| Product Summary | | Format: Hardcover | | ISBN: 9780439358064 | | Publisher: Scholastic Inc | | Publish Date: 6/1/2003 | | Buy.com Sku: 31105311 | | Item#: BXY52D | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 72407 | | Dimensions (in Inches) 9.25H x 6.25L x 2.25T | | Pages: 896 |
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| | | "The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive..." (from the first line)
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the latest volume in the thrilling, moving, bestselling Harry Potter series! From the Publisher:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be absolutely superb and will delight all J.K. Rowlings fans. She has written a brilliant and utterly compelling new adventure, which begins with the words:"
The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive.... The only person left outside was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four.
"Later in the novel, J.K.Rowling writes:"
Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses.
It is time, he said for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is over 255,000 words compared to over l9l,000 words in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The new book is 38 chapters long, one more than Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
About the Author:
Like that of her own character, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling's life has the luster of a fairy tale. Divorced, living on public assistance in a tiny Edinburgh flat with her infant daughter, Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at a table in a caf during her daughter's naps and it was Harry Potter that rescued her. First, the Scottish Arts Council gave her a grant to finish the book. After its sale to Bloomsbury (UK) and Scholastic Books, the accolades began to pile up. Harry Potter won The British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, and the Smarties Prize, and rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. Book rights have been sold to England, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Greece, Finland, Denmark, Spain and Sweden.
A graduate of Exeter University, a teacher, and then an unemployed single parent, Rowling wrote Harry Potter when "I was very low, and I had to achieve something. Without the challenge, I would have gone stark raving mad." But Rowling has always written; her first book was called "Rabbit." "I was about six, and I haven't stopped scribbling since."
For Rowling, the change in her fortunes has been slightly bewildering. But her daughter has no doubt about her mother's new career: when asked what mommies do, she replies without hesitation, "Mommies write!"
Annotation:
Most critics and readers agree that HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX marks a turning point in J. K. Rowling's enormously popular series in that the story takes on a more mature, darker tone. Now 15 years old, Harry faces the downside of being the world's most famous wizard-in-training and must adjust to changes in his relationships with friends and mentors. He also learns something quite disconcerting about his deceased parents and begins to realize how his personal demons make him vulnerable to the evil Lord Voldemort. Further complications arise when Harry grows disillusioned with the government of the magical realm and begins to question the power of the authorities at Hogwarts. A film version was made in 2007, releasing just days below the final book in the series.
| PraiseAtlanta Journal & Constitution
"One of the many things that makes Rowling's series so wonderful is that Harry, who started the series as an 11-year-old, is aging believably as each book covers a year of his life. And as his sense of himself expands, so do the books and the Potter universe." - Phil Kloer 06/20/2003USA Today
"All the qualities that marred the fourth book--the loping, uneven pace of a novel that seemed churned out rather than written--have evaporated. Indeed, the faux gothic horror of the fourth has been replaced by a return to the wonderful, textured writing of the three earlier novels. The novel does not have the frankly grisly scenes that were so disturbing in GOBLET OF FIRE." - Deirdre Donahue 06/20/2003 Washington Post
"J.K. Rowling's great gift -- her ability to conjure a rich, teeming, utterly believable alternative world -- hasn't failed her....she has also let Harry blossom into a genuinely complex and persuasive character." - Elizabeth Ward 06/24/2003 New York Times Book Review
"J. K. Rowling is the real magician....HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX is rich and satisfying in almost every respect. It also delivers a genuine apocalyptic shiver, as dated as Daniel in the Old Testament and Revelation in the New or the Dead Sea Scrolls and the poems of Blake." - John Leonard 07/13/2003 Publishers Weekly
"Rowling favors psychological development over plot development here, skillfully exploring the effects of Harry's fall from popularity and the often isolating feelings of adolescence." 06/30/2003 Salon
"If Harry has hit his awkward age, Rowling the writer has already passed through it. HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE, her first long novel, was a somewhat lumpy affair; though ultimately winning, it suffered from her lack of experience with the form and her rush to meet her publisher's deadline. If that book was the work of a born storyteller still sorting out her technique, PHOENIX is the smooth product of a natural at the top of her game." - Laura Miller 06/23/2003 Los Angeles Times
