroom

Books, Readers and Teachers: A Wrap-Up

Learning Network Student Opinion Questions

All of the following are still open to comment by students 13 or older:

What Would Your Favorite Literary Characters Be Like if Their Stories Never Ended?

Are There Books That Should Be Banned From Your School Library?

What Are Your Favorite Children’s Books ?

Do You Read E-Books?

Times Multimedia

2011 timeline | Harry Potter and the Billion-Dollar Franchise

2011 Reader Photographs | Harry Potter and the Devoted Fans 2011 slide show | Muggles Up Close

2010 video | Anatomy of a Scene: ‘Harry Potter’

2010 video | A Wizardly Getaway

2007 interactive | Harry Potter, Dissected

2011 slide show | The Sorcerers of Stagecraft

Times Reviews of the Harry Potter Books

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” (Michiko Kakutani)

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (Michiko Kakutani)

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (Michiko Kakutani)

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (John Leonard)

“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (Janet Maslin)

“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (Stephen King)

“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (Gregory Maguire)

“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (Christina Cho)

“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (Michael Winerip)

Times Reviews of the Harry Potter Movies

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ (Manohla Dargis)

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1″ (A.O. Scott)

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (Manohla Dargis)

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (A.O. Scott)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Manohla Dargis)

“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (A.O. Scott)

“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (A.O. Scott)

“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (Elvis Mitchell)

Selected Times Articles

Why I Paid So Much (1999)

Don’t Give Us Little Wizards, the Anti-Potter Parents Cry (1999)

Books’ Hero Wins Young Minds; An Apprentice Wizard Rules the World (at Least Its Bookstores) (1999)

Wizard vs. Dragon: A Close Contest, but the Fire-Breather Wins (2000)

On Language: “Muggles” (2001)

Harry Potter’s Sorcerer Lived Here! He Really Did (2002)

The Split Verdict on Harry Potter (2003)

Young Potter Fans See Hero Maturing Along With Them (2003)

Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Camper (2005)

Harry Is Bigger Than Ever, It Would Seem, and His Fans Are, Too (2005)

The Genetic Theory of Harry Potter (2005)

Potter Has Limited Effects on Reading Habits (2007)

Is Dumbledore Gay? Depends on Definitions of ‘Is’ and ‘Gay’ (2007)

Even After the Books, Potter Mania Rocks On (2008)

Harry Potter Is Their Peter Pan (2009)

The Woman Behind the Boy Wizard (2009)

Muggles Take Flight at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (2010)

Pottermore: What’s Next for Harry Potter (2011)

Harry Potter Sang Bass, Hermione Sang Tenor (2011)

Bittersweet Feeling Among Fans Awaiting Final ‘Harry Potter’ Film (2011)

The Fans Own the Magic (2011)

Selected Times Opinion Pieces

Is Harry Potter Evil? (1999)

The Dark Underbelly of Writing Well for Children (1999)

Harry Potter Minus a Certain Flavour (2000)

Harry Potter and the Childish Adult (2003)

Harry Potter and the Errant Golf Cart (2003)

Growing Up With a Dose of Magic (2005)

Five Ways to End Harry Potter (2007)

Taking the Magic Out of College (2009)

Long Live Harry Potter (2011)

Harry, I Hardly Knew Ye (2011)

Harry Potter Web Sites

J. K. Rowling Official Site

MuggleNet.com

The Leaky Cauldron

thesnitch.co.uk

veritaserum.com

immeritus.org

potterish.com

Harry Potter Lexicon

Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator

Scholastic’s Harry Potter site

Potter for the People

The Harry Potter Alliance

Selected Harry Potter Tributes and Parodies From Around the Web, Plus a Little J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter Fan Fiction

Figment | The Harry Potter Fan Fiction Contest

Fig Frags Tumblr | Harry Potter

The Summharry: A Parody Comic

Second City | Hogwarts: Which House Are You?

Guardian Contest Results | Write an account of the death of Albus Dumbledore in the style of another author

Harry Potter World Cup: Snape, Snape, Severus Snape!

Cake Wrecks | Sunday Sweets: Potter Mania

Instructables | Harry Potter DIY

Quiz Farm | Just How Obsessed Are You With Harry Potter?

Nerd Fighters | Harry Potter Nerds

Cap’n Wacky | Titles of Harry Potter Fanfics We’d Rather Not Read

Potter Puppet Pals

Harry Potter Like a g6 Parody (Like It’s Quidditch)

Harry Potter Friday Parody by The Hillywood Show

The Dungeon Bulletin Board

Harry Potter Look-Alikes

Tech Land | 10 Technologies We Want to Steal from Harry Potter

Vulture | Eight Ways to Spin Off the Harry Potter Movie Franchise

Welcome Back, Potter

TED Talks | J.K. Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure

J.K. Rowling’s Plot Spreadsheet for ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’

For a list of other novels for which we’ve made similar lists of resources, see 10 Ways to Use The New York Times for Teaching Literature.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

Wow great collection of information, thanks for sharing! What was the very first article about the series every published?

Liz-CoolProducts

According to what I was able to find via a Times site search, for this newspaper it was the first book review in 1999. –Katherine

7/13/11 Hi, Bryan– Thought that you might be able to integrate this in Economics. Hope you are having a good summer! See you next month.

I have had great success using HP to teach Developmental Psychology, especially in discussions on Attachment Theory. Most college students today have grown up with the series and know the characters well, which makes the material very understandable and personal to them. They also get a great lesson in critical thinking, as they discover they’ve never thought about this side of the characters.

I am amazed at the depth and breadth of your collection!! It will be fascinating to explore. I guess my sister’s new book, The Riddles of Harry Potter, Secret Passages and Interpretive Quests, Palgrave, Macmillan, NY hasn’t surfaced yet. I hope you read it, too!

May be coming soon, Harry Potter 8 //hpnext.com/ It is possible to influence the process of creating of saga about Harry Potter

I found a wonderful curriculum for Harry Potter that a group has put together. I just posted it yesterday on my blog.

//homesteadingpaganstyle-penny.blogspot.com/

What's Next

Advertisement

Supported by

Children’s Books

New Fantasy Novels for Kids (and Adults) Ready to Go Beyond Harry Potter

• Share full article

By Monica Edinger

• Feb. 15, 2019

Beloved by young readers, speculative fiction often gets a very different reception from grown-ups, some of whom lament that such books lack the depth of literary fiction, especially if — horrors! — they are popular ones in a series. It took a tsunami of media attention to get such adults to capitulate to J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books and, once they did, they raved about the series as an exception, seemingly unaware of its distinguished lineage. Fortunately, others feel differently, aware that some of the most inventive, enthralling, provocative and (yes) literary writing for children comes in this form. Setting their stories in invented places, a magical version of the real world or far across the universe, these authors explore weighty themes in highly original ways. For established fans, new readers and open-minded skeptics, four new titles offer distinctive and rich reading experiences.

Would life be better if we could forget the past? That’s the question Corey Ann Haydu (“Rules for Stealing Stars”) poses in her engrossing EVENTOWN (Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins, 336 pp., $16.99; ages 8 to 12) . It certainly seems that way for almost-12-year-old Elodee, her identical twin, Naomi, and their parents, whose lives have become unbearably sad because of something none of them can stand to think about. Needing a fresh start, they move to Eventown, where they are delighted at first with the charming environment, the kind people, the overriding sense of well-being. While the quiet Naomi settles in comfortably, the more outgoing Elodee does not. An inventive cook, she is pleased with the scrumptious results she gets from a recipe box in their new home, but when she tries to tinker with them or recreate her own, the results are disastrous.

