HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

I say to you all, once again--in the light of Lord Voldemort’s return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort’s gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust.

So spoke Albus Dumbledore at the end of Harry Potter’s fourth year at Hogwarts. But as Harry enters his fifth year at wizard school, it seems those bonds have never been more sorely tested. Lord Voldemort’s rise has opened a rift in the wizarding world between those who believe the truth about his return, and those who prefer to believe it’s all madness and lies--just more trouble from Harry Potter.

Add to this a host of other worries for Harry…
A Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher with a personality like poisoned honey
A venomous, disgruntled house-elf
Ron as keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team
And of course, what every student dreads: end-of-term Ordinary Wizarding Level exams

…and you’d know what Harry faces during the day. But at night it’s even worse, because then he dreams of a single door in a silent corridor. And this door is somehow more terrifying than every other nightmare combined.

In the richest installment yet of J. K. Rowling’s seven-part story, Harry Potter confronts the unreliability of the very government of the magical world, and the impotence of the authorities at Hogwarts.

Despite this (or perhaps because of it) Harry finds depth and strength in his friends, beyond what even he knew; boundless loyalty and unbearable sacrifice.

Though thick runs the plot (as well as the spine), readers will race through these pages, and leave Hogwarts, like Harry, wishing only for the next train back.

© Copyright 2003 Scholastic - All Rights Reserved.

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REVIEW

Deeper secrets

Harry Potter is frustrated. Isolated from the wizarding world at his summer residence with his non-magical aunt, uncle and cousin, he hides in flowerbeds so he can listen to the evening news and steals newspapers from trash bins, hoping for some sign of activity from Lord Voldemort. He barely has had contact with his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

A dementor attack, a cryptic Howler, and a rescue brigade bring Harry back to the magical world, to a place where a group of wizards has assembled with the mission to stop Voldemort. To Harry's disgust, no one wants to tell him anything regarding the mission, not even when he begins to dream of a snake and a door at the end of a long, dark hallway that he recognizes as part of the Ministry of Magic. Things aren't much better at Hogwarts, where his dreams turn into visions of Voldemort's power, anger, and desire for domination.

Darker powers

It is a time of war in the magical world, but there are no clear lines of good and evil. The Ministry of Magic is so adamant in its beliefs that it refuses to acknowledge Harry's story of Voldemort's return. Harry is the butt of jokes in the Daily Prophet, and the only people who believe him are the ones the Ministry would discredit. According to the Ministry, Albus Dumbledore is a dangerous fool, and anyone who follows him is not to be trusted. Co-workers, friends, and even families begin to divide according to whom they support. Spies and secrets feed a new era in wizarding history and lead to changes at Hogwarts, not all of them good. The students are as divided as the adults, and discord haunts the corridors.

Stronger magic

Fifth year is the time for Ordinary Wizarding Level exams, or O.W.L.s, and Harry and the rest of the fifth-years find themselves working harder than ever to achieve top test results, which then dictate their careers. Spells are more complex, there's more homework, and the students have to work twice as hard as they did in previous years just to keep up. The only class that differs from this pattern is Defense Against the Dark Arts, taught by the deceptively sweet Dolores Umbridge, formerly Senior Undersecretary to Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic. Umbridge's lesson plans leave Harry and his friends worried and wanting more from their education.

Harry is also asked by Professor Dumbledore to study privately with Professor Snape, the hook-nosed, greasy-haired Potions professor who has done nothing but make Harry's Potions classes miserable since the day Harry first came to Hogwarts. In order to succeed and even survive, Harry must put his trust in those who hide the truth from him.

Intricate plots, maturing characters, and fast-paced action paint a picture of a magical world with a new veil of darkness. As Harry and his friends grow, they must face more adult issues and deal not only with a changing world, but also with their changing selves. Characters who have only served in the background of previous books become more important, and some of Harry's favorite people, like Remus Lupin, return. Never content to sit back and watch things happen, Harry and his friends take dangerous matters into their own hands, confronting evil and working as a team to stop it.

From page one, where we see more complex sentences and an angrier, damaged Harry, this book's tone is completely different from the previous four: deeper and richer, with less humor and more detail. Rowling's tactics of inspiring fear are different in this installation, too. The horror is psychological rather than physical, and there is less Quidditch and more magic. Harry is achingly perfect and emotionally real as a typical teenage boy, confused and defiant about everything from girls to his friendships to his magical education. He has come to trust very few people, but those he takes into his confidence, like Ron and Hermione, complement him very well.

Patience is recommended while reading, because the pacing lags in some places while rushing in others, and the multiple plot lines take a while to mesh. Rather than take us through a mostly linear tale with a twist at the end, as seen in THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS and THE GOBLET OF FIRE, the plotline here is built of many small incidents that come together to form the whole of the story. This new approach shows a shift in the atmosphere and targeted audience of the Harry Potter series. As Harry matures, so does Rowling's writing style, coloring the events of the past and linking them to the present. HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX gives many answers and raises even more questions, setting up an excellent path for the final two books in the series.