Introducing Sirius Black!

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

This is the third book in the Harry Potter series, as with my other blogs so far for Harry Potter, if you have not read the series and do not enjoy SPOILERS then don’t read this blog. I have written these blogs more for people who have read the series and love them or people who will never read them (what a sad existence).

This is my absolute favorite book in the series. There is just something special about the new found relationship between Harry and Sirius. I love that he has someone in his life that doesn’t want to be around him because he’s the famous Harry Potter, the boy who lived. It’s more of a family love; Sirius loves him like he would love a nephew. It’s hard for me to put into words exactly why I love this relationship so much, but if I had to sum it up, it would be in the last couple of pages. Harry, Ron and Hermione are on their way to King’s Cross from Hogwarts and Harry receives an owl. When he opens it up, it’s a letter from Sirius with an extra letter giving him permission to go to Hogsmeade next term. When I finished the book for the first time, I remember running into the living room of our apartment at the time and squealing to Simon how wonderful the book was and how much I loved Sirius Black. Memories…

Sirius Black is my all time favorite Harry Potter character (If I can’t pick Harry himself). I love that he is very much the dark wizard that is after Harry during this entire book. This is the only book of the series that Voldemort doesn’t make a physical appearance and therefore Sirius is the scapegoat for the bad-guy of this book. The reason I love Sirius is that after 13 years of prison and quite frankly, hell. He still wants to get to know Harry. The example of this is that he immediately invites Harry to live with him, which of course makes the audience’s heart happy. Knowing how happy it makes Harry is a great feeling, “Some sort of explosion took place in the pit of Harry’s stomach.” The poor kid had never experienced happiness in this way that he couldn’t even think of how to describe it. I love it!

Another character that must be mentioned is the headmaster. Dumbledore is not all knowing, but he sure knows a lot. An enjoyable factor for me is that he knew exactly what was going on the entire time Hermione and Harry were going back in time to save Buckbeak and Sirius, but had no idea that Sirius, James Potter, and Peter Pettigrew had turned themselves into Animagus’ when they were under his supervision at Hogwarts. Within the first three books, it just doesn’t seem like much get’s by him. He always seemed to know when things were going on with any of the given characters. Of course the biggest example of this in Prisoner of Azkaban is mentioned above when he tells Hermione to turn back time and save 2 innocent lives.

I’ll end with this thought. The first time I read this series, I sat on the edge of my seat. Literally I was scared to death that Harry was going to get caught in one of his many rule breaking adventures, but I still kept reading. It’s funny how I am definitely not usually up for adventures, but I am so into the many adventures of Harry, Ron and Hermione. Harry gets into so much trouble it’s hard to even believe he gets away with it all, but he does. Professor Snape of course is very hard on Harry. He is overly harsh with him in class, he’s so stern with him when he meets him in hallways and anywhere Harry’s not supposed to be. Although I am not a Snape fan, I almost have to agree with Snape as an adult that follows the rules. Harry is always out of bounds, going in areas he’s not allowed, breaking the rules or just an overall disregard for authority. But I still love Harry like he’s my BFF.

Well that’s it literary friends. I hope you enjoyed! Keep Reading my friends!

"ssss ssss ssss" I can speak Parseltongue

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

(Spoiler Alert- I have the liberty to talk about any of the HP books in this blog, if you have not read all 7 novels and get sort of mad when endings or major events are ruined, do not read this blog, if you don’t care, read on)

Random Question for my readers, have you ever watched The Simpson’s? Settle down, just listen to where my thought process is going with this. Let’s say you have watched the Simpson’s. Have you then noticed a theme with the show? For instance, when the show starts, there is something that happens, Homer gets stung by a bee, something of that nature, that first action always has a reaction. Because Homer got stung by a bee, he did a certain action that had another reaction and by the end of the episode, you can’t really remember why he’s in court on trial and if you do look back, it’s all because he got stung by a bee.