"In dramatizing the angst that Harry experiences, Rowling does her usual page-turningly good job. Although this is a complex novel, the high energy level almost never flags, thanks in part to the author's ability to create vivid scenes and set pieces. And although her tone is much darker than previously, there are welcome elements of humor too, many of which are rooted in the characters and quirks of Harry's friends Hermione, Hagrid and Ron, who comes into his own as a newly designated prefect and keeper for the Gryffindor quidditch team." - Michael Cart 06/23/2003 Entertainment Weekly
"Is HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX as good as the other Harry Potter books? No. This one is actually quite a bit better. The tone is darker, and this has the unexpected -- but very pleasing -- effect of making Rowling's wit and playful black humor shine all the brighter." - Stephen King 07/11/2003 Times Literary Supplement
"With this book Rowling enters the realm of the coming-of-age novel. The children are fifteen. They have begun pairing and unpairing; moods swing; they see once-idealized adults more in the round. One of the restrictions of the novels has been how focused they are on the three friends, concentrating on the partiality of their experience and their abilities to reflect on it. Rowling makes it quietly clear that Harry's intermittent alertness to the dangers of his own gifts recapitulates the arrogance of his parents' generation, which came from self-assurance built on good looks, physical prowess, intelligent courage, and confident leadership. If, as Rowling wrote earlier, it is not our abilities but our choices which make us what we are, then this book revolves around the implications of choosing and the unforeseeable consequences of even our best decisions." - Ruth Morse 07/04/2003 Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"Rowling cheerfully turns her own conventions on their ears, and the result is a surprisingly enjoyable ride....Rowling has managed to make Harry and his fate a bit less predictable, which, in the fifth of a seven-volume series, is a very good thing." - Janice M. Del Negro September 2003 |
| Author Bio| J. K. Rowling | | One night, as a young J. K. (Joanne Kathleen) Rowling traveled from Manchester to London by train, an idea for a book about a boy wizard named Harry Potter formed in her mind. It would change the course of her life forever. As a young girl growing up in Chepstow, Gwent, a historic town near the Lower Wye Valley in Southern England, Rowling loved to tell stories, and started to write them down when she was 6-years-old. Throughout her schooling, she entertained her friends during lunchtime with fantastic made-up stories. After studying French at the University of Exeter, Rowling went on to work in London, until at age 26, she moved to Portugal to teach English as a second language. There, she married, became pregnant, and worked on her Harry Potter manuscript whenever she had a spare second. The death of her own mother made his orphaned state much more real to her. Rowling's marriage ended in divorce, and she moved to Edinburgh with her newborn daughter, Jessica. ||After five years of writing, and a year's worth of publisher rejections, HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE was bought by Bloomsbury (U.K.) and published in June 1997. Shortly after Bloomsbury bought the manuscript, the rights were sold in America, where it was published in September 1998 as HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE. Her book not only received lavish praise, winning the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year and the Smarties Prize, but earned Rowling enough money to quit teaching and write full time. Her six subsequent Harry Potter books, all spectacular bestsellers, have continued to receive British and American awards, and are all being made into films. Having reached her lifelong dream of becoming a professional writer, Rowling encourages children who want to write to read as much as they can. |
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| Customer Reviews | ![]() | | Writing |  4 | | Content |  4.5 | | Readability | 4 | | Overall Satisfaction | 4 |
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5 of 5 Excellent Saturday, June 12, 2004
RickZ from North Carolina
Another excellent book. Read it. Was this review helpful?  
5 of 5 Best Yet! Saturday, August 09, 2003
Cabell Massey from Poncha Springs, CO
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the the best in the series so far! It explains so much and has a great plot! Harry is cool and Dumbledore is the greatest! Everyone should read this book and the whole series! Was this review helpful?
1 of 1 customers found this review helpful.
1 of 5 It could have been better Saturday, July 19, 2003
A Reader from Maine
I really enjoyed the first four books, but this one wasn't that great. More pages doesn't equal an exciting adventure; I go for quality over quanity. This book didn't really have much of a mystery for Harry & friends to solve. It was quite depressing and kept rambling on and on. The ending was the worst part. My favorite adult character was killed. What's up with Dumbledore? Ms. Rowling seemed to go out of her way to make him a error-prone cowardly old man instead of a wise and powerful wizard.
