Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - by J.K. Rowling

Fans of the Harry Potter series of books know that today, July 31, is Harry's birthday. There remains some question as to exactly how old he is. In honor of this day I re-read book 2 of the series (having blogged about book one last year in honor of Banned Books Week). As in the first book, Harry and his friends use the library quite often to look things up and do their homework despite the fact that their librarian, Madam Pince, is so upsettingly unhelpful. They do manage to get a copy of Moste Potente Potions from the restricted section of the library by outwitting their new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, Gilderoy Lockhardt, and succeed in making the Polyjuice Potion which allows them to do a magical form of identity theft.

Truly unsettling about this work though, is the fact that Ron and Harry discover a page ripped from a library book in the hand of petrified Hermione Granger. As if that weren't bad enough, in addition she had actually written on the page! There was no need for this destruction, even in the face of evil. She simply could have checked the book out.

None of this is to say I did not thoroughly enjoy the book. I think this must be the fourth time I've read it. Such a great story.

Happy Birthday Harry!