Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Five Stars)

Children's fiction
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
J.K. Rowling
Raincoast Books
©2000
ISBN: 1-55192-337-8
636 pages
$35.00

"The summer holidays are dragging on and Harry Potter can’t wait for the start of the school year. It’s his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and there are spells to be learnt, potions to be brewed and Divination lessons (sigh) to be attended. Harry is expecting these: however, other quite unexpected events are already on the march…"

It has taken J.K. Rowling an impressive 17 years, but she’s accomplished what no author ever has before. Other than making billions of dollars, she has reintroduced the love of reading to a generation of children (and adults), who now read more than ever before. She has created a phenomenon, and part of her secret is this: her characters, though magical, go through many of the life-changing events as normal children do; the story takes place in a familiar, present-day world; and her characters have magic, literal magic, talents and abilities that all of us wish we had. She has also created a super villain, Lord Voldemort, who threatens to take away all that is good in the world.

This is the fourth book in her seven book series. It is also drastically longer than the three previous novels. Harry Potter is fourteen, and begins to experience true adolescence; terrified of talking to girls, daydreaming of Cho Chang, wishing he were a hero… The story is intricate yet it never loses you. This is storytelling at its finest.

There has been a sharp increase in sales of juvenile fiction in the past few years. This is partly due to J.K. Rowling and a bespectacled boy named Harry Potter.