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“I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed.”

— J.K. Rowling

The Harry Potter Series

by J.K. Rowling

Genre: Fantasy

Reason for categorization in this age group: Reading level

Number of books: 7

Plot Summary

Harry Potter has never ridden on a broomstick, much less played a flying sport. He has never used a wand or sent letters by owl. In fact, he is wholly unaware that he is a wizard. Raised by his awful aunt and uncle after being orphaned as a baby, Harry is unwanted, neglected and sleeps in a cupboard under the stairs, while his cousin Dudley is spoiled. Life is looking pretty miserable until in a sudden turn of events, eleven-year-old Harry is invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry reenters the world of his parents' past, full of giants and potions and spells. It doesn't take long for Harry to find friends among his peers: loyal and funny Ron Weasley and wonderfully clever Hermione Granger. While life at Hogwarts is full of wonder and whimsy, something dark is stalking the school and a magical object hidden in its depths. Harry finds himself and his friends in the middle of preventing of dark plot from unraveling.

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Harry is warned not to return to Hogwarts, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when a house elf named Dobby pays a visit to announce that terrible things are about to happen at school. Even these warnings do not deter Harry from returning to Hogwarts, however, where he faces a different set of challenges from the year before: the apparently disturbing ability to speak to snakes; strange voices in the walls; and a new celebrity teacher who is wholly obsessed with Harry. Not only that, but threatening messages are being painted on walls as students and ghosts are found petrified in the halls. Finding himself the prime suspect behind these attacks, Harry puts his mind to the task of discovering who--or what--is attacking the students, and how to stop it.

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Murderer and supporter of You-Know-Who, Sirius Black, is on the loose in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban--and it looks like Harry is his next target. Black is pursued by the soul-sucking guards of Azkaban, the Dementors, which lurk about the Hogwarts grounds, leaving fear in their wake. As Harry uncovers startling facts about the man who betrayed his parents to You-Know-Who, his Divination teacher, Professor Trelawney, predicts Harry's death. Typical year at Hogwarts.

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Surely, this will be the year things calm down and Harry can have a normal education, free from near-death experiences and death threats. It certainly starts out promising, with the Weasleys taking Harry and Hermione to the Quidditch World Cup to watch the wizarding sport. But things quickly go sour when trouble breaks out at the campsite and someone fires You-Know-Who's symbol into the night sky. Trouble follows Harry to Hogwarts, where someone enters him in the dangerous Triwizard Tournament, signing him up for a year-long competition between Hogwarts, the French school of Beauxbatons, and the Bulgarian school Durmstrang. It's almost as though someone is trying to get Harry killed....

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Things are worse than ever for Harry in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Since the return of You-Know-Who, pretty much everyone is convinced that Harry's a lying, attention-seeking boy, disturbed by his tragic past. Even the Minister of Magic refuses to accept that Voldemort has returned. School is no sanctuary, as the Minister's assistant Dolores Umbridge has joined the staff and is attempting to mix school and politics, being truly dreadful in the process. Not only that, but Harry has been having terrible dreams and visions from You-Know-Who's point of view. With the Order of the Phoenix--Voldemort's only true opposition--going on and on about some weapon the villain is trying to get his hands on, Harry can't help but wonder...is Voldemort getting inside his head? And is Harry the weapon after all?

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A dark plot is unfolding under Professor Dumbledore's nose, and Harry is determined to stop it in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It appears as though Draco Malfoy, Harry's longtime school rival, has been welcomed into You-Know-Who's ranks and given a terrible mission. As Harry attempts to find out the task Malfoy has been put to, Dumbledore appears wholly uninterested in the affair and instead spends his time tutoring Harry privately on the history of You-Know-Who. Together, the two of them delve deeper into Voldemort's past, uncovering a secret that could possibly be his end. But there is a piece missing. After rising to the top of Professor Slughorn's Potions class with the help of a used textbook, Harry must befriend the teacher and extract from him the missing information before Voldemort makes his move on the school.

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Harry's school days are over in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. He has a task Dumbledore left him to accomplish. With You-Know-Who seizing control and everyone on the lookout for Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, Harry travels the country with Hermione and Ron, searching for a set of magical objects that could bring an end to Voldemort, once and for all. As close friends fall, fear takes the wizarding world by storm and battle rages at Hogwarts, Harry faces the truth both his parents understood when he laid down their lives for him: that love and victory over evil requires the greatest of sacrifice.

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