After a couple of times watching her gymnast sister perform every routine with nary a grunt or drop of sweat, always getting a perfect score along with the other Eventown girls, Elodee stops attending the meets. Then there is the rosebush their father brought from their old home, blooming wildly and differently from the gorgeous ones around it, never fitting in any more than Elodee does.

For it seems that an “even” lifestyle comes with costs. While Eventown has its dystopian aspects, there are no sinister villains à la President Snow of “The Hunger Games,” just well-intentioned people who have understandable reasons for keeping the town as it is. With its embedded question about the consequences of erasing all your problems, “Eventown” will doubtless hit many a middle grade reader’s sweet spot, reminding them that memories, good and bad, make life worth living.

Identical twins are also at the center of Anne Ursu’s THE LOST GIRL (Walden Pond/HarperCollins, 368 pp., $16.99; ages 8 to 12) . They’re physically alike, but Lark is dreamy and creative while Iris is outgoing and fact-oriented. They have always looked out for each other — but in fifth grade, for the first time, they are put into separate classes. Devastated, the girls struggle with this new reality, Lark withdrawing into a world of her own while Iris frets and worries about her. With every difficult situation, Iris becomes more alarmed. How is she to take care of Lark if they are in different classes? Distraught, Iris gravitates to a strange new antique shop in town run by the eccentric Mr. Green, while elsewhere things big and small start to go missing.

Told by a mysterious narrator, the story gets darker and darker as the foolhardy and desperately unhappy Iris stumbles in her attempts to help her sister. Yet the book’s somber moments are balanced by lighter ones, especially those featuring Iris’s classmates and the energetic girls of her after-school Awesome Club, all of whom she has discounted in her self-absorption, but who turn out to be supportive, and critical at the end.

While the bulk of “The Lost Girl” is set in a realistic world, the final section is suffused with magic. Capturing with piercing accuracy Iris’s evolving anguish, Ursu (“The Real Boy”) ends this passionate and complex story with a celebration of sibling autonomy, youthful agency and the power of friends.

Eleven-year-old Fionn, the hero of Catherine Doyle’s debut middle-grade novel, THE STORM KEEPER’S ISLAND (Bloomsbury, 304 pp., $16.99; ages 8 to 12) , is also miserable. Having never known his father, who died shortly before he was born, he is close to his mother — but she has sent him and his sister to their grandfather’s island while she recovers from depression. The whispering wind and magical landscape that greet Fionn make it immediately clear that this island is not ordinary. Nor is their grandfather, the Storm Keeper, who has long kept dark forces at bay with the handcrafted candles that fill his cottage. Now, having grown forgetful, the old man is ready to cede his place.

While the siblings bicker constantly, Fionn is still hurt when his sister abandons him to search for the legendary Sea Cave with her new crush, who wants to use the place’s single wish to become the next Storm Keeper, bypassing the tradition of the sentient island making the selection. Wanting the wish to somehow get his father back and then to help his mother, Fionn tries to find the cave before them, discovering along the way more clarity about his own past as well as a growing awareness of the evil lurking deep below in the island.

Doyle’s writing glows, with the pitch-perfect barbs the young people sling at each other, the atmospheric weather events, her masterfully delineated characters — including the island itself — and a page-turning plot. Heart-wrenching and heart-stopping, this is one gorgeous novel.

With the arrival of a stranger to a dilapidated home on Jingu, one of the many planets that make up the Thousand Worlds, Yoon Ha Lee hits the ground running in DRAGON PEARL (Rick Riordan/Hyperion, 310 pp., $16.99; ages 8 to 12) . Our 13-year-old protagonist, Min, hears the stranger say that her beloved older Space Cadet brother is believed to have deserted in order to seek the coveted and long-lost object known as the Dragon Pearl. Furious and disbelieving, she knocks the man out and then races off to find Jun.

In this world of humans and supernatural beings, Min is a shape-shifting fox who, like all of her kind, stays disguised as a human to avoid the prejudice she would otherwise encounter. Using her wits and a magical ability called Charm that she has been forbidden to use, but does under these urgent conditions, Min manages to get on her brother’s ship by disguising herself as a recently slain male cadet whose ghost she encounters. With two delightful friends — a female dragon and a gender-neutral goblin with a magic snack-producing spork — Min participates in lessons, learns about the ship’s workings and has thrilling adventures galore.

Part of the new line of multicultural fantasy novels overseen by Rick Riordan — he of the popular Percy Jackson series — “Dragon Pearl” is a clever mash-up of Korean mythology and science fiction tropes. With crisp dialogue, a winning protagonist and a propulsive plot, the tale is enormously entertaining. And a heads-up to speculative-averse adults: If you decided Harry Potter was O.K., this is another one that might surprise you.

Monica Edinger, a fourth-grade teacher in New York City, is the author of “Africa Is My Home: A Child of the Amistad.” She blogs at Educating Alice.

Follow New York Times Books on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram , s ign up for our newsletter or our literary calendar . And listen to us on the Book Review podcast .

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

James McBride’s novel sold a million copies, and he isn’t sure how he feels about that, as he considers the critical and commercial success  of “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.”

How did gender become a scary word? Judith Butler, the theorist who got us talking about the subject , has answers.

You never know what’s going to go wrong in these graphic novels, where Circus tigers, giant spiders, shifting borders and motherhood all threaten to end life as we know it .

When the author Tommy Orange received an impassioned email from a teacher in the Bronx, he dropped everything to visit the students  who inspired it.

Do you want to be a better reader?   Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

Harry Potter and the Ignominious Cop-Out

Two weekends ago, I found myself accidentally proving the old theory that Harry Potter is a gateway drug to the wider world of serious literature. Standing in the very back of a gigantic horde at my local bookstore at midnight, wedged into a knot of adolescents reading People magazine through oversize black plastic glasses, I picked up and nearly finished a great American superclassic that I’d somehow managed to avoid for my entire life: Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men . Under normal circumstances I would have been perfectly happy to go on ignoring it—the paperback had an unmistakable high-school-syllabus stench about it—but I was bored to death and the aisles were clogged with potbellied wizards and it was the only readable book within arm’s reach. A few pages in, I found myself hooked. By the time I got to the register, I was three-quarters of the way through (just after—spoiler alert!—Lennie the man-child mangles the bully Curley’s hand) and all I really wanted to do was finish it. But the employees were all clapping because I was the last customer, so I closed Steinbeck right on the brink of what felt like an impending tragic climax, took my Potter, and left. Ironically, this meant that Of Mice and Men was now suspended at roughly the same point in its dramatic arc as Rowling had suspended the Potter series before Deathly Hallows . So I went home and conducted a curious experiment in parallel reading: a two-day blitz of 860 pages, with a pair of nested climaxes—one hot off the presses, one 70 years old.

I started with Potter. Not since 1841, when New Yorkers swarmed the docks to ask incoming Brits whether Little Nell died in the latest installment of The Old Curiosity Shop (spoiler alert! She totally did), have readers been so simultaneously poised on the brink of a collective climax. My gut, along with the new book’s scary epigraphs, kept telling me that—like Little Nell—Harry had to go. For a children’s series, Potter has been unusually death-obsessed—Harry’s heroism, remember, sprang from the gruesome murder of his parents—and in recent books, the body count has risen quickly: In the previous book, even Harry’s untouchable mentor Dumbledore died. Also, in a larger narrative sense, Rowling owed us. Harry had been too outrageously lucky for too long: He lived for six books in a big bland protective bubble of innocence and nobility and love. As minor characters dropped around him like cursed broomsticks, he lucked his way through unsurvivable encounters with dragons, basilisks, dementors, Death Eaters, and about 34 different manifestations of Voldemort. Now it was time to pop the bubble. We all felt it. Rowling knew it. One of the big reasons we all read Potter so devotedly was that, unlike most kids’ series, there was something serious at stake. And she practically promised us Harry’s death with Book Six’s prophecy about him and Voldemort—“Neither can live while the other survives.”