Here’s where I’m going with this. In Chamber of Secrets, Harry starts his second year of Hogwarts, but before he leaves the Dursley’s he is visited by a strange creature, a house elf named Dobby, this first action has a ton of reactions. Dobby had been intercepting Harry’s mail in order to stop him from going back to Hogwarts, because dangerous things are going to happen at Hogwarts this year. When the letters do not have the outcome that Dobby had hoped for, the entrance to Platform 9 ¾ is blocked and Harry and Ron can’t get through to catch the train to Hogwarts. This action has the reaction of Ron and Harry stealing the Weasley’s enchanted car, this reaction gets them in trouble and instead of expelling them, Dumbledore gives them detention where Harry first hears the bodiless voice and Ron polishes the trophy with the initials T.M. Riddle. So, therefore when Harry ends up with a diary with those initials, they know that T.M. Riddle was at school at the time that the Chamber was opened the first time fifty years ago. Do you see what I’m saying about the chain reactions? It’s hard for us to remember that all of this started with a house elf ruining Aunt Petunia’s pudding for her guests.

With this being the second book of seven, the audience is still new to this magical world and therefore there are several very important introductions in this book that Harry and the audience did not know about or had not met in the first book. The first important introduction is to Dobby. If you have only watched the movies and not read the books you will have no idea how large of a character Dobby is. He loves Harry Potter very much and would do anything for him. That’s all I’m going to say about the subject because this is only book two and we’ll see more adventures with Dobby as I continue the series. The second introduction is to Polyjuice Potion.

The idea of Polyjuice Potion is a novel concept. How often as a young adult did I want to be someone else? Just to walk in someone else’s shoes to see how they fit, maybe only for a day. The Polyjuice Potion was a very complex Potion that took quite a bit of time to make, therefore it was not an off the cuff sort of plan. As a rule of thumb, second years should not be able to make this potion, although Hermione is not a regular second year witch, she is constantly known as the smartest witch of her age throughout the books and that is why it is not surprising that she is able to make such a complex potion for extracurricular activities. To use this particular potion, one would need to put a lot of plan and thought into it in order for it to work. By using this potion, Harry and Ron sneak into Slytherin house and find out a bit of information that gets them closer to know who has opened the Chamber of Secrets.

The last introduction is to Ginny. We shortly meet Ginny in The Sorcerer’s Stone, but Ginny is a Hogwart’s student in Chamber of Secrets and we get to see her interacting, even though strangely, with other characters and it’s very cute how she interacts or doesn’t interact with Harry.

It cracks me up that in these books, these school age children are able to do things and figure things out that adults with more training and magical powers cannot get done. The Chamber of Secrets was lost for thousands of years and all of a sudden, 3 school age children crack where it is, how to open it and what dangerous creature has lived in it all of this time. Just shows what a sense of adventure and love for each other will do.

Well I could go on for pages, but I won’t. What did you think about Chamber of Secrets? How many times have you read it? Do you think this story is important to the whole series? Leave a comment!

The Beginning

Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter has become more than a story, more than a book or movie, it has become a pop-culture phenomenon. Never before had I heard of stores opening their doors at midnight to release a book. Never before had a child of age eleven wanted to read a 400 page book, let alone thousands of young children. Not only have the books rocked the nations, but the movies are hugely popular. Over 6 Billion dollars grossed in the theaters worldwide for the first 7 movies. And of course the books have sold millions of copies in many different languages.

Besides the world loving Harry Potter, I, Charity Knighten, love Harry Potter. He’s just a wonderful character. He’s not someone that the reader will fall in love with, or someone that will give you obsessive thoughts. He’s almost like a best friend. The audience meets Harry (of course we’re on a first name basis) when he is ten years old and knows as much about magic as the audience does. He receives his letter to Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, much to his aunt and uncle’s chagrin, and his world is changed in such a huge way that in seven years it will be hard for him to recall a life without magic.

I’m not going to recap the book, this blog is more for the Harry Potter lover’s, not someone looking to see if they should read it or not, you just should read it. Consider this your spoiler alert as well, you have been warned.

While reading this book for the third time (yes, you read that correctly, the third time) I came across 3ideas that I wanted to discuss in this blog. First, Rowling drops these tiny hints that you would not be able to pick up the first time you read the book. In chapter seven, Harry is at the start-of-term banquet and he is looking around the Great Hall with great wonder. His eyes land on Professor Snape, their eyes meet and suddenly there is a searing hot pain in Harry’s scar. Because of the way Rowling tells us what happened, we have no other reason to believe that it was anybody else causing him pain besides Snape. We have already forgotten that he’s speaking with Professor Quirrell.

