Friday 4 May 2012

Starting off...

I think my reading career started when I was 2 or 3 with those little square books of Thomas and the Tank Engine. I used to be so into these! I even memorised all the characters. After this huge rush of Thomas had passed, Peter Rabbit and Winnie the Pooh took over my world.
During reception and Year 1 at school, I started reading biff and chip books.
Everyone had to read these. The books were colour-coded, depending on how hard they were to read. As I was one of the cleverest and fastest at reading in the class, I was always the first or second at moving up a colour. I don't really remember them much, but I remember that they were the sort of books that were dominated by bright bold pictures and one or two sentences per double page. Books that were designed to help children learn to read.

I didn't ever have any bedtime stories like everyone else, partly because of my Japanese background. I usually used to say goodnight and go to bed. When I went to Japan, my grandparents used to sing songs to get me to sleep, or otherwise read children's magazines which I used to love.

As I got into Year 2 and 3 in primary school, I started reading 'proper' medium-long books like the ones by Roald Dahl.
As I got into Year 3 or 4, I found the books that would take up my life up to now. One day my friends Little Specs and Siwil Bestend recommended the Harry Potter series. Up to then, I had heard of the books slightly but I hadn't really thought about reading them because of the title, just like the reason the Harry Potter film series producer David Heyman had doubted making the books into a film first.
I would be shocked to hear that there was anyone who had not had the ultimate pleasure of reading them, but here is a 'brief' summary of what happens.

(Note: Please feel free to skip this bit if you already know what the story is about.)

Decided to do it in note form as an attempt to minimise length.

OK, hold on tight, this could go on for long...

Overall: Harry Potter is about Harry Potter going to Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry, after Lord Voldemort kills his parents, and learning more about his past and Voldemort's past as he aims to avenge his parents' death by killing Lord Voldemort.

One down, 7 to go...

Philosopher's Stone:
Harry Potter left on Aunt and Uncle's doorstep by Dumbledore, McGonagall and Hagrid after his parents are killed by Lord Voldemort. He too disappears after somehow failing to kill Harry. Harry is left unharmed apart from a scar on his forehead.
Lets a boa constrictor out at the zoo.
Letters are sent consistently to Harry.
Harry is not allowed to read the letters.
The moment Harry turns 11, Hagrid, a half-giant from Hogwarts comes to tell him he is a wizard.
Gives Harry the letter, which turns out to be an invitation to Hogwarts.
Harry goes with Hagrid to Diagon Alley.
In the pub, he meets other witches and wizards who all know him.
He finds a small fortune of wizard money which enables him to buy what he needs to go to Hogwarts.
Hagrid also takes small bag from a different vault.
He does not tell Harry the content of the bag.
He buys a wand, the brother of the wand that gave Harry his lightning shaped scar on  his forehead.
Hagrid tells Harry about his past.
He is handed a ticket to Hogwarts on the Hogwarts Express from King's Cross Station.
It is from Platform 9 3/4.
Finds way in through barrier with help from the Weasley family.
Sits in a compartment with Ron, the youngest of the weasleys.
Soon becomes enemies with Draco Malfoy.
Led to castle by boat by Hagrid.
Takes the Sorting Ceremony.
Sorted into Gryffindor along with Ron, despite the hat telling him he would do well in Slytherin.
Shows unexpected talent during flying lesson and is put into the house Quidditch team by Professor McGonagall.
Meets different teachers, evil Snape, plump Sprout, dwarf Flitwick, nervous Quirrell, strict McGonagall, hooty Hooch and ghost Binns. (They don't actually have these names but they are just one word descriptions that I came up with for each professor.
Becomes to hate Snape.
Wins first quidditch match on a Nimbus 2000 broom, the best yet, a present from Professor Dumbledore.
Becomes friends with Hermione Granger after saving her from a troll.
Receives an Invisibility cloak from someone at Christmas.
Discovers secret mirror.
Caught out of bed by McGonagall, total of 150 house points deducted between Harry, Hermione and Neville.
Discovers about Nicholas Flamel and the Philosopher's Stone.
Goes to the entrance to find stone.
Ron helps them past giant chess set and Hermione uses cool logic.
Harry goes on.
He meets Quirrell instead of the expected Snape.
Quirrell is discovered to be sharing a body with Voldemort, who is in need of a body.
He is wanting the Stone because it will produce the elixir of life, making him immortal.
Harry finds the stone in his pocket, and is helped out alive by Professor Dumbledore.
Ron and Hermione are awarded 50 points apiece and Harry 60, and Neville 10, meaning that Gryffindor won the House cup.