By now, the book’s final events have been spoiled as thoroughly as a pint of six-month-old cottage cheese in the trunk of a flaming car. And yet I still feel compelled to issue a warning. If you don’t want to know how Harry Potter ends, you need to fling this magazine, very hard and very fast, out of your window or into the nearest vacant horse carriage. Fling it! There’s no time to think! Gaaaaa!

I approached the book with some fear. For one thing, despite the charm and immersive power of Rowling’s magical world, despite her solid instinct for broad, mythic narrative strokes, she’s always had trouble with the basic mechanics of plot. Even by pulp standards, her storytelling is ridiculous. Exposition happens almost exclusively via overheard conversations. Narrative logic falls apart at crucial moments. Every book ends in an orgy of coincidence and revelations and arbitrary switcheroos. (As George Orwell once wrote about Dickens: “rotten architecture, but wonderful gargoyles.”) Since Deathly Hallows was the series-capping megaclimax, I expected to find it ponderous, overactive, dangerously clotted with characters, and confusing. This was pretty much exactly right. All the Rowling signatures are here: She’s still addicted to adverbs and (oddly) the word “bemused,” her caps lock gets stuck at critical moments, foreigners speak in intolerable accents, and everyone stutters uncontrollably at the slightest hint of stress. When the action gets heavy, she cranks the “coincidence” dial up to eleven and flagrantly abuses her imminent-death-thwarted-at-the-last-possible-moment privileges. (In an MSNBC survey of fan reactions to Deathly Hallows , a 10-year-old who claims to have read the entire series eight times observed that, for his taste, the final book leaned a little too heavily on coincidence. I believe this tells us something important.) As for plot, there’s a Mission Impossible –style break-in at the Ministry of Magic and a never-ending camping trip featuring some heavy Lord of the Rings plagiarism and innumerable action sequences in which everyone screams, “No! No! NO! NOOOOOOO!” A few minor characters die; most movingly, Dobby the house-elf. (“And then with a little shudder the elf became quite still, and his eyes were nothing more than great glassy orbs, sprinkled with light from the stars they could not see.”) Much of the book, however, was strangely forgettable.

And then I got to Chapter 33. In a powerful sequence that immediately makes up for much of the prior slog, Harry learns that, in order for the world to live, he has to die. He accepts this with genuine stoic heroism, relishes his last moments of life, and, surrounded by the ghosts of his dead family and friends, marches off to get himself nobly slaughtered. My tear ducts initiated their “misty” sequence; when Harry asked his mother’s spirit to stay close to him, I almost shed an actual tear. The Rowling-skeptic in me kept waiting for the impossible bailout, but it never came: Voldemort smote Harry into oblivion. Suddenly, Potter was a legitimate tragedy. The series had grown up.

Unfortunately, the cop-out—which in retrospect seems as inevitable as I once thought Harry’s death was—comes three pages later. Chapter 35 sees Harry wake up in an ethereal train station (presumably some regional hub halfway along the Heaven-Hell line), where the spirit of Dumbledore gives him special news: Because of the purity of Harry’s self-sacrifice, he’s eligible for a Jesus exemption. He’s not dead. He gets to go back and kill Voldemort. And just as a bonus, his sacrifice has redeemed all of humanity. (As Harry puts it, while he and the Dark Lord circle each other like the knife fighters in “Beat It”: “You won’t be able to kill any of them ever again. Don’t you get it? I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people … I’ve done what my mother did. They’re protected from you.” I’m not sure, at this point, why they don’t just let Voldemort hang around like an old toothless lion—but I guess that would lack dramatic flair.) After the predictable duel, Rowling wraps things up with an epilogue that is, hands down, the worst piece of writing in the entire 4,000-page series. Harry and the gang, now all thirtysomething and blissfully intermarried, reappear at King’s Cross Station to drop off the next generation of wizards at Platform 9¾ while reveling in har-har family-sitcom humor. The final sentence is remarkably bland and awful, the linguistic crystallization of Rowling’s cop-out: “All was well.”

I’m not opposed to happy endings per se—I’m just opposed to an author trying to get emotional credit for both a tragic and a happy ending without actually earning either. Rowling had been gathering storm clouds for ten years; her fictional sky was as purple and lumpy as a Quidditch stadium full of plums, and the whole world had lined up to watch it rain. She owed this ritual sacrifice to the immortal gods of narrative: either the life of her hero or—infinitely harder to pull off—his convincing and improbable survival. With Harry’s death, the series would have graduated instantly from “light and possibly fluky popular megasuccess” to Heavy Tragic Fantasy Classic. Instead, at the last possible moment, she tacked on an episode of Leave It to Beaver . This is roughly the equivalent of Oedipus Rex’s tearing his eyes out, then stumbling across a wise old friend who tells him: “Hey, guess what, buddy? You know how you just killed your dad and slept with your mom, like the oracle predicted? Well, since you did it all with totally innocent love in your heart, it doesn’t count! Go tell your mom to untie that noose! And look, your eyes just grew back! All is well!” Rowling seems to misunderstand the power of catharsis. It’s not simple reassurance, it’s a primal release.

Meanwhile, back among Steinbeck’s farm laborers, all was not well. In fact, it was terrible. Curley’s wife came out to the barn while Lennie was playing with his puppy, and—you know what? I’m not going to spoil it for you.

BACKSTORY Plenty of critics have noted the coincidence of Harry Potter and The Sopranos —the two great pop-cultural myths of the last ten years —ending simultaneously. But the parallel runs deeper. Both series depended on essentially the same trick: smuggling the mundane back into the exotic, normalizing the abnormal. A wizard buying school supplies carries approximately the same defamiliarizing charge as a mob boss going to therapy. Or, as Rowling once put it, a gun is only “a kind of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other.”

SEE ALSO: The Incomplete Sayings of Albus Dumbledore

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows By J.K. Rowling. Arthur A. Levine books. 759 pages. $34.99.

Most viewed

• Andrew Huberman’s Mechanisms of Control  
• The Case for Marrying an Older Man
• What We Know About the Mommy Vlogger Accused of Child Abuse
• Trump vs. Biden Polls: Joe Has Finally Stopped the Bleeding
• When Your Kid Is the Classroom Problem Child
• What’s Next for 3 Body Problem ?

What is your email?

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create your free account.

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

• Lower case letters (a-z)
• Upper case letters (A-Z)
• Numbers (0-9)
• Special Characters (!@#$%^&*)

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York , which you can opt out of anytime.

• ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE

From the harry potter series , vol. 1.

by J.K. Rowling ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998

It’s slanted toward action-oriented readers, who will find that Briticisms meld with all the other wonders of magic school.

In a rousing first novel, already an award-winner in England, Harry is just a baby when his magical parents are done in by Voldemort, a wizard so dastardly other wizards are scared to mention his name.

