Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

I was happy to begin the second Harry Potter book, which turned out to be filled with plenty of laughs, but still gives the sense of 'what will happen next?' to the reader. We begin with Harry Potter, who returned to the Dursleys, his uncle Vernon, aunt Petunia, and cousin Dudley, after the end of the school term. But the Dursleys despise Harry, especially now that he has become a wizard, and Harry feels like he's left his own home behind him at school.

This book was a little more serious than the first one. Because, although you get plenty of laughs from the slightly ridiculous characters of Dobby the house elf and Gilderoy Lockhart, the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, there is danger in the school. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry and his two friends, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, were the only two students who knew that something strange was afoot at Hogwarts. But in this book, all the students are exposed to the dangers that begin to reveal themselves in the school.

I liked the fact that Ron's wand is broken in the beginning of the book and how, though it caused Ron quite a bit of grief through most of the story, it ended up saving both Ron and Harry from a very sad fate.

In my opinion, Hermione was more of an open character in this book than she was in the first one. I was glad for this because Hermione is one of my favorite characters so far. Her quick thinking resourcefulness is a compete necessity, how on earth would Ron and Harry get through school without her?

And, of course, there was no less of the thoroughly hilarious twins, Fred and George Weasley. Nothing seems to dampen their spirits and simply reading about their mischievous nature makes you want to smile.

The main point to the story was loyalty. How, although Ron and Harry had a good chance of getting killed or, worse in Hermione's mind, expelled, they continued to search for any clues that might help them stop the attacks on the Hogwarts students. How Ron and Hermione stood by Harry when few others would. And even in the face of serious danger, Harry, Ron, and Hermione remained loyal to each other and to the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore.

I definitely thought it was well worth reading and very enjoyable, I am glad that this book was recommended for me to read.