Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the novel that took this series to a whole new level. Not only is it more complicated, dramatic, and suspenseful than the first three, but it is also the foundation for the rest of the series.

Let me explain that remark. The first three novels were all about Harry Potter and his time at Hogwarts, the wizarding school. Yes, they all had a dramatic conclusion but they didn't build on each other as much as the final four do. Each ending was complete in itself. The reader was left to feel as if it the book was concluded; Goblet of Fire is left open-ended. This is a new beginning for the series; this is now a story of Lord Voldemort's return and the fight for good over evil.

There are so many important details in this novel, that I cannot possibly do justice to it in this review. The main action is centered around the Tri-Wizard Tournament that is being held at Hogwarts this year. The tournament is filled with dangerous and challenging events that the champions must face. While all this is occuring, several disturbing events are also taking place.

Harry's scar starts to hurt: a blinding pain that seems to indicate when Voldemort is near, or that he is getting stronger. Harry enters the pensieve (a magical storage device in which to store memories) and while he is in the pensieve, he revisits the trials of Lord Voldemort's supporters. The pensieve becomes an important element in the rest of the series: this device of Rowling's for flashback information is truly, dare I say it, magical. It is these tiny, but significant details in her novels that meld this world together for those of us who do not normally read fantasy novels.

In Goblet of Fire, the action never ceases - this is a book for adult readers to love and enjoy as well as child readers. The final, climatic scene at the graveyard is well written, and poignant. When this edge-of-your-seat action finally ends, the reader will feel as if they need a rest too, but this novel doesn't provide rests. We are then whisked away into the confusion with Harry as he learns some more disturbing information. While Harry is trying to make sense out of the events, the reader is also trying to make sense out of the events. Rowling effectively creates a bond between the reader and Hary; we can truly empathize with our hero.

Will Lord Voldemort rise again to power? Can Harry and the rest of the wizarding world stop him? These are the questions that linger when this novel ends. The final four novels of this series work as one integrated novel that answers these questions. In Goblet of Fire, Rowling lays the foundation for a continuous story that unfolds in her next three novels.

I highly recommend reading the Harry Potter novels, and then reading them again. Once you know how the story plays out, it is intriguing to re-read these novels and see how Rowling built upon detail after detail to ensure that the realistic element of the novels stayed intact. That seems like an oxymoron: realistic fantasy, but that is what the Harry Potter novels are. They are about a magical world, but everything is so detailed and realistic that we are allowed to suspend our disbelief in magic and just enjoy.

Keep on reading!

While it is not Green Grass, Running Water, Medicine River is wonderful in its own right. I guess I was expecting more of the same offbeat, coyote-genre theme that Green Grass was, simply because it was the first novel by Thomas King that I read. Medicine River is more "normalized" in that it is a narrative that we are more familiar with. It doesn't require as much work on the reader's part that Green Grass did; in fact, it doesn't require work on the reader's part at all. You can just sit back, relax, enjoy and read on.

Medicine River is about a Blackfoot Indian community that is located in Canada in a town named Medicine River. The story centers around the two main characters, Will and Harlen, and the rest of the community members. I wrote story and not plot; this is because there isn't the traditional plot that most Western stories utilize. This novel is more a snippet of life in Medicine River; there isn't a beginning and end with a plot climax and all that classroom rhetoric that we study. It is more of a "slice of life story;" in this way, it stays in line with the traditional format of Native American stories.

Through events, conflicts, and personal relationships, King gives us a glimpse of life on and off the reservation. King creates memorable and true-to-life characters, eccentricities and all. Will comes back to Medicine River for his mother's funeral and ends up relocating there. As a child, Will and his family were not allowed to live on the reservation because his mother married a white man. Even when Will's father abandoned his family, they were not allowed to move back on the reservation...(looks like the Native Americans didn't just get a raw deal from the U.S.)

Harlen BigBear is the centralizing figure in this novel; he holds the community and the novel together. We might call it nosiness, and manipulation, but he calls it "keeping on top of things" and "helping out." I really enjoyed his conversations with Will; the deadpan humor of Will's thoughts while Harlen is "circling around the issues" is very funny. There is a great deal of humor in this novel.