So Harry is brought up by his mean Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia Dursley, and picked on by his horrid cousin Dudley. He knows nothing about his magical birthright until ten years later, when he learns he’s to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hogwarts is a lot like English boarding school, except that instead of classes in math and grammar, the curriculum features courses in Transfiguration, Herbology, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry becomes the star player of Quidditch, a sort of mid-air ball game. With the help of his new friends Ron and Hermione, Harry solves a mystery involving a sorcerer’s stone that ultimately takes him to the evil Voldemort. This hugely enjoyable fantasy is filled with imaginative details, from oddly flavored jelly beans to dragons’ eggs hatched on the hearth.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998

ISBN: 978-0-590-35340-3

Page Count: 309

Publisher: Levine/Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1998

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

Share your opinion of this book

More In The Series

BOOK REVIEW

by J.K. Rowling & illustrated by Mary GrandPré

by J.K. Rowling ; illustrated by Mary GrandPré

More by J.K. Rowling

by J.K. Rowling ; illustrated by Jim Field

by J.K. Rowling

by J.K. Rowling ; illustrated by Minalima

More About This Book

SEEN & HEARD

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

From the school for good and evil series , vol. 1.

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013

Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.

Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.

Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and  her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).

Pub Date: May 14, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2

Page Count: 496

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno

More by Soman Chainani

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by RaidesArt

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Julia Iredale

BOOK TO SCREEN

THE LAST EVER AFTER

From the school for good and evil series , vol. 3.

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 21, 2015

Ultimately more than a little full of itself, but well-stocked with big themes, inventively spun fairy-tale tropes, and...

Good has won every fairy-tale contest with Evil for centuries, but a dark sorcerer’s scheme to turn the tables comes to fruition in this ponderous closer.

Broadening conflict swirls around frenemies Agatha and Sophie as the latter joins rejuvenated School Master Rafal, who has dispatched an army of villains from Capt. Hook to various evil stepmothers to take stabs (literally) at changing the ends of their stories. Meanwhile, amid a general slaughter of dwarves and billy goats, Agatha and her rigid but educable true love, Tedros, flee for protection to the League of Thirteen. This turns out to be a company of geriatric versions of characters, from Hansel and Gretel (in wheelchairs) to fat and shrewish Cinderella, led by an enigmatic Merlin. As the tale moves slowly toward climactic battles and choices, Chainani further lightens the load by stuffing it with memes ranging from a magic ring that must be destroyed and a “maleficent” gown for Sophie to this oddly familiar line: “Of all the tales in all the kingdoms in all the Woods, you had to walk into mine.” Rafal’s plan turns out to be an attempt to prove that love can be twisted into an instrument of Evil. Though the proposition eventually founders on the twin rocks of true friendship and family ties, talk of “balance” in the aftermath at least promises to give Evil a fighting chance in future fairy tales. Bruno’s polished vignettes at each chapter’s head and elsewhere add sophisticated visual notes.

Pub Date: July 21, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-06-210495-3

Page Count: 672

Review Posted Online: June 25, 2015

• Discover Books Fiction Thriller & Suspense Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Nonfiction Biography & Memoir Teens & Young Adult Children's
• News & Features Bestsellers Book Lists Profiles Perspectives Awards Seen & Heard Book to Screen Kirkus TV videos In the News
• Kirkus Prize Winners & Finalists About the Kirkus Prize Kirkus Prize Judges
• Magazine Current Issue All Issues Manage My Subscription Subscribe
• Writers’ Center Hire a Professional Book Editor Get Your Book Reviewed Advertise Your Book Launch a Pro Connect Author Page Learn About The Book Industry
• More Kirkus Diversity Collections Kirkus Pro Connect My Account/Login
• About Kirkus History Our Team Contest FAQ Press Center Info For Publishers
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Popular in this Genre

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

Create a new bookshelf.

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Already have an account? Log in.

Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

• Industry Professional

Welcome Back!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Contact us: 1-800-316-9361 or email [email protected].

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Magazine Subscribers ( How to Find Your Reader Number )

If You’ve Purchased Author Services

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

J.k. rowling delivers a truly magical finale..

[SPOILER WARNING: It should go without saying since you're reading a review of the book, but some spoilers for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows are mentioned beyond this point. We're not giving everything away, but the structure of the novel and key plot points are discussed. You've been warned.]

With each novel in the boy-wizard series, Rowling seems to have evolved her characters along with her storytelling. Each book saw Harry, Ron, Hermione and friends changing and growing older, as Rowling's style matured in tandem. There's no doubt that she's grown as an author over the course of the series, but the evolution seems more like an intentional effort to have the complexity of the book itself mirror the state of the characters and the world they live in. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the culmination of all this. Far from the simple story of an orphan boy living under the stairs, we've now come to an epic showdown between the forces of good and evil. Appropriately, Hallows is a very different book than any of the previous ones. The sense of humor, wonderment, and charm that are present in many of the previous books is largely absent here. There are light moments, of course, but the time for cracking jokes about booger-flavored jelly beans is over. This is war.

Rowling's writing style reflects the gravity of the events in her fantasy world, as she takes an overall get-down-to-business approach with her prose. That's not to say the book is overly straight-forward. And there are certain passages -- like the conversation between Harry and another character "at the close" -- that read more like epic poetry than something out of a modern-day fantasy novel.

The book is 36 chapters (759 pages in all) and seems to be presented in four movements. The action begins with Harry's departure from the Dursley's, but let's just say it's not exactly a trip to Platform 9 3/4 this time. We then follow Harry, Ron and Hermione on a quest through the English countryside, hiding from Death Eaters and in search of Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes. The action then turns to the mystery of the Deathly Hallows -- a trio of legendary relics that have fascinated curious wizards for ages, including Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. Finally, the action comes to a gut-wrenching, edge-of-your-seat climax with the Battle of Hogwarts. Blood is shed, lives are lost, and Harry and Voldemort face-off once and for all.

We had high hopes that Rowling would leave no stone unturned in this last installment, and sure enough she manages to answer every single question and illuminate the secrets behind every mystery. What's the deal with Snape? Does Dumbledore have one last trick up his entombed sleeve? You'll find out.

Beyond just resolving outstanding issues, the author brings the entire series full circle by giving most of her memorable characters from the saga some sort of role to play in the finale -- everyone from Buckbeak the Hippogriff to Professor Trelawny sees some kind of action. And even after wrapping things up with a fine finish, Rowling delights by including a flash-forward epilogue that further satisfies our curiosity with a 30-something glimpse of the surviving heroes. She does all of this without ever making it feel cliché or forced.

In the end, things turned out a lot like we had anticipated, but Rowling kept us guessing right up until the very end. To her credit, Harry's world is one where the specter of death looms over everyone -- just like our own -- and we're never entirely sure about the safety of anyone.

The conclusion of Harry Potter's story is a masterfully told tale of love, loss, hope and the triumph of good over evil. And with this paramount work, J.K. Rowling secures her place in the pantheon of classic fantasy authors like J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

In This Article

IGN Recommends

Den of Geek

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: book review

A spoiler filled review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which shouldn't be read by any ten-year old who's still stuck on page 93...

• Share on Facebook (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Linkedin (opens in a new tab)
• Share on email (opens in a new tab)

Warned you once: there’re spoilers in here about books six and seven. Read on at your peril…

This was the most highly anticipated book release of the year, and rightly so. Harry Potter is a worldwide phenomenon, and the books and films have earned some serious cash.

Personally, I was desperate to read this book, the fact there had been leaks and numerous rumours going round only made me more excited and curious as to what the final book in the series had in store for our young hero. J K Rowling’s own comments on the Jonathan Ross show made me think he was going to die, so I had prepared myself for the worst.

To recap: poor Dumbledore has been murdered by Snape, leaving Harry with a monstrous task – he must destroy the remaining Horcruxes (parts of Voldemort’s soul hidden in objects to make him immortal) and only then would he be able to kill the Dark Lord once and for all. So Harry, Ron and Hermione set off together on their quest.

