Текст на английском про Гарри Поттера

My favourite books are the Harry Potter books. There are seven books. J. K. Rowling is the author.

Harry Potter is a boy. He is a wizard. He has got black hair, green eyes and glasses.

Harry goes to Hogwarts. It is a school of magic. It is a big old castle.

Harry has got two best friends. Their names are Ron and Hermione. They are brave and kind.

I like reading these books. They are exciting and funny!

When I was nine, I was ill for two weeks. I was very bored, so my grandmother gave me a thick book with a boy and a train on the cover. It was 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'.

At first I didn't want to read it because it looked too long. But after ten pages I couldn't stop. I was reading in bed, at breakfast and even under my blanket with a torch.

The story is about an orphan who learns that he is a wizard. On his eleventh birthday, he gets a letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and his life changes forever.

My favourite character is Hermione because she is the cleverest student in her year and she always helps her friends.

Now I have read all seven books. The last one is the saddest, but I think it is the best. Next year I am going to read them in English!

The first Harry Potter book was published in Britain in 1997, and the seventh and final one came out in 2007. J. K. Rowling has said that the idea for the story came to her on a delayed train from Manchester to London. Before the first book was accepted, it had been turned down by several publishers.

The series follows Harry, a boy who has grown up with his unkind aunt and uncle, through seven years at Hogwarts. Each book covers one school year, which means that readers grow up together with the characters. The early books are light and full of adventure, while the later ones become darker and deal with loss, fear and friendship.

The books have been translated into more than seventy languages, and they were made into eight films which were watched by millions of people. Fans can now visit the studio where the films were made and walk along Diagon Alley.

Rowling's world is full of memorable details: moving staircases, talking portraits, letters delivered by owls and Quidditch, a sport which is played on flying broomsticks. However, what keeps readers coming back is not the magic but the characters.

I have read the series twice, and I have noticed new details each time. If you haven't read it yet, start with the first book, and you will probably finish all seven.

When the first Harry Potter book appeared in 1997, few people could have predicted that a story about a boy wizard would become one of the best-selling series in history. Yet within a decade, children who had supposedly lost interest in reading were queuing outside bookshops at midnight to get the next volume.

Part of the explanation lies in the way the series grows with its audience. Beginning as a cheerful school story, it gradually turns into a serious novel about prejudice, the abuse of power and the price of courage. Having followed Harry from the age of eleven to seventeen, readers feel that they have lived through those years alongside him.

Equally important is the fact that the heroes are far from perfect. Harry is often impatient and angry, Ron is jealous of his famous friend, and even the wise headmaster Dumbledore turns out to have made serious mistakes. Rather than weakening the story, these flaws make the characters believable and their choices meaningful.

Critics have sometimes argued that the books are too long or that their style is simple. Such criticism, however, misses the point: the series was written to be read, not admired from a distance, and its clarity is precisely what made it accessible to millions of young readers around the world.

In my opinion, the real magic of Harry Potter is that it turns children into readers. Had I not picked up the first book at the age of nine, I doubt whether I would ever have discovered how much pleasure a long novel can bring.