The culture of the Native Americans is community centered, not individualistic. Therefore, the novel which is traditionally a genre that celebrates the individual might seem like an odd choice for a Cherokee author to utilize. When reading Native American stories, sometimes it is hard to see the point of one story, but when you look at all the stories together, they make sense. It is the whole picture that tells the story; this is true for Medicine River also. It is not a novel about one particular event; it is the whole picture of the town and its inhabitants that make up the whole story. And you cannot portray Native American life without the whole community. (notice this circular argument which parallels the circular structures of traditional Native American storytelling -clever huh?)

I would recommend this novel to anyone who is looking for a good read, but don't expect a page-turning thriller of a novel. The reader has to embody the slowed-down pace of Medicine River and just go along for the journey. If you only have time in your life for one Thomas King novel, and if you are looking for a memorable experience with your literature, then read Green Grass, Running Water instead.

Keep on reading!

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third installment of the Harry Potter series, and with this book Rowling's writing matures along with her characters. The first two novels were definately written for adolescents and this shows in Rowling's writing. The Dursley's abuse of Harry is overly exaggerated, and the differences between good and evil are extremely black and white. There are no gray areas in her first two novels. They can be enjoyable for adults, but they were definately written for young adults.

Then we move to the Prisoner novel and events and emotions become murkier: there are shadowy, gray areas now. Good and evil are not clearly defined as more complex and developed emotions start to emerge in this third novel. The relationship between Harry, Ron and Hermione becomes even more developed. They have some fallouts and some relationship struggles, but in the end, their friendship endures. Rowling's writing not only matures in this installment, but these kids are starting to mature too, and with it their relationship inevitably changes.

I love how Rowling plays on the strengths of all three of these characters. Harry relies on his strong friendship with Ron and Hermione - they are truly in everything together. I still contend that this friendship is one of the driving forces behind the success of the Harry Potter series.

Prisoner of Azkaban is the first of the Harry Potter novels where Voldemort isn't involved in the final fight scene. Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban, the wizard prison, and everyone believes he is out to murder Harry. For those of you who haven't read this novel yet, I will not divulge the ending here. I will just set up the background information and urge you to read the series for yourself.

Apparently, Sirius Black was involved in the betrayal and ultimate deaths of Lily and James Potter. After Voldemort kills the Potters, he attemped to kill Harry also. His spell backfired on him though, and Harry survived. He is after all, the boy who lived. This has made Harry famous throughout the wizarding world. There is much speculation on what really happened in the Potter home that evening. After Voldemort is "almost killed," Harry was whisked away by Hagrid and delivered to the Dursleys. Sirius is blamed for the betrayal and ends up killing another friend, Peter Pettigrew, and then Sirius winds up in Azkaban. For us muggles, Azkaban is the wizard prison. Sirius is very feared and hated throughout the wizarding world, and now he is on the loose.

What will happen? Unless you have been hibernating for the last several years, everyone knows that there are four more novels after this one. So suffice it to say, that at least Harry survives.

This is a must read! I mean, how on earth can you read the next four books without reading the first three? And, you really should ignore all the commercialism of the series and read it for pure fun and enjoyment. They are wonderful novels for children as well as adults: they bring out the children in us adults. Keep on reading!

At first scoop, Digging to America seems like an innocent straight forward novel about two couples who adopt baby girls from Korea. It is about how these couples' lives intersect: they both recieve their precious girls on the same day.

But dig a litter deeper into the novel, and you find that maybe it is really about what it means to adopt a child. Dig a little deeper, and maybe it questions culture and heritage and assimilation. Both families that adopt these Korean children live in America, and neither family is Korean. The Donaldsons are "very American," or white breads, as they put it. The Yazdans are Iranian: the husband was born and bred in America but his wife, Ziba, was raised in Iran until her teenage years.

The relationship between the Donaldsons and the Yazdans is also worth "digging into." Bitsy and Brad Donaldson (Tyler picks the best names) and Sami and Zabi Yazdan are the parents of these two Korean girls. Bitsy seems to hold some subtle power over Ziba; whenever Bitsy declares something about parenting, Ziba experiences a moment of doubt and confusion. Is this because Bitsy is older than Ziba? Or, is it because the Iranians are so polite that they would never think of offering unwanted advice like the Americans do? Or, is it because Bitsy is so undeniably American, Ziba feels intimidated by her?