Ad – content continues below

On the way, they run into many problems, but somehow, everything seems to work out. The attraction between Ron and Hermione becomes more and more obvious, I even found myself rolling my eyes in a Hermione-like way when they refused to admit their feelings for one another. There’s no time for dilly-dallying when Voldemort’s after you, is there?

Then things began to get confusing. As well as there just being Horcruxes to look for, there were now something called Hallows. You have to concentrate and remember what they’re talking about, and pay attention when the story of their origination is told, or you won’t have a clue.

So Hallows are nothing to do with Voldemort, as such, except there’s a wand which is unbeatable knocking around, and the Dark Lord, furious at the failure of his own wand, wants this one to finish The Boy Who Lived off.

And so the story continues. The book is full of the usual gripping action, and I was in anticipation of a sobbing fit when I got towards the end, so I had tissues at the ready. However, none came. After awaiting a chapter that had, apparently, made J K Rowling herself cry when she wrote it, I was expecting something really special and emotional, particularly as she’d also said some main characters die. I had a tear in my eye, but it was nowhere near as emotional as Dumbledore’s death. I cried more over poor Dobby earlier in the book.

There was nothing in the book that I thought was predictable, which is obviously a good thing. I wouldn’t have guessed Harry was a Horcrux if it hadn’t been circulated on the Internet previously, so I can’t count that.

I was immensely pleased that Bellatrix Lestrange got her comeuppance, but I thought it would have been so much more satisfying had “the boy with the balls” Longbottom finished her off. Also, why the hell is Draco “the bastard” Malfoy still alive? I wanted to kill him in the first book!

I thought the book was ace, because it’s Harry Potter , after all. However I thought Rowling really cheated herself out of what could have been a much more powerful and dramatic ending.

Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!

I don’t want to include too many spoilers in here, but to say what I really want to say, I’ll have to. I was expecting one of the three main characters to die, and to sob my little heart out. I was even expecting Harry to die. But Rowling copped out. Totally.

She may as well have written “And they all lived happily ever after.” But in all fairness, I don’t think I’ve have killed a character that had made me that much money either. She’s too far away from retirement to throw away a guaranteed cash cow.

Lucy Felthouse

Shop TODAY All Stars: Vote now for your top 4 picks!

• TODAY Plaza
• Share this —

• Watch Full Episodes
• Read With Jenna
• Inspirational
• Relationships
• TODAY Table
• Newsletters
• Start TODAY
• Shop TODAY Awards
• Citi Music Series
• Listen All Day

Follow today

More Brands

• On The Show

'Potter' author rips N.Y. Times over early review

The New York Times published a review of the final Harry Potter book on Thursday before it went on sale, drawing a stinging response from author J.K. Rowling.

The review, by Michiko Kakutani, appeared in the newspaper’s online version overnight, ahead of the official release of the eagerly awaited “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” at midnight on Friday night.

Rowling, who has amassed a personal fortune from her popular tales of the boy wizard, responded in a terse statement.

“I am staggered that some American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children,” she said.

“I am incredibly grateful to all those newspapers, booksellers and others who have chosen not to attempt to spoil Harry’s last adventure for fans,” the 41-year-old added.

Bloomsbury, which publishes Harry Potter in Britain, and Scholastic, its U.S. counterpart, spent millions of dollars protecting the contents of the novel until its publication.

But photographed pages from “Deathly Hallows,” believed to include both fake and real versions, surfaced on the Internet and this week some books were shipped to customers by a U.S. online retailer, prompting Scholastic to take legal action.

The seventh and final Harry Potter installment is expected to become the world’s fastest selling book after months of hype and speculation about its contents, including what happens to Potter and his friends at Hogwarts.

Copy purchased in NYC store The New York Times review said its copy was purchased from a New York City store on Wednesday.

A Bloomsbury spokeswoman called the review “very sad,” adding that there was only one more day to wait until the official release in book stores around the world. Twelve million copies of the book have been printed for the U.S. market alone.

She likened the events in the United States to the Boston Tea Party, a protest by American colonists against Britain in 1773.

“But over here it is blockades as usual, with the embargo being enforced unflinchingly and without exception by all our customers,” she said.

In a generally positive review, writer Kakutani gives away some plot details, including how many characters die and what ”deathly hallows” means, but refrains from answering the biggest questions of all.

“Ms. Rowling has fitted together the jigsaw-puzzle pieces of this long undertaking with Dickensian ingenuity and ardor,” the review said.

The first six books of the Potter story have sold 325 million copies worldwide, and five Hollywood adaptations to date have earned around $4 billion in ticket sales.

Review of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway

Today I've got magic on my mind. The Harry Potter kind. Apparently so does the rest of the world. After seeing this spectacular  Harry Potter and the Cursed Child   I decided to borrow a book from the Library. I have NEVER seen a book available in so many languages. Some of which I don't even recognize. But who can blame them? Don't we all want to take a couple of classes at Hogwarts? Perhaps they have some adult education offerings. And about the owls. Henceforth I want all my mail delivered by a feathered messenger. In addition, I got my eye on a fetching fluffy white owl just like Harry's. (Apparently there were real owls in the London production until one of them took a left turn when it should have taken a right. Off into the audience it flew.) I want IN.

J.K. Rowling's writing is masterful. Even though this play was written by Jack Thorne, it has her finger prints all over it. Under the spectacular direction of John Tiffany we are included, indeed, we are beckoned, into the world of witches. As observers only, of course, but that is almost enough.

The story is richly layered, like all Rowling tales. The grown-up Harry Potter ( Jamie Parker ) is married to Ginny Weasley ( Poppy Miller ) and still friends with the entire Weasely clan because Ron ( Paul Thornley ) finally got his act together and married Hermione ( Noma Dumezweni ). Both Harry and Hermione work at the Ministry for Magic (the same one that threatened to topple Dumbledore years back). Today they are seeing their children off to Hogwarts. Albus Potter ( Sam Clemmett ) and Rose Granger-Weasley ( Susan Heyward ) are first year students. Rose, being Hermione's daughter, is thrilled and full of all the possibilities that lie ahead - like picking the right friends immediately. She relishes the idea that because of her mother she is already someone.

Albus on the other hand is having a not-so-good-very-bad-day. Just the idea of Hogwarts overwhelms Albus. He does not want to be the "Son of Harry Potter." He does not want to be anything except a hormone filled boy with a wand that should really be licensed. Instead, he stumbles upon another misfit, Scorpius Malfoy ( Anthony Boyle ). Together they become a team of two misfits. And decide to take the past into their hands.

If certain events in the past are just tweaked, they reason, then the present would be in much better shape. Lives would be saved, etc., etc.

What they don't count on is ye olde pebble tossed in the lake routine. One event leads to another and pretty soon everything is ass over teakettle with the Dark Lord on the loose and aimed directly at the two mischief makers.

There are some serious twists and turns, of course. But these are almost unnoticeable in the face of the special effects that are on display for our enjoyment. These are not the fancy schmancy special effects, but they are spectacular. They are simplicity itself, made of puppetry magic and lighting that tells us exactly where to look. This far and no further. The shadows are teaming with unseen life that are eager to reach out and touch someone - could even be you if you are in the right seat. The ensemble's choreographed movements, clean, simple and unrelenting, give the entire production a physical urgency. Even the program tells you what to read and when.

Ultimately this is a tale of family.

A boy who lost his father grew up to be one and has misplaced his parenting manual. Harry must rely on his wife, his friends and his mentors long gone. In the process of recovering each other they also cross paths with the past, and we are touched when the friends (and even a few pests) show up in the flesh.

