Rating: 5 stars
Synopsis: Harry Potter is back at Hogwarts, where a mysterious beast is attacking students. It's up to Harry to solve the dangerous mystery, and to find a missing friend.
I love the themes in this book: Friendship, love, loyalty and courage. Then there's Dumbledore's sage words near the end about how it's not our abilities that make us who we are, but our choices. What wonderful sentiments for any child, whether age 10 or 1o0.
I also appreciate how Rowling doesn't dwell on the gruesome. The scene where Harry battles the basalisk is less than a page long, and doesn't go into too much gory detail. It's nice when an author leaves some of the action sequences to the reader's imagination instead of spelling everything out.