Next, I love the way Rowling brings ideas back to our memory. At the train station back in London, we hear a joke between the Weasley twins and their mother about blowing up a toilet and sending her the toilet seat. During the last chapter the Dumbledore tells Harry that the twins had tried to give him a toilet seat as a get well soon present. I think its genius how she interweaves jokes, relationships, and ideas throughout the book so the audience looks back and think, “Wow, really? I should have seen that coming, but I didn’t.”

Lastly, Rowling introduces what seems to be an insignificant idea into the story and later it becomes one of the most important parts of the book. One example of this is when Harry and Ron are stuffing themselves with sweets on the train ride to Hogwarts and Harry is introduced to his first Chocolate Frog with trading card. This card just happens to be the card that solves the mystery of the Sorcerer’s Stone. I know the first time I read this I had no idea that this card was going to be so important. This is just a treat in Rowling’s writing.

Well that is all for right now. I don’t want to dive too deep in the series, I just wanted to talk about The Sorcerer’s Stone. Stay tuned, I’m going to complete the entire series, it may take me some time, but I’m looking forward to it.

Hopping Pots? Hairy Hearts? Cackling Stumps? Sign me Up!

The Tales of Beedle the Bard By: J.K. Rowling

This compilation of tales is a classic from the world of Harry Potter. In the introduction JKR explains that these stories are much like our Muggle childhood fairy tales, but with one main difference, magic. Magic was usually the cause of all of the problems in our childhood favorites, her examples include, the witch that poisoned the apple, or put the princess to a hundred-year’s sleep. However in The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the heroes and heroines can perform magic themselves and still have trouble solving their problems. These tales have helped magical parents all over the world explain to their over eager children that magic can cause as many problems as it can solve to the unworthy witch or wizard.
This book contains 5 tales along with commentary by our own dear Professor Albus Dumbledore. So, if you couldn’t figure out the moral of the story, don’t worry, Dumblydore is always obliged to help. The five stories are: The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, The Fountain of Fair Fortune, The Warlock’s Hairy Heart, Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump, and the Tale of the Three Brothers. My favorite is The Fountain of Fair Fortune.

This tale was about a Fountain that only one person could bathe in one day in one year. Hundreds of people would come from all around to hopefully be picked to be the one person that could dip in this fountain to receive Fair Fortune forevermore. Three sister witches had a plan to get each other in, it works, but on accident Sir Luckless is also dragged in along with the sisters (with a name like that, we all know who needs the fair fortune). Through their travels they all learn life lessons that in the end none of them need the waters of fortune. Through their struggles they learn important lessons about themselves and each other that lasts the rest of their lives. I guess the moral of the story is that your problems are never so big that you can’t find a solution. Personally, I know this is not a Christian story, but I find my absolute peace and all my answers from Jesus Christ. He is my stronghold and my fountain of fair fortune and my constant help in times of trouble. He can heal the symptoms that no doctor can cure, he has treasures laid up in heaven, and he can mend the broken heart.

All of that to say, when my children are growing up, I think I’m going to read them The Tales of Beedle the Bard instead of the fairy tales that I grew up with. Why??? Because I think that would be awesome for them to talk about these tales like we would talk about Hansel and Gretel, etc. When you think about these stories, verses the stories that we heard as children, are they so different? They all have people who need to learn a life lesson.

So, which tale was your favorite? Did you learn anything from these stories?

Harry Potter Series...Love it!!!

The reader who reads books way after they are cool… How do I always do that?
This is not the first time I’ve read a book after everyone else in the free world, but it is my first blog. The Harry Potter series, one of my all time favorites, I didn’t start the series until after the 7th book The Deathly Hallows débuted summer of 2007, I had not seen any of the first 5 movies that had been out since 2001 or read any of the books. How did I not start this series at the tender age of 15 when The Sorcerer’s Stone first came out? Why not? I was after all raised in the generation that should have started reading them in 1997, and I have always been an avid reader… how can I be that un-cool? Well some of it probably had to do with my mother. I grew up in an ultra-southern-conservative household, where there were demons in all works of art that were not labeled Christian. Actually when I read the series at age 25 I thought my mom was going to throw me over her knee and spank me. The devil is in those books to my mother and to this day nothing can change her mind. But that doesn’t excuse why I never read any of the books that my friends from college talk about reading when they were younger, books like Nancy Drew, or the boxcar children, or even books by Judy Bloom, etc. Again, I was always a reader and I have not once picked up any of these books. When I was in the 6th grade I remember a girl in another class reading The Diary of Anne Frank, when did I read this piece of history? Oh, I think I read it in high school, years after others around me. Another example is Pride and Prejudice. Most students are required to read this literary classic in high school, when did I read it? 2007- seven years after high school!