My friend who attended with me is a Brit and was concerned, lest the American audience was not as hooked on the Potter legend as the Brits. He needn't have worried. As one witch after another produced sorcery - the audience cheered. As characters we had only read or seen on the silver screen appeared there were gasps of recognition. We were children oohing and ahhing throughout.

And when it came time, after 5 hours of immersion, to say good-bye to these treasured friends (all the principals take their bows en masse) we stood up and cheered farewell, like the crowds used to do when a ship was leaving. If given our druthers we would have put on an invisibility cloak and joined them.

I mean, they do live there, right?

As to the child? As to the curse? I have sipped the potions and am #KeepingTheSecrets safe.  As the complimentary pins on your way out request.

Bravo, Brava, Bravastrodamus!

(Photo by Manuel Harlan)

What the popular press says...

"Time is a dangerous toy in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , the enthralling two-part play about the later life of its title wizard. Various characters in this deluxe London import find it in their power to journey into the past, which means altering the future, which means serious trouble for everyone." Ben Brantley for New York Times

"There are more magic wands than you can shake a stick at in the wildly theatrical and thrilling Broadway spectacle Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ." Joe Dziemianowicz for New York Daily News

"The world of Harry Potter has arrived on Broadway, Hogwarts and all, and it is a triumph of theatrical magic." Adam Feldman for Time Out New York

"Anyone still ready to dismiss  Harry Potter and the Cursed Child  as a cynical brand extension, or a theme-park ride on stage, clearly hasn't experienced the thrilling theatricality, the pulse-pounding storytelling vitality and the unexpected emotional richness of this unmissable two-part production. The ecstatic hype that accompanies the smash London import to Broadway is amply justified, and then some." David Rooney for Hollywood Reporter

"This is no time for bogus expressions of sophistication. So, let's just say: Hooray! With Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , the Boy Who Lived has finally come to Broadway, bringing enchantment to a world that could really use a little magic right now." Marilyn Stasio for Variety

External links to full reviews from popular press...

New York Times  - New York Daily News -  Time Out  - Hollywood Reporter  - Variety

Originally published on Jan 25, 2022 19:45

Subscribe to our newsletter to unlock exclusive New York theatre updates!

Special offers, reviews and release dates for the best shows in town.

You can unsubscribe at any time. Privacy Policy

Join Discovery, the new community for book lovers

Trust book recommendations from real people, not robots 🤓

Blog – Posted on Tuesday, May 28

All the harry potter books in order: your j.k. rowling reading list.

Of all the zeitgeist-defining fiction to come out of the past twenty years, perhaps none has been more universally beloved than the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. An incredibly imagined fantasy bildungsroman , it follows the eponymous boy wizard as he attends the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and contends with his destiny to fight the Dark Lord, Voldemort. Fortunately, he always has clever, loyal friends Ron and Hermione by his side — plus the invaluable mentorship of eccentric but wise Hogwarts headmaster, Dumbledore.

As fellow Potterheads will know, it’s virtually impossible to rank these books from best to worst, since each one is brilliant in its own way. That’s why we’ve decided to simply present all the Harry Potter books in order of chronology/publication, hitting the highlights for longtime fans to happily reminisce… and to help budding fans get a taste of the series’ genuine magic .

Here’s a quick catalog of the series, so that you know what you’re in for:

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (1997)

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)

5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)

6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)

8. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016)

And then the accompanying “Hogwarts library” texts:

• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
• Quidditch Through the Ages (2016)
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2016)

As well as Rowling's "Pottermore Presents" series and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them screenplays:

• Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide (2016)
• Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists (2016)
• Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroisim, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies (2016)
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: the Original Screenplay (2016)
• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — The Original Screenplay (2018)

Without further ado, let's dive in!

Psst — ever wonder what career you'd have in the wizarding world? Take our Potterhead-proofed quiz below to find out!

Which career would you have in the wizarding world?

Take this 30-second quiz and find out!

The main Harry Potter books in order

1. harry potter and the sorcerer’s stone.

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone , the book that started it all (understatement of the century), Harry Potter discovers his true identity in the wee hours of his eleventh birthday: he is a wizard, famous in the magical world for having vanquished the evil Lord Voldemort when he was only a baby. This revelation, delivered by a gruff, hairy giant named Hagrid, sets Harry on a fantastical (if also often frightening) journey of a lifetime.

He meets bosom buddies Ron and Hermione aboard the Hogwarts Express, and is soon sorted with them into Gryffindor: the house of the intrepid and brave. However, Harry also makes plenty of enemies at Hogwarts, most notably the arrogant Draco Malfoy and the nasty potions master, Snape (both affiliated with Slytherin house). And from battling a troll on Halloween to his first exhilarating Quidditch match — not to mention the novel’s climax , in which Harry goes up against Voldemort for the second time in his young life — there’s never a dull moment in the first year of his new adventure.

Sorcerer’s Stone (or Philosopher’s Stone , as it’s titled outside of the US) also perfectly balances exciting action with touching emotion, as Harry finds a true family in Ron and Hermione after years of misery with the Dursleys. Indeed, the book’s small, moving moments — such as Harry being floored by a gift from Ron’s mother, or Hermione’s tearful declaration at the end about “books and cleverness” — are just as magical as the spells themselves.

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , Harry and friends return to Hogwarts with a bang — the bang of a flying Ford Anglia as it crashes into the Whomping Willow, that is. After being spotted by Muggles and narrowly avoiding expulsion, you’d think that the rest of Harry’s second year would be smooth sailing in comparison… right?

Wrong. When the school caretaker’s cat is found petrified (essentially paralyzed and comatose, but technically still alive) along with a bone-chilling message that “the Chamber of Secrets has been opened,” fear and suspicions start to arise — and of course, only worsen when students start getting petrified too. Nobody can figure out who the culprit is, only that he refers to himself as “the Heir” and seems to be on the warpath.

But as our young heroes know well by now, if you want a mystery solved right, you have to do it yourself. Which they do — through a combination of Polyjuice potion brewing, mysterious flashbacks provided by a sentient journal, and a truly horrific excursion to see a giant spider called Aragog. The book culminates in a visit to the titular chamber, which lies underneath Hogwarts and contains yet another deadly threat that Harry must face.

But of course, this being an early Potter book, it’s not all din and danger. Comic relief comes in the form of moronic, egocentric professor Gilderoy Lockhart, and toilet ghost Moaning Myrtle — who, in true Rowling fashion, ends up being key to the central plot twist of the story.

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

The third book in the series introduces Sirius Black, a deranged mass murderer who’s just escaped from the wizard prison of Azkaban. As a result, swarms of Dementors — dark, faceless beings that “suck the soul” out of their victims and serve as the guards of Azkaban — infiltrate Hogwarts to patrol for Black, who’s supposedly after Harry next. To make matters worse, our normally steadfast hero has a bad reaction to the Dementors, which cause him to faint on a train and even lose a critical Quidditch match.

Again, though, it’s not all doom and gloom. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban also features Professor Remus Lupin, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and a school friend of Harry’s late father. Lupin and Harry quickly forge a father-son-like relationship themselves, and Lupin teaches Harry the Patronus Charm (powered by one’s happiest memories) to protect himself from Dementors.

Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione are squabbling even more than usual over their respective pets, Crookshanks the cat and Scabbers the rat. But what seems like a lighthearted subplot turns out to be a major factor in one of the biggest twists of the series , revealed in the last few chapters… and which naturally involves Black and Lupin as well. Oh, and hippogriffs and time traveling, in case that wasn’t enough to sell you on it.

