Harry has to fight his way through all these
distractions and prepare to thwart Voldemort’s
next attack, and for the first time Rowling implies
that there might be some doubt about the out-
come. Whether Harry will rise to the challenge re-
mains to be seen, although readers will certainly be
confident that he will find a way, probably with
Dumbledore’s help and guidance, to foil the plans
of Voldemort.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
J. K. Rowling(1999)
The third installment in what is projected by the
author J. K. ROWLINGto be a series of seven ad-
ventures is considerably more complex in structure
than either of its predecessors and begins to pre-
pare its readers for the even greater detail and in-
tricacy of the titles that would follow. Although
Rowling’s protagonists were teenagers, she made
little effort to write down to what might be per-
ceived as a less sophisticated audience. Although
this presented no difficulties for her mature reader-
ship, which has become quite large, there were
doubts about the ability of younger fans to follow
the story and maintain their interest over the
course of a novel of such great length. These fears
proved groundless, as her younger fans were not at
all discouraged.
As with its predecessors, the book opens with
Harry having problems with his adoptive family of
“muggles,” people who do not condone the use of
magic. Under extreme provocation, he overreacts,
and his return to Hogwarts for his third term is
hasty and somewhat mysterious. Harry, it appears,
is the target of Sirius Black, an escaped convict be-
lieved to have been in league with Voldemort. To
protect Hogwarts in general and Harry in particu-
lar, the Dementors have been called, spectral fig-
ures so dangerous and frightening that the cure
seems worse than the disease. Before it is over
Harry and his friends will have to solve the secret
of a concealed identity, confront a reluctant were-
wolf, take a trip back through time to cross paths
with their earlier selves, and discover that not ev-
erything is as it appears. Harry emerges as a more
forceful character, but it is Hermione who takes
the lead during certain crucial events, demonstrat-
ing that she is also maturing and becoming more
confident in her ability to make the right decisions.
The climax proves that it is unwise to be too hasty
about deciding who is a hero and who is a villain.
The next volume in the series is HARRY POTTER
AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE(2000). The 2004 film
version was excellent, but some fans were disap-
pointed that it varied somewhat from the original
story.Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
J. K. Rowling(1997)
When J. K. ROWLING’s first adventure of Harry
Potter, a trainee wizard, appeared in 1997 (under
the title Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stonein
England), it was to become one of the most re-
markable publishing events of all time. Other fan-
tasy writers had written similar stories, including
Mary Frances Zambreno and Diana Wynne JONES,
but none had ever caught the public’s attention so
fully and successfully. The novel and its successors
were hailed by many because they inspired an im-
mense number of youngsters to read, even though
the text was written with sufficient sophistication
to attract a sizeable adult audience as well. Subse-
quent volumes would be much longer, but Rowling
has held and even expanded her audience with
each subsequent volume. At the same time, there
were minor controversies. Some people objected to
the idea that magic could be a force for good, some
thought the book promoted insufficient respect for
one’s elders. The books were banned in a few
places and burned in a few more, but with no ap-
preciable effect on their popularity.
The first book necessarily spends a great deal of
time introducing the main characters, especially
young Harry Potter, who learns that he is the son of
two magically talented people who were killed at
the instigation of an evil magician, whose name we
eventually learn is Voldemort. Harry’s two closest
friends are Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, fel-
low students, and he is also close to Rubeus Hagrid,
who works at Hogwarts, the school where young
wizards learn their trade. Rowling also introduces
Quidditch, the magical sport played at Hogwarts,
and several members of its faculty. The plot is a mix-
ture of mystery and quest stories. Harry discoversHarry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 155