This is one of the first books that was really heartbreaking for me and being a children’s book, it took a toll on me as a young reader.  It’s a story that focuses around two friends, and kind of reminded me of Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen but this is a different kind of tale in many ways.  While it does center around two friends, one of which is rather wild and carefree, it allows us a more serious look at a friendship and less of a zany story like Harris and Me. The title comes from the outings to pick blackberries the boys go on but the book…

This book in the Harry Potter series gets serious but, for me, is one of the most entertaining as well.  While I think this might be my favorite, it’s also one of the darker books and, arguably, is the start of where the books become more dangerous and show us why Voldemort isn’t to be taken lightly. While the Triwizard Tournament is so much fun, and is enough of a story to hold up the book, the ending is heartbreaking, terrifying, and brings so many things together in the Harry Potter universe (like where Peter Pettigrew ran off to) and it kicks off the urgency to contain and destroy Voldemort.…

This book is one of my favorites from when I was a kid simply because it hit on a lot of “firsts” for me.  It was the first dystopian-like book I’d read, it was the first book where I realized more was going on than just a basic story, and it was the first cliffhanger ending I had dealt with.  While I don’t want to go into much detail of this book because if you’ve never read it I don’t want to spoil it but I will try to give a brief summary. The novel centers around Jonas, a young boy that’s lives in a very structured community where laws,…

I think this, while not the darkest of the Harry Potter novels, begins to get us into the deeper waters of the story as we deal with betrayal, enemies, dangers from the Dark Lord, and much of the past, including what happened to Harry’s parents, is brought to light.  This is a more mature Potter novel, in my opinion, but it still takes us on a great ride through Hogwarts and the world of Harry and his friends. The story begins with Harry learning of Sirius Black escaping, causing some chaos with his Aunt and Uncle, then runs away in the hopes of freeing himself from his troubling guardians.  He…