Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Author: J.K. Rowling
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Copyright: 1999
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 341
Reading Level: Ages 9 to 12 (Barnes and Noble)
Summary: A magical house elf shows up at Harry's aunt and uncle's house and warns him not to go back to school because terrible things are going to happen. Harry feels that he has to go back because he feels that Hogwarts is his home. He and his friend, Ron can't get through the barrier to get onto the train, so they take Ron's father's enchanted car to get to school and end up crashing it into the whomping willow on Hogwarts' grounds. Ron breaks his wand in the crash. They get in big trouble but are allowed to stay at school. A rogue bludger in a Quidditch game tries to hurt Harry and chases him through the whole game. Meanwhile, someone or something is attacking students at the school and a message left on the wall says the Chamber of Secrets has been opened again. Harry finds a diary that shows him some of the events that happened the last time it was opened. Fortunately no one has died yet but Harry hears the creature and knows it wants to kill. The heir of Slytherin, who is supposedly the person opening the Chamber, takes Ron's sister Ginny down into the Chamber. Harry and Ron, along with their crazy teacher go after her. Ron and Harry find out that the teacher has not really done all the amazing things he claims but that he uses memory charms to make it look like he did. When he tries to perform a memory charm on the two of them after they find the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, it backfires because he steals Ron's wand ot perform the charm. Ron stays back with the teacher and Harry goes on to find Ginny. He finds her with the teenage version of Voldemort (then known as Tom Riddle). Ginny had been kind of possessed by Voldemort and had been the one opening the Chamber. Harry fights the creature with help from Dumbledore's songbird and the sorting hat, from which he pulls out a powerful sword. He kills the deadly creature but is stuck by one of it's venomous teeth in the process. Dumbledore's bird heals his wound and Harry stabs the diary with the tooth, thus destroying the memory version of Voldemort and saving Ginny. They all escape the Chamber of Secrets and Harry tells Dumbledore what happened in the Chamber of Secrets. It turns out that one of Voldemort's followers had planted the diary in Ginny's stuff and the house elf was his servant. Harry helped free the house elf and finds out it was him who blocked the barrier and cursed the bludger to try and keep Harry away from Hogwarts. Dumbledore throws a feast and once again Harry has had an exciting year at Hogwarts.
Who would you recommend this book to? I recommend Harry Potter books to everyone! I probably would suggest that children under 12 stick to the first three books though.
Potential problems or conflicts: Some parent have issue with Harry Potter because they believe it focuses too much on witchcraft and wizardry.
My reaction: I love all the Harry Potter books but I really love the plot of this one! I think it has some really good action and really good plot development! Great book!