Second Harry Potter book. Retains much of the charm of the first one. ( )

Book two of the Harry Potter series. Still going strong – clear plot lines, character development, suspense etc. Read November 2007 ( )

Just as good as the first with surprises around every cornor. ( )

Year 2 at Hogwarts. Harry is back at the Dursleys for the summer after his first year at Hogwarts and they are treating him like dirt. He has had no contact with his best friends Ron and Hermione and he is beginning to wonder if both his school and his friends were nothing but a dream. When a house elf named Dobby shows up in his bedroom and wreaks havoc, the Dursleys lock Harry in his room with the promise that he will never be let out. His future looks dim, but then Ron and his brothers Fred and George appear outside Harry's window one night in a flying car and whisk him off to their home, the Burrow, where Harry gladly spends the remainder of his summer holiday. In Diagon Alley they meet their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher - the unbelievably vain Gilderoy Lockhart. The school year doesn't start off any better than his summer did, as the barrier to Platform 9 3/4 seals itself against Harry and Ron, preventing them from boarding the Hogwarts Express. They get into loads of trouble when they decide to fly Mr. Weasley's car to school, instead - they are almost expelled, they get detention, and Ron receives a Howler from his mother. Everything seems to go downhill from there - Harry starts hearing an evil voice that no one else can hear; everyone learns he can talk to snakes; their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is a joke; Ron's wand, broken when their car crash-landed into the Whomping Willow, wreaks havoc with every spell he tries; Draco Malfoy is the new Slytherin Seeker and the whole team has brand new broomsticks; and worse of all, a new and seemingly deadly enemy appears in their midst - the mysterious Chamber of Secrets has been opened and students are being petrified left and right. While everyone else thinks Harry is the Heir of Slytherin, it is up to him, Ron, and Hermione to figure out who it really is before it's too late. ( )

It had to be five stars...because how else can you rate a book (or the whole series) when you can't seem to stop reading, from the moment the book starts until the last page...After finishing (in one sitting) the first book in the Harry Potter series, I ran out to buy number two, which I also read as quick as possible. The characters that I came to know & like in the first book were all there (Harry, Hagrid, Hermione & Ron), the humour was there, & of course the mystery was there...culminating in an interesting & unexpected ending. If I absolutely HAD to look for a flaw in book number two, the only thing I'd say is that it's not that different from book 1. And therefore it doesn't take you so much by surprise as the first one does. The third book in the series (The prisoner of Azkaban) is, I believe, much better than the first 2 books. But anyway: these are all details: the point is that the Harry Potter books are clear, pure fun & even if one is a little better or a little worse than the other, all in all, the four books (up till now) are all very worth reading. ( )