There are so many levels to "belonging" in our lives. How does one belong to a group, a family, a culture, a country? Relationships are messy and complex, sort of like digging in the dirt. With every scoopful of dirt, the mixture shifts and alters. Tyler captures these subtle variations in relationships: between cultures, countries, the sexes, and generations.

The Donaldsons decide that their baby will keep her Korean name, but the Yazdans opt to Americanize their daughter's name. Are the Donaldsons just being politically correct? Or, is it that they feel so at home in America, they don't need to prove their daughter's right to claim America as her country? Do the Yazdans feel they need to claim an American name for their Iranian-American-Korean daughter? And what culture should their daughter embrace? America's? Korea's? Iran's? Or, a mixture of all?

Dig a little deeper, and you realize that there are no simple answers to any of these assimilation questions. Sami Yazdun considers himself American: he has never been to Iran and has no desire to go, and he refuses to speak Farsi. Yet, when he is around his Iranian relatives ,they discuss the Americans as if they are a different entity. Which in many ways, they are. And when he met his wife he felt an instant kinship to her because of their shared Iranian culture. But he is American; or is he?

Most of the story is told by Sami's mother, Maryam, who emigrated to America as a bride. All these years later, she still feels like a foreigner to this country, but when she goes home she feels like a foreigner there too. Those of us who have only lived in one country might take for granted how at home we feel in our own country. There are many degrees and levels of assimilation: and should people assimilate at all?

Even though Maryam has lived in the United States her entire adult life, and her son Sami has always lived here, they are essentially still digging to America...

l Highly recommend this novel to all! Keep on reading!

In the second installment of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling manages to create her magic (pun intended) all over again. This book is a bit more complex than the Sorcerer's Stone was. The plot is a bit more difficult to figure out (for young readers), but the dialogue and the relationships between the characters are still very well developed and compelling.

I absolutely love the character of Gilderoy Lockhart, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He is a lovable character ---that is, he is totally in love with himself. He definately provides the comic relief in this novel. In the first three novels, I think Rowling was concious of the need for comic relief since they were predominately written for children. It wasn't until the adult world started reading about Harry, Ron and Hermione that Rowling started writing for a much larger audience. Sometimes this shows through in the first three novels, but that is to be expected when reading adolescent fiction.

In this novel, there is a monster loose at Hogwarts; the Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Some students are being attacked; those students who are not pure-blood are very worried. It seems that this monster, or its creator, hated half-bloods and wanted to kick them out of Hogwarts. For those of you who do not know, Harry Potter's mother was born to muggle parents so he needs to worry about this monster also. Luckily, most of the attacks only result in the victims being "petrified" instead of killed. These victims will be able to be healed by the powers of witchcraft.

Again, the threesome of Ron, Harry and Hermione are in the midst of all of the action. They figure out what the monster is, where it is located, and what to do about it. (I don't think this is a spoiler since everyone knows that Harry, Ron and Hermione exist in all seven books of the series).

These novels have everything a child could love, and some of us muggle adults too! They have mystery, fun loving characters, and great heroes, who just happen to be children too! The threesome are about 12 years old now, so besides monsters and magic they are dealing with hormones too. That just might be the scariest thing of all....

Everyone should read this novel to find out how Harry, Ron, and Hermione survive another year at Hogwarts. (I thought my middle school years were tough!) The Chamber of Secrets is wonderfully written for children and for adults as well!

Keep on reading!

How can a book about public schools and mandatary testing be interesting? A valid question, and one I would have asked myself if I wasn't entering the education field. Yet, Linda Perstein's Tested is compelling, interesting, informative, and surprisingly an easy read.

Maybe is shouldn't be surprising though, since Perlstein is an author and a journalist; even though it is non-fiction and it is technically a documentary type of novel, it is not a dry rendering of statistics and facts. Perlstein does a great job of bringing personal stories into her text which makes this book read less as a text book and more as a narrative. It is about how the No Child Left Behind Law is affecting our school system and our students. For those of you not familiar with this law, it was passed in 2001 and basically states that schools are not allowed to "leave any child behind" in the education process. While this sounds noble, it doesn't seem to be having the positive effects in the classroom that it was originally designed to have.