Well back to Harry (yes we are on a first name basis). I instantly was in love with these books. My best friend had read the first two books, and was in love with all the movies. Almost everyone in my eclectic church had read them (or hated the thought of reading them-Dylan & Micah). I borrowed the first two from my fellow Potter-ite, Josh. And I read both in that first week. I had Josh bring me 3 and 4 the next Sunday, again in a week I had devoured those and needed 5… well someone else had his copy of 5, so what does an obsessed woman do? I went straight to Books a Million and bought The Order of the Phoenix and started reading it immediately. I finished it quickly Josh brought me 6 & 7. I read book 7, The Deathly Hallows, in one day. I was so worried about someone ruining the end of the series for me that I didn’t go to sleep on that wonderful Sunday night until 3am, knowing that work started promptly at 7:45am. I just couldn’t help it, I was addicted. I cried at the end and re-read the last 5 chapters the next day. I couldn’t believe it was over. I was soon obsessed; I bought the first 4 movies online and waited anxiously for their arrival-the longest week of my life thus far. I watched them in order multiple times. It wasn’t that the movies were that great (which they are), but I just needed to be part of that fantasy world even if I couldn’t read the books over and over, because let’s face it, those 3 weeks of reading Harry Potter, I did nothing else.

What I loved about Harry Potter… Please if you have not read the series and plan to you want to stop now. Spoilers ahead! I loved J.K. Rowling’s writing so much. The first reason I love this series is because I love Harry Potter. He is just a wonderful person that you could picture as being one of your friends. He was genuine, a true friend, and he was passionate about life. Another reason I loved the books was because J.K. Rowling would present information, make me believe it and then change everything that I knew. Who knew that when you started book one and saw that cute little redheaded girl with her mama at platform 9 ¾, dropping off 4 of her older brothers, that she would be the future mother of Harry’s children? Who knew that the annoying character, Dobby the house elf, first premiering in The Chamber of Secrets would one day not only save the day, but die for his friend Harry Potter, and I would cry for hours thinking of all Harry had been through with Dobby. Who knew that in Prisoner of Azkaban, the same crazy that we thought wanted to kill Harry would be the only family he ever had, and would love Harry for who he was and would inspire him at the end to continue down the right path of self sacrifice? And Snape… wow, what do I say about Snape. I hated him from the very beginning. Do you want to know what was my favorite chapter of the entire series is??? “The Prince’s Tale” where right after Nagini strikes to kill Snape, he gives Harry a memory and there Harry finds that Severus Snape has loved him because of Lily Potter the whole time. Wow, did I feel stupid… I mean here I am, loving Sirius and hating Snape and they love him for the exact same reason. Sirius loved Harry because of his love for his best friend James and Snape loved Harry because of the love he had for his childhood friend Lily. Rowling just blew my mind with the plot turns and the amazing way she can capture her audience. Whether you are 11 starting off in the magical world or 25 reading a child’s book, a person can’t help but love every minute of this fantasy. I had not read any book before this that compared to this literary genius. Simon (my wonderful husband) has since bought me the series and I have re-read them. I am trying to only read them once a year. My next venture will probably be around May of 2009 before The Half Blood Prince comes out in theaters in July. This will be my first Potter film to see on the big screen and I cannot wait! Although reading Harry Potter came late in my life and some time after the books’ first appearance, reading them was totally worth it. One good thing about how I’ve come across most books (you know way after they are cool to read), is the fact that I did not have to stay up late and wait outside of Books a Million to buy the next book that’s been published, I was able to read them all in 3 weeks. It took some of you losers 10 years to read them all. Just kidding, I’m actually very jealous!