Harry Potter Wizarding Adventures

Sorcerer's Stone - This book reads more like a children's book than any book after it. It's the lightest and most naive of the books, which would seem appropriate. The movie has the same kind of tone - I saw a brief part of the first movie on TV the other day. I was amazed how young everyone looked, especially Harry. I didn't think it was the same actor at firts. After watching the movies after it in a Harry Potter marathon, the first movie was completely different in tone from the others. The book, too dealt with simpler themes - Harry's problems were fairly simple and ordinary in the first book. He worried about things a normal student would worry about - he had his dislikable teacher, Snape, and his rival, Malfoy. The first book was a little on the boring side to me, but I understand the first book of a long series isn't the most exciting one of any series. Sorcerer's Stone set up a world and the characters for the story to follow.

Chamber of Secrets - I found it darker than the first, but still a children's book. The characters are developing more, and JK is developing a more as a writer. At least until we get to the chapter's worth of review from the previous book. This is what kept reminding me the book is intended for children - Jk's need to review things that have happened in the last book. Alex always uses a certain voice when review comes up, and it is fairly silly. I didn't need the review, but a 12 year old might. Some one might forget Harry isn't an 'ordinary' boy and goes to a wizarding school called Hogwarts. Although JK does give us reviews and plot hand-outs (like Hermione saying "oh, maybe it's such and such doing this", and Ron goes "naaah", but it ends up being that person anyway), she can be very subtle. After seeing the movies (I haven't read past the fourth book myself, but I have seen the movies), I start to catch little details. Alex and I talked about the diary in the second book. We think it was Tom Riddle's first horcrux, since it preserved him in his youth. Moaning Mertle was likely the murder he committed to fracture his soul to create his first horcrux. It's fun thinking about the plot points JK doesn't fully explain (I don't know if she eventually does lay it all out, but this will do in the mean time).

Prisoner of Azkaban - I remember the third book being my favorite - it still is. Once we get past JKs chapter or so of review, we finally start getting into the thick of it. There are more details to speculate over that connect to plots in later books. More characters come into the plot, and Harry gains another mentors. Throughout the first three books Harry is collecting mentors. Yes, I even consider Snape a mentor. And they all die eventually, but that's for later. It was between this book and Goblet of Fire when I started to think of Harry's story as a 'heroes journey' type of story. The hero is someone unlikely, and not looking to be a hero. Suddenly he's swept up into an unfamiliar world, at first he is reluctant. He collects mentors as he learns of the troubles ahead. The mentors eventually die so that the hero can realize his full potential. People haven't started dying yet.

Goblet of Fire - The shit hits the fan. Here the looming shadow of the Dark Lord returns, and the political story begins heating up. Most notibly, the language changes, and people start dying. This is something I really like about Harry Potter and how JK has written it. The first book was for 11 year olds, the second was for those same 11 year olds who were now 12 or 13, and so on. Goblet of Fire is a more mature than the previous books - it also didn't have as much of the review bits. By now I think JK expects people to know Harry isn't ordinary, and he used to live in a broom closet under the stairs. This is as far as I've read myself - I've only seen the 5th and the 6th books in movie form. Alex tells me the politics get pretty heavy in the Fifth book, and I can see that developing a little bit in the fourth book - I hate politics. I guess it's a little more interesting with wizards though.

On another note, I keep looking at the cover art. It's awesome. Thiel, my illustration teacher told us how badly the illustrator got screwed on that deal. Apparently her contract had no room for renegotiation if the book got big, so she gets paid roughly the same for the later books as she did for the first book. It's a cautionary tail to always build renegotiation into contracts.