Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
J. K. Rowling
(Associate Reviewer - Gail Evans)
2003 Scholastic
ISBN: 043935806X

Harry Potter starts his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry.

Harry is desperate to get back to school & find out why his friends Ron & Hermione have been so secretive all summer. However, what Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his world upside down...

Associate Reviewer Gail Evans writes:

Was the worldwide fuss about the launch of J. K. Rowling's fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, over the weekend of the 21st of June 2003 worth all the fanfare? I think that it was. Like many global fans, I bought my copy on Saturday morning & took a bet with my sons that if I finished it by Sunday night, they would both have to read it. My seventeen year old & twelve year old are not the greatest of readers. So, I set to, along with millions of others who burnt their candles at both ends & only stopped reading at intervals because my eyes were going squint.

I would like to report, that I read like a deamon, not because of the bet, but because I couldn't put the book down. & what a great feeling to know that millions of other people in other countries were sharing my experience. They too had taken the phone off the hook, curled up in the most comfortable place in the house & declared to all & sundry that they were “not available until further notice!”

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is quite possibly the best in the series so far. The plots are more intricate, the characters are explored in more depth & an essence of a more adult perception & understanding into human nature has crept into this tome of 766 pages. Harry, in spite of past pursuits, goes through many of the changes, disappointments & challenges, along with the anxiety, anger & rebelliousness all adolescent boys have to face. He is also clearly inept & inexperienced at dating, an embarrassment that I am sure many of his age will relate to! Understanding girls & how their minds work, is a mystery to him, as it is to his peers!

J. K. Rowling has introduced a few new characters who entertained me no end, though I must admit, for very personal reasons as I can see people who I know in real life, reflected in these characters, Luna, (as always J. K. Rowling plays on words, such her delicous use of “spellotape” to fix a picture) who appears to be spaced out most of the time. Reminds me of a friend of mine who is roughly the same age. She, my friend that is, is highly intelligent & forever has her nose in reading material of some sort while being unobtrusively aware of all that goes on around her. Many underestimate her, as do the students underestimate Luna at Hogwarts. I am sure that Luna is going to have an interesting role to play in book number six.

But my favorite J. K. Rowling character in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix just has to be Dolores Jane Umbrige, who Dear Reader, has a marked similarity to my erstwhile mother-in-law! For the first time, I have actually been able to see the funny side to my own life, & as you read about her antics at Hogwarts, please hold a little sympathy in your hearts for my past experience, which is, thank goodness, finally over!

Lastly, for all those mother grundies who are no doubt going to damn the book for being a bad influence on the young, I would like to point out that the author has incorporated so many life lessons in such an entertaining way, that any influence this book may or may not have on the youth today, can only be good!

All the baddies are, in effect racists, who hate centors, giants & trolls. All the goodies fight against such discrimination. Remember Apartheid South Africa? All the baddies are snobs, who look down on the Muggle-born wizards, in effect, social elitists, while all the goodies accept Muggle-born wizards into their ranks. Remember Auschwitz? All the baddies support those who misrepresent the truth in the media, all the goodies go out to rectify these errors. Many in our media today, are no less corrupt! All the baddies are bullies who go out to make other people's lives a misery. Isn't this one of the biggest problems in schools today, as well as teachers giving advantage to pupils who follow their lead when it is quite obvious to everyone else, that the lead that the teacher is offering is clearly without integrity?

Much like a really good movie, you do not want Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to end, but you know all along that the summer holidays which ended on the first page, will arrive predictably back on the last, leaving you waiting for book number six with anticipation & longing because you have become so familiar with Harry & his friends that they have become a part of your life.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix gets a resounding 4 teapots!

More from J. K. Rowling:
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter Hardcover Box Set
Quidditch Through the Ages
(06/29/03)

Gail Evans
2003©Gail Evans
A RebeccasReads.Com Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
I currently live in Johannesburg, South Africa & am the author of: The Firstborn of God: Resolving the Contradictions In The Bible, Time Trials & Meditations In My Favourite Places In Southern Africa.