What I enjoy most about this book is Snape's worst memory. I find the mysterious Severus Snape a very interesting character because it's hard to understand where he's coming from. We get a glimpse into his childhood. It was worth buying the book just to read about that chapter. I also like the Christmas scenes. There isn't much else I can say about this book that's positive.
It would have been much better if Harry and friends had exposed curruption at the Ministry since I sense the wizard government and Minister Fudge knew that Voldemort was back and they intentionally covered it up. However, it didn't happen. This book was boring and it didn't have a real adventure. Hopefully, the next book will be better. I'm still a big Harry Potter Was this review helpful?
1 of 1 customers found this review helpful.
5 of 5 HP and the Order of the Phoenix Sunday, June 22, 2003
phoenizx from Macomb, Illinois
If you have read the other books, this book is superb. JK Rowling does use a couple of phrases and words over a few to many times, but everyone does, and a few words were annoying. Like "pur-lease" (please), but everything was wonderful. The book was very easy to understand if you have read the others, and if you have read the others, than by all means read this. The plot is twisty and new, and this book includes new phrases, settings, and characters that she explains well. Was this review helpful?
1 of 2 customers found this review helpful.
5 of 5 J.K. Rowling Strikes Again Part 4 Sunday, June 22, 2003
Pasito_Tun_Tun from San Luis Potosi, Phillipines
Amazing...trully amazing. Harry Potter's fifth year at Hogwarts is his finest and darkest hour yet. Line after line, page after page, chapter after chapter, book after book, the series only gets better and better. If the quality of the book were measured by heat, Ootp is fresh magma from Mt. Fuji--no pun intended. I've read the book twice already and my wife nearly wants a divorce. Though Harry is not as likable in this book, the other characters pick up his slack. I hate the English but boy do I love their literature and those delicious biscuits. No I'm not talking about breakfast biscuits. I'm refering to cookies, the silly English call them biscuits. Whatever, they're good. My kids want to see Hulk, I want to read the book again. Guess what I'm gonna choose to do tonight? Note to J.K. Rowling: Will you marry me? Also, does anyone know where I could order a 24-K gold, diamond studded hardcover edition of the book? Was this review helpful?
2 of 2 customers found this review helpful.
5 of 5 Excellent! Sunday, June 22, 2003
A Reader from Geneva, Indiana
A wonderful book. It's a bit dark and somewhat jarring, but difficult, if not impossible, to put down. I strongly recommend it.
Rowling is very consistent with her characters, weaving them together and not forgetting this and that and them and that. Anybody who's ever written about one character or place for a long period of time knows how difficult this can be, because that character or place becomes more detailed and complex as time passes. Sticking with it takes a lot of discipline, intelligence, and will-power, and I commend her for that.
And don't let eager naysayers scare you off. I've read quite a few books, and while there are minor similarities, such as a bad guy, a good guy, and looming danger, only jaded elitists will be harping on about how "done before" the book is.
Now a word of caution for others writing reviews, please be considerate and don't insert spoilers in your text. Was this review helpful?
4 of 17 customers found this review helpful.
1 of 5 Come on guys...read between the lines... Saturday, June 21, 2003
Brett from Denver, CO
First and foremost, J.K. Rowling is a very good author and I'm not writing this review to bash her. I am writing this review to remind all of you faithful Harry fans that Rowling borrows much of her content from stories that have already been told. Her writing style is pretty straightforward (i guess it would have to be when you cater to that age group), and she hasn't done much for the fantasy genre that hasn't already been done. The one thing she has done is get young people to read again and that is great...but the books are only okay. I'm halfway done and I could have spent my $18 elsewhere. Was this review helpful?
10 of 24 customers found this review helpful.
5 of 5 Harry Potter returns! Friday, January 17, 2003
Doug M. from Aliso Viejo, CA
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the best in the series!! I cannot tell you what happens but it is AMAZING. That is all i can say because i don't want to spoil it for you. It took me all day to read the book since it is so long. What an enchanting world J.K. Rowling has created. Like many, my other all-time absolute favorite book is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. But Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a close second. If you don't already own them both, buy them now. Also get Classic Books from the Library of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for more info on the world of HP! Thanks buy.com for the awesome price on this book. Was this review helpful?
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