Besides the sheer brilliance of plotting in this book, Rowling also presents some interesting commentary with the Dementors, which symbolize depression and force Harry to grapple with his past trauma. Indeed, though Goblet of Fire is widely identified as the “transition point” into the darker themes of the series’ latter half, Prisoner of Azkaban is definitely where those themes begin to take root.

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

There’s quite a bit to unpack in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , so we’ll dive right in: after attending an eventful Quidditch World Cup with Hermione and the Weasley family, Harry returns to Hogwarts for his fourth year of school. It’s bound to be an exciting one, as Hogwarts is hosting the Triwizard Tournament, in which students from three major wizarding academies will compete. However, only students aged seventeen or older are eligible for the competition, which means Harry is safe for once… or so he thinks, until the ceremonial Goblet of Fire selects him as the fourth Triwizard Champion for no discernible reason.

What follows is a nonstop sequence of thrills, landmarked by the challenges of the tournament — in which the contestants must tackle menacing dragons, malevolent mermaids , and a maze full of potentially fatal tricks and traps. But even between the challenges themselves is plenty of riveting drama, especially with Rita Skeeter (a slimy reporter trying defame Harry and friends), Mad-Eye Moody (the kids’ new D.A.D.A. teacher), and Hermione’s most recent social justice cause (rights for house elves, naturally). And as anyone who’s read it will know, the GoF finale is unprecedented in terms of dark, difficult material, signaling a definitive shift for the series in a more mature direction.

Indeed, for all those wondering whether Rowling could change gears from the relatively lighthearted adventures of the previous three books into a darker and even more elaborate fantasy-thriller, this book proved her undeniably capable. But once again, GoF is not devoid of laughs and simple charm. The Yule Ball is a hilarious glimpse into the all-too-familiar teenage angst of dating and school dances, and the subplot with Ron being jealous of Harry’s constant spotlight is particularly well done. Yes, even in all the grandeur, Rowling never loses sight of what’s true to life — Goblet of Fire demonstrates this most aptly.

5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix gets political in big way: despite Voldemort’s revival at the end of GoF , the Ministry of Magic continues to deny all rumors and refuse to take action, worried that they’ll upset the public. This means the real adults have to take a leaf out of Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s book and start fighting him themselves, through an underground vigilante group called the Order of the Phoenix.

But the Order can’t do much about Dolores Umbridge, the newly instated and highly sadistic Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, who perpetuates the Ministry’s lies about Voldemort. When Harry openly defies her in class, she retaliates by giving him chronic detention — during which he must write lines with a “blood quill” that carves the words into the back of his hand. Despite this torment, he and the rest of the class do not acquiesce to Umbridge, and establish a secret defense organization for themselves called “Dumbledore’s Army.”

On top of all that, Harry keeps having frequent, harrowing visions of Voldemort when he’s asleep, and must take Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape to prevent them. This is a different kind of torture, with Snape forcing entry into Harry’s private memories at every lesson and relishing the opportunity to cause him pain. Of course, Snape’s own twisted motivations are revealed when Harry gains access to his memories — one of which is a bitter altercation with Harry’s father.

Even the most diehard HP fan will admit that Order of the Phoenix is a hard one to get through. From watching Harry suffer in such a myriad of ways, to that devastating climax in which he loses one of the few people he’s come to love and trust, OotP is no walk in the park. Yet it’s this strife and despair that makes it such an authentic, powerful narrative — and, trite as it sounds, Harry’s pain ultimately makes him stronger and more determined to defeat Voldemort than ever.

6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Things take a turn for the expository in this penultimate installment, which sees Harry learn all about Voldemort’s family and “origin story,” so to speak. Dumbledore gives Harry these lessons to prepare him for a grand future battle with Voldemort, presumably in the vein of keeping his enemies closer. What Harry doesn’t know is that Dumbledore is planning something even bigger — a plan that he, Harry, becomes more inexorably entangled in with each passing day.

At the same time, Harry suspects Malfoy (always a nefarious character) to be colluding with Voldemort, and begins obsessively tracking him on the Marauder’s Map. But each new lead just seems to be a wrong turn, and Harry grows increasingly frustrated with the lack of evidence when he knows that Malfoy is guilty. His only good luck, funnily enough, is in potions class. After receiving a secondhand textbook filled with tips and tricks from the mysterious “Half-Blood Prince,” Harry shines under the tutelage of their new potions professor Slughorn. Hermione, meanwhile, is jealous of Harry’s newfound academic success, and attempts to uncover the Prince’s identity to prove he’s crooked.

Speaking of petty drama, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince also gives the fun, silly sixteen-year-old stuff its due. Ron and Hermione’s chemistry amps up to eleven, with constant bickering over their respective romances. (Ron memorably snogs Lavender Brown with such gusto that it “looks like he’s eating her face.”) Meanwhile Harry’s falling for Ginny, Ron’s sister, and battling his inner demons about whether to ask her out. All this falls to the wayside after yet another epic finale, but it’s another nice reminder of how human and relatable the characters are .

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

To be fair, the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows aren’t as quotidianly miserable as the events of OotP — at least we know the characters are suffering for a greater purpose. But that doesn’t stop this from being, as you might expect, the darkest book in the series. From the corrupting influence of a locket that causes Ron to abandon his friends, to the tragic prophecy that Harry uncovers through more of Snape’s past memories, this book truly tests the reader’s tolerance for beloved characters in distress. (Don’t even get us started on the Battle of Hogwarts bloodbath .)

But Deathly Hallows is also a masterpiece, wrapping up thousands of pages’ worth of deeply intricate story plotting, character development, and booming thematic resonance in a satisfying manner. Indeed, J.K. Rowling has said she wrote the last pages of Deathly Hallows before Sorcerer’s Stone was even completed — evidence of just how carefully the series was planned.

8. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

While not part of the original seven-book series, Cursed Child and the accompanying stage play have become a generally accepted addition to the Harry Potter canon. This 336-page text picks up where the Deathly Hallows epilogue left off, with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Malfoy sending their unfortunately named kids off to Hogwarts — Harry’s son Albus and Malfoy’s son Scorpius serve as our protagonists this time around. Upon arrival at Hogwarts, the boys are both sorted into Slytherin and forge an unlikely friendship, which naturally causes tension between Albus and Harry over the next few years.

After a fight with his father, Albus overhears Cedric Diggory’s father Amos asking Harry to use a more powerful version of a Time Turner (which features prominently in PoA ) to go back in time and rescue his son. When Harry refuses, Albus enlists Scorpius to help him save Cedric, with the aid of Diggory’s niece Delphi. However, as anyone who’s seen Back to the Future can attest, messing with timelines is never a good idea… especially in the wizarding world. Things are further complicated by the fact that Delphi is not who she says she is, and may have sinister ulterior motives when it comes to rewriting history.

Between the multiple timelines and various versions of the same characters, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child can definitely be a bit confusing at times — and its somewhat far-fetched plot twists and questionable consistency with Rowling’s established world have led some Potter fans to decry it. But at the end of the day, it’s still another piece of the magical puzzle that we’ve all enjoyed putting together so much: this once-in-a-lifetime literary experience that transcends culture and generations.

The “Hogwarts library” texts

Fantastic beasts and where to find them.

Can't get enough of the fantastical creatures that fill Harry Potter 's pages? You're in luck. As detailed by J.K. Rowling (who writes as famed Magizoologist Newt Scamander), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the definitive compendium to the magical beasts that roam the wizarding world. You'll find some familiar companions — such as the Hippogriff, the Basilisk, the Hungarian Horntail — but you'll also discover many, many new creatures to befriend. This is the text that inspired the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie trilogy, so if you're looking to catch up on the source, this is where to start!

