The Harry Potter Series


Posted on Jul 23, 2009
By Tanya Turgeon

REVIEW by Tanya Turgeon

Scholastic Press, 1998 (Book 1) - 2007 (Book 7)
Paperback Box Set (7 Books) $86.93


The Harry Potter buzz died down for a while after the last book ("Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows") in the seven book series hit the shelves in the summer of 2007.  On July 15th, 2009 the sixth of the film versions of the books ("Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince") opened in theaters and once again kids dressed as Hermione, Harry and the rest of the crew came out of the woodwork.  Inspired by the film, I returned to my beloved books and was reminded that they are not only fun and captivating but also are definitely dog-friendly.

The most consistently appearing and realistically written dog is Fang, Hagrid's slobbery, large and lovable boar hound.  Despite his size and his name, he has a tender heart and less courage than you would think, making him a pretty accurate example of most super-sized dogs.  While doing research for this review, I came upon an interesting bit of trivia.  Apparently the dogs who play Fang in the films (there were four, one was even a rescue, yay!) are actually Neapolitan Mastiffs- a breed that does have a history with boars, so character development wasn't too much of an issue.  You'll see from the link above that even Fetchdog's breed center calls this "Hagrid's Dog."

Since this series is about witches, wizards, magic and fantastical creatures, not all the dogs are going to be the kind we're used to seeing walk down the street.  In the first book, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" Harry and his friends encounter a larger-than-life three-headed dog named Fluffy who acts as a fierce guard dog.  As we know every dog has a weak spot whether it be squirrels, peanut butter, or a squeaky chew toy and Fluffy's turns out to be music which lulls him to sleep.  Thankfully despite Fluffy's over protective attitude he survived the book and the series and as far as we know is happily running around the Forbidden Forest where he was set free.  Not that anyone doubts the level of the Harry Potter craze, but here's an example I stumbled upon of a super cute real-life dog creatively costumed to look like Fluffy.

Last but not least we have Sirius Black.  Okay, Sirius Black is actually a man and Harry's godfather, but he possesses the unique ability to change into a large black dog called Padfoot.  Kudos to Rowling for choosing the name Sirius, which in and of itself is a dog reference- the star known as Sirius is often called the Dog Star because of it's shining contribution to the constellation "Canis Major".

For those of you who have already read Harry Potter, there's nothing like using a new film release to get the books out and start all over again, maybe even treat yourself to the box set collection.  For those who've held out, it's time to give in.  These are great imaginative books that you can lose yourself in and are especially helpful in bringing parents closer to their kids in those rebellious tween years.  Plus, my review will make a lot more sense if you read them.

Utmost thanks goes to J.K. Rowling for her appreciation of dogs and cleverly making them part of one of the most popular series of our times and certainly for generations to come.


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