Perlstein explains that NCLB requires that all children achieve proficiency in reading and math; this means all children: children with learning disabilities, children with a native language other than English, children who are living in poverty, etc. Of course, everybody would want these children to get the same education as those children who were lucky enough to be born into middle-class families. We all want an equal education for all students, or at least we all should.

But, what is really going on? Are these students now getting a better education just because they are being formally tested? Perlstein's exploration of a Maryland Elementary School anwers this question with a resounding NO. These children are now being taught how to take statewide mandatory tests. Is that real learning? They are being drilled and regimented into learning how to answer test questions. Hands-on experiements, free reading, creative writing, recess and other important developmental activities are being lost in the drive for "good test scores." Personally, I think these are learning experiences that are too valuable to be swept aside.

Even though the No Child Left Behind Law was supposed to close the achievement gap that exists between minority students and white middle class students, it seems to be having the opposite effect. The students in the upper middle class schools are recieving more interactive teaching lessons, more hands-on learning activities and more development of their own creative processes. These students are being taught how to learn, how to think for themselves, how to expand their own knowledge and how to question their environment.

The students at the lower Socioeconomic schools (which unfortunately are usually populated by mostly minorities) are not recieving this same education. They are being drilled in answering test questions; they are not learning how to evaluate their responses or their thinking processes. They are not learning how to develop into thinkers, and they are not being trained to be able to handle a professional life that requires those skills. The difference in education between these schools can only further widen the achievement gap that exists today.

Tested looks at these experiences and the differences in education that our children are recieving. Linda Perlstein spent a year in Tyler Heights which is made up of children who live in poverty or borderline poverty, and most of the students are African American or Hispanic; several do not know how to speak English. Obviously, these children deserve and need the same education that the "wealthier" kids in the other elementary schools are recieving (maybe even a better education to try and level the "playing field"). No Child Left Behind is not accomplishing that goal. Read Perlstein's Tested for an insider's view into our public elementary schools.

For those of us who are fiction lovers, this non-fiction book is an easy, accessible and informative read. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in our public schools, and to any of us who have school-age children. Happy Reading!

First, I have to write a disclaimer about this review: I read the novel about three years ago and am doing this review from memory. Having said that, I can honestly say that I enjoyed reading this novel.

It is written by Azar Nafisi and is based on her experiences in Iran, around 1995 or so. The veil becomes a mandatory part of life during Azar's years in Iran, and this novel explores the differences of Iran before and after the Veil. She is a professor of English but eventually leaves her position in 1995. She leaves because of the increasingly negative environment that permeates the campus, especially with all of the new restrictions placed on women.

I found this part of the novel incredibly interesting; I didn't know much about Iran before the veil became mandatory: to experience the difference in Azar's life as the political and social climate changes is fascinating. Her life and liberties become narrower and narrower with each new edict passed in Iran.

When she leaves her academic post, she decides to host a book club in her own home. This sounds harmless enough, but in the hostile environment of Iran, it could have become a death sentence. The book club has to remain a secret: 8 women meeting each week to discuss fiction written in English could be construed as a political move. Therefore, these meetings have an air of danger around them. Especially, when the women dare to remove their veils in Azar's home.

They read Lolita, The Great Gatsby, Daisy Miller, Pride and Prejudice: then they come together to discuss the novels. The discussions were not only enlightening in a literary sense, but they also developed an overall picture about life in Iran. How one discusses a novel depends on their social position and the enviornment that they live in. I think sometimes we forget that fact, and we think that there is only one real interpretation of a novel: but, if your civil liberties are being reduced and removed, you might think differently about the questions a novel might raise. This novel illustrates that you bring your own history and beliefs with you when you approach literature.

I remember thinking that some parts of this novel dragged; it wasn't written by a literary author as much as it is a memoir, and sometimes that fact is apparent. But I learned so much, and it made me go back and re-read Lolita and The Great Gatsby again.

So go read the novel, and then come on back here and weigh in on this novel, and help fill in any gaps I might have missed (since I read the novel so long ago). Thanks and Happy Reading!