Quidditch Through the Ages

Or maybe it's J.K. Rowling's smash-hit sport, Quidditch, that tickles your fancy. Today, Quidditch is an actual sport played at over 100 colleges in the United States — such is the strength of the grip that it's exerted on our public imagination. But if you're interested in the academic side of Quidditch, Rowling's got you covered with Quidditch Through the Ages , which will tell you all that you ever wanted to know about the history and rules behind Quidditch.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a collection of five fairy wizarding tales, told by, well, Beedle the Bard! Professor Dumbledore bequeathed these age-old tales to Hermione Granger, and they (particularly "The Tale of Three Brothers") turned out to be instrumental in helping Harry Potter crack the clues given to him in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now it's your chance to read them for yourself. Though the stories in this book all have a magical twist, the themes at their cores still resonate with what we associate with fairy tales: friendship, the everlasting strength of love, and the magic that each one of us possesses.

Even more Wizarding World extras 🎁

Hogwarts: an incomplete and unreliable guide.

Sourced from the short reads on Pottermore.com and gathered into one book for easy reading, Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide gives you all of the background information that you might want to know about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardly. Ever been curious about what the Hufflepuff common room looks like (it was never described in the books themselves)? Did you ever wonder about the origins of Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters? Here's the book that will provide all of the answers.

Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists

Not everything about Hogwarts and the Wizarding World is bright and shiny — indeed, the series has birthed some of most memorable villains in literature, from Dolores Umbridge to Lord Voldemort himself. Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Potergeists (also collected from JK Rowling's writings on Pottermore.com) delves deeper into this darker side of Harry's universe: in particular, it'll walk you through the politics of wizards and the backstories of Hogwart's villains, like Profess Umbridge.

Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies

Now let's go to the flip side and read about some of the most heroic figures who stand tall in the Wizarding World! In Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroisim, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies , we get the pleasure of revisiting our favorite professors (especially Minerva McGonagall and Remus Lupin) and discovering their backstories.

The Fantastic Beasts screenplays

Unless you've been living under a rock this entire time, you've probably heard of the two new Wizarding World movies that have hit Hollywood in the past few years. Led by actor Eddie Redmayne and an all-star ensemble cast, the Fantastic Beasts films tell the story of Newt Scamander, Albus Dumbledore, and the dark battle against Gellert Grindelward in the blackened days before Lord Voldemort entered the scene.

Of course, you can choose to simply watch the continuation of the Wizarding World on-screen — but reading the screenplays of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: the Original Screenplay and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — The Original Screenplay  will undoubtedly give you that extra level of depth and insight into the characters.

So what's the recommended reading order (versus the chronological reading order)?

Fortunately, Harry Potter isn't one of those series like Star Wars has a sprawling number of canon novels, film novelizations, reference books, and comics to read. Instead, it's a finite universe — which makes catching up on it much easier. We recommend reading the main series chronologically so that you can see Harry and his friends grow up. Then — if you're still thirsting for more of the Wizarding World — you can see where your interests most strongly lie (whether it's in magizoology or Quidditch, for instance), and start again there.

If you still haven’t read Harry Potter , just know that it’s never too late to start — and even for those who have, you’re never too old to go back and relive the magic. ⚡

Can't get enough? Check out our list of the 20 best books like Harry Potter , or 60 best fantasy books for kids ! (Naturally, HP makes the list.)

Continue reading

More posts from across the blog.

10 Exciting New Books From Up-and-Coming Authors

Looking for some new reads in 2021? Check out these up-and-coming authors in genres ranging from sci-fi to romance to financial satire.

20 Amazing Dragon Books for Fantasy Fans

With Game of Thrones finally reaching the end of its epic eight-season run, public interest in dragon books (and their adaptations) is arguably at an all-time high. L...

65 Beautiful Love Poems Everyone Should Know

There’s nothing quite so moving as beautiful love poems. Luckily for us romantics, they’ve been in abundant supply throughout history! From Rumi in the Islamic Golden Age, to iconic playwright William Shakespeare, to modern-day “Instapoets” like Rupi Kaur, love has been one...

Heard about Reedsy Discovery?

Trust real people, not robots, to give you book recommendations.

Or sign up with an

Or sign up with your social account

• Submit your book
• Reviewer directory

Bring your stories to life

Our free writing app lets you set writing goals and track your progress, so you can finally write that book!

All 8 Harry Potter Movies Conjure Up a New Streaming Home

Warner Bros.' Harry Potter movies, based on the best-selling novels by J.K. Rowling, are heading back to Max.

The Harry Potter movies remain extremely popular among fans that grew up with Rowling's children's books and Warner Bros.' film adaptations despite both ending over a decade ago. Now, per Forbes , after an extended stay on NBCUniversal's streaming service, Peacock, the Harry Potter adaptations are returning to Max on April 1. With the Fantastic Beasts trilogy already streaming on the platform, fans will now be able to watch the entire Wizarding World franchise in one place.

'Such a Shame': Harry Potter Alum Responds to Co-Star Criticizing Adult Fans of the Films

Starring Daniel Radcliffe (as Harry Potter), Rupert Grint (as Ron Weasley) and Emma Watson (as Hermione Granger), the eight Harry Potter films were released almost annually by Warner Bros. from 2001 to 2011. Critically and commercially acclaimed, the franchise collectively grossed $7.7 billion at the global box office. With the original film series remaining beloved to this day, many fans were surprised when Warner Bros. announced plans to re-adapt all seven of Rowling's books in April 2023.

However, instead of new films, Warner Bros. will adapt Harry Potter for the small screen as a Max streaming series. The current plan is to adapt each book as a season of television over the course of 10 years. Rowling is on board as an executive producer along with Neil Blair and Ruth Kenley-Letts. "Each season will be authentic to the original books and bring Harry Potter and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic and beloved films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally," Max said in a statement at the time.

New Harry Potter Series Gets Exciting Update

While no actors have been cast in the Harry Potter reboot yet, the project has narrowed down who will be scripting the first season of episodes. The top three writers currently vying to become the showrunner for the live-action Harry Potter series are Emmy-winning producer Francesca Gardiner ( His Dark Materials ), Tom Moran ( The Devil’s Hour ), and Kathleen Jordan ( Teenage Bounty Hunters ). A decision is expected to be made by June.

Did the Chronicles of Narnia Inspire the Four Founders of Hogwarts?

Is the fantastic beasts franchise dead.

Before moving forward with a television adaptation of Harry Potter , Warner Bros. expanded on the original franchise with the spinoff/prequel series, Fantastic Beasts . Debuting in 2016, Fantastic Beasts primarily focused on Albus Dumbledore and his agents' quest to defeat Grindelwald as the First Wizarding War and Second World War draw near.

Unfortunately, the Fantastic Beasts series did not achieve the same critical and commercial success as Harry Potter , with the third film — 2022's The Secrets of Dumbledore — becoming the lowest-grossing installment in the Wizarding World franchise. Originally intended as a five-film saga, it is unknown at this time if Warner Bros. still plans to finish Fantastic Beasts or if the franchise will end without a proper conclusion.

All eight Harry Potter movies head back to Max on April 1.

Source: Forbes

Harry Potter

The Harry Potter franchise follows the adventure of a young boy introduced a whole new world of magic, mayhem and darkness. Traversing the obstacles in his path, young Harry's rise to heroics pits him against Lord Voldemort, one of the most dangerous wizards in the world and all his minions.

Created by J.K. Rowling

First Film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Latest Film Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2

Upcoming TV Shows Harry Potter

Cast Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Daniel Radcliffe, Alan Rickman

Spin-offs (Movies) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Character(s) Voldemort, Harry Potter