Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

review by 

Tony Nappa

Thirteen-year-old Tony Nappa gives you the 411 on a thrilling military suspense novel and a fantasy book! 

HARRY POTTER & THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic Press)

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX was a good read, but it was much too long. It is 870 pages, but the story could have been told in about 550.

This book is about a boy named Harry Potter, who is a wizard, and his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. They go to school at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.  When the kids enter their fifth year at the school, a mean old woman named Umbridge is hired as their defense against the dark arts teacher. But she seems intent on NOT teaching them how to defend themselves against dark wizards like the evil Lord Voldemort. So, Harry and his friends secretly start a club where he teaches the people in the club spells for defending themselves. They call their club "Dumbledore’s Army," named after Albus Dumbledore who is the headmaster at Hogwarts. But then Umbridge forbids all club meetings and gets Dumbledore fired from his job and all kinds of crazy, dangerous things start happening.

When Harry sees a vision of his godfather Sirius Black being tortured by Voldemort he goes off with his best friends to try and save him. But is it a true vision, or just a trap? Will Harry get there in time? How will everything end? You'll have to read the book to find out.

There is no religious message in this book, although it is interesting to note that J.K. Rowling couldn't leave out a sort of "heaven" that awaits her characters when they die. It's like, even though Rowling doesn't want to be religious in her books, she can't avoid hoping that heaven really exists (and so she unconsciously included that idea in this book). Of course, there are many good moral/religious themes in HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, like loyalty, unselfishness, friendship, obedience, and temptation. All of those themes would be good for parents and kids to discuss after reading this book.

Here are some things I liked and disliked about this book. 

I disliked how l-o-n-g the book was! It seemed to me that sometimes the story just kind of dragged and went nowhere, and I think it could have moved at a faster pace if it had been limited to about 500 or 600 pages. Then, near the end of the book, there is an important person who dies and when that person dies it happens much too fast! You do not get time to think about what has happened because it goes on to the next point right away. I would have liked for that scene to have been more drawn out, and some of the earlier scenes to be shortened. 

I did like how once Harry got to school it was hard for me to put the book down. J.K. Rowling is so creative and entertaining, and once she got the characters back to Hogwarts, it was a much more fun book to read.

I think that just about any Harry Potter fan is going to like HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, parents and kids alike. It's not a good place for people new to the series to start, though, and children under 11 might be confused by some of the violence and situations in the book. Also, families who object to the fantasy magic used in the book will probably want to avoid this one. For everyone else, though, it should be a fun read, and might be a good one for parents to read aloud (and discuss) with their kids.

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Tony Nappa is a seventh-grader who has authored three books: Lunch Box Laughs; Lunch Box Trivia; and Lunch Box Promises