The Running Bibliophile

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) by J.K. Rowling opens with Harry Potter stuck at the Dursleys’ house for the summer, where he is once again treated terribly and made to feel unwanted. Things take a strange turn when Harry receives an unexpected visitor: Dobby, a house-elf who dramatically warns him not to return to Hogwarts because terrible things will happen if he does. Of course, Harry ignores the warning and heads back to school, where everything quickly begins to unravel. Mishap after mishap follows, and before long students at Hogwarts start mysteriously being turned to stone, sending fear and suspicion through the school. Although Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was published in 1998, just after my nineteenth birthday, I don’t remember hearing much about it, or even the first book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, at the time. I vaguely recall kids and teens talking about how good the books were, but that was about it.  It wasn’t unt...

The Worst Witch Strikes Again (Worst Witch, #2) by Jill Murphy is the sequel to The Worst Witch (Worst Witch, #1) . At just under 100 pages, it was a super quick read for me as an adult. I never knew this was a book series until recently, and I had to buy the series to read. Children who are just beginning to read chapter books and too young to read the Harry Potter book series should definitely pick up the Worst Witch series to read, especially little girls since it is based on a girls boarding school for witches. What I loved about this second installment of The Worst Witch book series is that it teaches lessons about friendship, jealousy, and the lesson of getting into trouble for something you did not do. There isn't anything I can really complain about when it comes to The Worst Witch Strikes Again (Worst Witch, #2) . It is age appropriate for kids between the ages five through eight and teaches valuable lessons. Fun and engaging, it even kept my attention as an ...

In 1986, a movie called The Worst Witch was aired on television, and as a seven year old child, I absolutely fell in love with it. A few months ago, I thought about how much I loved it and decided to see if it was available on Netflix. It was not available, but it had been made into a television series back in 2017 and that was available. I did watch a few of the episodes and thought they had been done well. It made me research the original movie, and I found out that it was based on a book series from the 1970's. How I did not know this I'll never know, but I decided to buy a used copy from ThriftBooks.com.  When I received the book The Worst Witch (Worst Witch, #1) by Jill Murphy, I couldn't wait to read it and see how closely the original television movie compared to the book. I wasn't disappointed. The 1986 movie did a phenomenal job in adapting the book for television. The Worst Witch (Worst Witch, #1) by Jill Murphy is about twelve year old Mildred...

While scrolling through my Instagram feed, I came across a post from OnTheBookList that featured the novel The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson. Having been a former beauty pageant contestant and beauty queen, the name of the book intrigued me. I immediately looked at the synopsis on Goodreads.com and decided that I had to buy and read this particular book. The Accidental Beauty Queen is a romantic comedy about identical twins Charlotte and Ginny Gorman. Charlotte decides to fly to Orlando, Florida a few days early to visit Harry Potter World while her sister Ginny is competing in the Miss American Treasure pageant. However, in less than 24 hours of being in Orlando, Charlotte has to rush Ginny to the hospital when she has an allergic reaction to something that makes her face swell up and a rash break out. Not able to compete in the pageant until her face clears up, Ginny convinces Charlotte to pose as her in the pageant. If you'll be going on vacation soon, t...