Chamber of Secrets:
Harry is warned by Dobby the house-elf not to return to Hogwarts.
Harry receives a warning from the Ministry of Magic for using magic in front of Muggles after Dobby uses the Hover Charm on a cake and crashing it on a Dursley guest to stop him from going back to Hogwarts.
Uncle Vernon puts bars on his window and forbids from going anywhere other than his room and the bathroom.
Harry is rescued from his room by Ron and his twin brothers Fred and George via a flying Ford Angelia car.
Arrives at Ron's house and goes to Diagon Alley with his family.
Meets Gilderoy Lockhart in Flourish and Blotts and is taken for a picture with him.
Confronts Draco Malfoy and his father at the back door of the shop.
Barrier between platforms 9 and 10 (the only way of getting onto Platform 9 3/4) seals itself for some reason.
Ron flies himself and Harry to Hogwarts using the car.
The car breaks seconds before landing and they crash straight into the Whomping Willow, which breaks Ron's wand.
They are caught by Snape and are put in detention by McGonagall and Dumbledore.
Discovers that his arch rival Draco Malfoy has been put into the Slytherin Quidditch team as seeker.
The whole Slytherin team are playing on Nimbus 2001s, the newest and best broom out yet.
Malfoy calls Hermione mudblood, a nasty word meaning a witch or wizard who do not have a witch mother and/or wizard father.
Ron threatens Malfoy but his curse backfires due to his broken wand and slugs come out of his mouth as he throws up.
Harry hears talking from inside walls.
Mrs Norris is found frozen close to Harry, Ron and Hermione and they are the first to be put under suspicion.

TBC...

Prisoner of Azkaban:
Uncle Vernon's sister Marge comes to visit.
Harry loses his temper and makes Aunt Marge inflate like a balloon.
He runs away and gets on the Knight Bus, an emergency bus service for witches and wizards only.
He hears about a mass murderer who has broken out of the wizard prison Azkaban, Sirius Black.
He is found in the Leaky Cauldron by Cornelius Fudge, the minister for magic, and is told not to leave Diagon Alley.
There, he greatly admires the Firebolt, a new international level broom.
He meets Ron and Hermione and arranges to go to King's Cross together.
Finds out that Sirius Black is looking to kill Harry.

TBC...

Goblet of Fire:
Harry dreams an old Muggle man being killed by Voldemort, Wormtail and another man.
Ron's family comes to take Harry away from his uncle's house and they go to watch the Quidditch World Cup Final.
Bulgaria vs Ireland ends with Krum of Bulgaria catching the snitch but Ireland winning by 10 points.
Death Eaters, a gang of Lord Voldemort's supporters, sets the whole campsite in panic as they set tents on fire and kill Muggles.
The Dark Mark appears in the sky.

TBC...

Order of the Phoenix:
Two Dementors attack Harry and Dudley in Little Whinging.
Harry rescues himself and his cousin using the Patronus Charm.
He receives a letter from the Ministry of Magic that informs him that he has been expelled from Hogwarts.

TBC...

Half Blood Prince:
Fudge is replaced by Rufus Scrimgeour as Minister for Magic, and meets with the Muggle Prime Minister.
Snape makes the unbreakable vow with Narcissa Malfoy, promising that he will do anything to protect her son Draco.

TBC...

Deathly Hallows:
Voldemort and his Death Eaters hold a meeting on how to capture Harry Potter.
The Dursleys and Harry separate forever with the help of Dedalus Diggle and Hestia Jones before Mad Eye Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin, Arthur Weasley, Bill Weasley, Hagrid, Ron, Hermione, Fred and George Weasley, Mundungus Fletcher and Fleur Delacour come to help Harry escape No.4 Privet Drive without being killed by Voldemort.
Ron, Hermione, Fred and George Weasley, Mundungus Fletcher and Fleur Delacour all take a dose of polyjuice potion which transforms them immediately into so many doubles of Harry.
Harry goes by motorbike with Hagrid and head towards Tonks' parents' house.

TBC...
When I started reading them, I couldn't stop and quickly I had already taken over Little Specs, nothing was going to stop me. 1, 2, 3, 4 I read until when I was halfway through book 5, I heard that book 7 would be coming out soon. When it came out, I dashed to the closest supermarket to buy it.
I remember queueing at the counter, just behind a man who had also got hold of the book and put it into his shopping basket.
As I was only halfway through the series when I bought the 7th book, I remember not being able to understand the blurb at the back of the Deathly Hallows. "Why has Dumbledore left Harry?" was what I always thought to myself, never ever realising that Dumbledore could have been killed.
I soon finished the 6th book and I finally realised what the blurb meant!
I finished the final book, slightly behind Siwil, yet my love for the books is now a hundred, if not a thousand times more than his.
Anyway, Harry Potter books and films, I still love, having read each book in the series over 15 times each and knowing probably half the lines in selected films.
So, judging by this fact, I probably love Harry Potter more than anyone I know.
On the other hand, I feel that my writing started off pretty slowly.
Before school, I did no writing at all, except for maybe learning to write my name.
However, I was always on the top table in English. At the end of primary school, I had achieved a 5a in English writing and a 5c in English reading. I was never good at reading comprehension, I'm still not that good.
I haven't actually written something that I'm really proud of. Maybe because I'm that thought of person that gets bored of things I do pretty easily and quickly.

Actually, I've just completed my end of KS3 English exam, and I feel I did amazingly at the reading bit of it, but did rubbish on the writing. My only excuse for this is that the writing was about describing your favourite sweet, when the food I hate more than anything else is sweets, chocolate and all that sort of stuff.

Anyway, I might stop there for now.            
                                                                               Rorry

2 comments:

  1. I really like how simple books like thomas the tank engine, and other childrens books could set of a long lust for reading and writing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Saxule,

    Thank you for your creative feedback.

    ReplyDelete