Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
By J. K. Rowling
Scholastic, 2000, $25.95

The eagerly awaited sequel in the Harry Potter series has finally arrived in bookstores and successfully answers the question of whether it was worth the wait. The answer is yes. This is the longest book of the series so far, but every bit is enjoyable.

“Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire” continues Harry’s adventures as a fourth year student at Hogwarts, the school for magically inclined youngsters. Before Harry can even get back to Hogwarts, the adventure has begun.

In this novel Harry is having fewer problems with his Muggle (nonmagical) relatives, the Dursleys. Although they know that Harry cannot use his magical powers outside the school without facing serious consequences, they are a bit nervous about his godfather finding out Harry is being mistreated. They know that Sirius, Harry’s godfather, is an escaped murderer. Harry has forgotten to inform them of his innocence. So, the only mistreatment they try is in telling everyone that Harry is attending St. Brutus’s Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys, and keeping his meals smaller than those of Dudley’s, their extremely overweight son. (Dudley’s on a diet because his school doesn’t have any uniforms that can fit him.) Harry doesn’t care where others think he’s going to school, and he still has his owl, Hedwig, to bring him treats.

The real adventure begins when Harry attends his first ever Quidditch World Cup final with his best friend Ron and the rest of the Weasleys. They have also invited Harry’s other close friend Hermione. After a spectacular match of Quidditch, which the group is able to watch from the top box, the crowd turns nasty, as several of Lord Voldemort’s followers decide to torment some Muggles and, possibly, any witches and wizards who have Muggle blood.

Harry and friends manage to get away and are soon on their way back to Hogwarts. Once there, they find that all the Quidditch tournaments have been cancelled for the year, due to an event that will involve two other schools of magic and hasn’t taken place for over an hundred years, because of the mounting death toll.

Rowling has managed to bring back most of the characters from the rest of the series, and introduce new ones just as interesting and entertaining. In addition to all this excitement, Ron’s brothers, Fred and George, are up to their usual mischief while his other brother, Percy, despite having graduated, is still in a position to look down on them all. Snape, the potions professor, still despises Harry and tries with the help of Harry’s classmates, including Draco, to make him miserable. There is a new teacher for the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, but Hagrid is still teaching Care of Magical Creatures.

Rowling has also managed to keep Harry and his friends believable characters. They come across as regular people who just happen to have special powers. Friends still have misunderstandings and 14-year-olds begin to develop an interest in the opposite sex.

If you have not read any of the other novels there is enough background information presented in this one to keep you from missing out on too much. Of course, you’ll want to pick up the previous ones or just reread them to catch all the little details.

I don’t want to go in to too much detail and give away the many plot twists that Rowling has going in the novel, but let’s just say you can never be too sure of who are the good guys and who are the bad.