Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Product Details
Pub. Date: July 2000
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Format: Hardcover, 734pp
Age Range: 9 to 12
Series: Harry Potter Series, #4
ISBN-13: 9780439139595
ISBN: 0439139597

Synopsis
Harry Potter is midway through his training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup. He wants to find out about the mysterious event that's supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened for a hundred years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard. But unfortunately for Harry Potter, he's not normal - even by wizarding standards. And in his case, different can be deadly.

My thoughts:

I decided to try listening to the audio version of this book as I had read it before. One of my main complaints with audio books is that they take so much longer to listen to than they do to read since the narrator is working hard to make it entertaining for the listener. I listen to books in the car with my children so I look at it as using time I wouldn't have had for reading anyway and they really enjoy listening as well. I much prefer that we are listening to a story than have them watch a movie in the car, and our car doesn't have a DVD player anyway so the thought has really never crossed their minds anyway. At some point they are going to realize that lots of their friends get to watch movies in the car, but I am going to enjoy this time while they haven't considered the possibility or started asking for it. I do think they might still prefer listening to the story anyway.

It is different getting to read the stories in order and relatively close together. I recall waiting for the next installment to come out for many of the books and when too much time passes it can be hard to remember everything that had happened in the other books. I like how Rowling does put in reviews for readers to help those who may have either not read the other books or may not remember them in their entirety. It will be interesting to re watch this movie now that the book is fresh in my mind as well.

For some reason I had remembered Hermoine making more in roads with SPEW (her organization for the treatment of house elves) but perhaps that comes later or else I just remembered it incorrectly. It was nice to see Dobby again. More importantly the part with Winkie in the top box at the World Cup (which does not happen in the movie as I remember it) took on much more significance in light of what I knew from reading it before and watching the movie. I like that you can always come away with something else from a second reading of the same book.

Since the previews for the final movies have started to air I really want to finish rereading the last three books before November when the first half of the last book reaches theaters. At the same time I'm not sure I want to keep reading them with my children as they are about to take a darker turn and they had some trouble with the duel in the graveyard in this book.