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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

J.K. Rowling

I rarely read anything without a purpose. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it. One of my delightful responsibilities as a mother was to read large quantities of children’s books, not wanting to recommend a book to my children unless I had experienced it myself. All of the reading I’ve done on education, although thoroughly enjoyable, was job–related work. When I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, my primary motive was that I be able to express an opinion about it, and not from ignorance.

However, reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was for pleasure. Oh, I guess there is still some importance to reading it, as one can’t judge a series by just one book. But mostly this was just for fun, and fun it was. I have just a few minor objections; for one thing, I wish the heroes didn’t gain so much of their success by breaking rules, for which of course they are rewarded because they’ve saved the day. But as I said before, this is so far superior to most modern fare that I’m not going to quibble.

Either there were not as many “Americanisms” as in the previous book, or I’ve become accustomed to them. The only glaring one I found was references to Hallowe’en, which—unless there’ve been some drastic changes in the last 20 years—is not particularly a British holiday. When Heather was in first grade, one of her classmates was from England, and I remember his mother telling me that she couldn’t see the sense in that “peculiar American holiday.” On the other hand, I don’t see how we can have gone through two years (so far) of Harry Potter’s life with no reference to Guy Fawkes’ Day. That complaint aside, I enjoyed the book for the same reasons I liked the first one; I can’t wait to read the third.

— Linda Wightman

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