I have never read anything by Mark Haddon before, but after this book I will definately put him on my "must-read" author list. I read this novel for the first time about three years ago and enjoyed it. This time I read it for an education class that I am taking, which is forcing me to read it on a different level. Instead of being able to focus on the literary talents of Haddon and his gift of perspective, I am focusing more on the character of Christopher.

What is pure genius about this novel, is that it is written in an autistic child's voice. Christoper is 15 and he is autistic: he acutally has Asperger's Syndrome. Because of this, Christopher has to attend a special school. He is not being integrated into England's public school system. Christopher definately has some characteristics due to Asperger's syndrome that would make integration into a public school system challenging to say the least. But, he also posseses some amazing strengths and talents. Haddon's novel provides a fascinating and thorough look into Christopher's mind.

The story is based around the upside-down dead dog that Christopher finds in his neighbor's yard. So he decides to investigate the murder because he likes dogs. The investigation leads to another, more personal, mystery that Christopher solves. This novel gives a very realistic picture of what it means to love someone with Autism, and what it might be like to think Autistically. Haddon doesn't excuse, or sugarcoat, the losses of temper by Christopher's parents; anyone who has children, who reads what his parents deal with, can make their own excuses for their momentary lapses in patience. They love him deeply, but they experience the same frustration any of us would feel.

This novel is not a depressing gloomy story about a child with Autism; it is very humorous. Christopher cannot tell a lie, and he explains why. (See the excerpt on Dust Jacket Review). But what is extroadinary about Haddon's novel is that Haddon gets lost as the author. Christopher's voice is the only voice that you hear when you are reading this novel. There is a body of theory about the "death of an author" and the makings of a really good novel. The author should be transparent to the reader; this novel achieves that goal. It is only Christopher doing the talking and the explaining, and it never seems unreal.

So I urge you to take Christopher's journey with him. Enter his mind, and unravel the answers to the curious incident of the dog in the night-time. Happy Reading!

Kaye Gibbons explores so many different ideas in Divining Women, that I had a hard time getting fully involved in all of them. The novel is centered around Mary: she is a single, intellectual woman living 1918. She comes from a financially well-off family, but they could be considered extremely eccentric. It is implied that Mary may be a homosexual, but it is never explicitly said, and it could just be my interpretation. (If anyone reads this novel, come back and let me know what you think)

The background of the novel is somewhat confusing; her grandfather apparently liked to visit nudist colonies and explore nature while in the buff, and his first wife promptly left him for that trait. He manages to go and find a woman who embraces his more eccentric side and they live happily, whereas, his first wife lives bitterly and warps the child that they produced together. There are a series of bitter, demanding letters that arrive periodically from the first wife, and they ususally disrupt this harmony that Mary's family experiences. Confused yet?

Gibbons created this extroadinary but slightly odd family: they are all intellectuals, in the 1918 sort of way. By this I mean, that they seek out intellectuals and explore new ideas. They also believe that their house is haunted, sort of a stopping-over ground, for souls looking to find peace. The grandfather spends much of his time playing "host to these lost souls" and listening to the ghosts speak through the walls. Before describing more of this household, we are whisked off to the first wife's (remember her?) son's home. Personally, I would have liked to have spent more time in the ghost-house.

Now we arrive at the first-wife's son's home: his name is Troop and his pregnant wife, Maureen, is having difficulties with her pregnancy. This is where the real story starts. Gibbons takes us deep inside their abusive marriage. It is not physically abusive; Troop abuses with his words, and his physical and emotional distance from his wife. His constant belittlment and derision has caused her self-esteen to crumble into non-existence. For me, this was the most interesting part of the novel. Gibbons does a thorough job of portraying an abused spouse and helping the reader to understand the reasons someone may stay in such a relationship.

I wish Gibbons focused solely on this relationship though, it was a bit of work wading through all the periphial stories to get to this main one. I found that there were many avenues in this novel that could side-track the reader, but they didn't really help in understanding Mary's life and how she helps Maureen deal with the abuse. Everything seemed a bit too unreal, a bit hazy.

There were many parts of this novel that I thoroughly enjoyed, but there were too many parts left unexplored. These tempting tidbits that didn't really lead anywhere. I also found some of the background information somewhat confusing. I guess if you are a Kaye Gibbons fan, I would recommend this novel. Otherwise, I would advise you to skip it. Happy Reading!