Sadly, all good things come to an end. This week, I have, like many others, gone back to school; but one of the things I enjoyed the most about the Christmas holidays was the many hours I spent lying down on the sofa, reading Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, one of my most prized possessions and undoubtedly my favourite book of 2005?

So here we are. Yet another book from J. K. Rowling, the successful creator of Harry Potter. She, once again, charts Harry Potter?s adventures with consummate skill and in breathtaking fashion, which makes it impossible to put the book down once you start reading it !!!

??What got you started??? is one of the questions many people would love to ask J. K. Rowling. According to the author herself, she began writing about Harry Potter the moment her mother lost her battle with multiple sclerosis. J.K Rowling worked on the first book for several years. Once it was over, several publishers turned down the manuscript before one finally took interest.

Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince is the sixth book in the Harry Potter series. I would certainly recommend it to anybody having read any of the previous Harry Potter stories, each providing a unique insight into Harry?s magical world and recounting the adventures of Harry and his best friends Hermione and Ron at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

But for the time being, let me give you a foretaste of Harry?s latest adventure. As Voldemort, (Harry?s sworn enemy as well as his parents? murderer) gains in power, a series of incidents occur, including a hurricane in the West Country and the destruction of Brockdale Bridge, which leads to Cornelius Fudge?s resignation as minister of Magic. The latter is replaced by Rufus Scrimgeour.

Meanwhile, Harry is spending a quiet summer with the Dursleys, when suddenly Dumbledore whirls into the story and takes Harry along with him to convince Professor Slughorn, a retired wizard, to take up a teaching post at Hogwarts before dropping Harry off at the Burrow, where his best friends Ron Weasly and Hermione Granger are waiting for him with impatience. They go on their usual trip to Diagon Alley to buy their school books and robes, and they overhear Draco Malfoy speaking to a shop owner. Harry immediately gets suspicious. Is Draco a death-eater? Hermoine and Ron refuse to take him seriously, and Harry?s further spying on Draco proves to be practically of no avail.

Once back at Hogwarts, Harry?s sixth year gets off to an exciting start. Between private lessons with Dumbledore, being part of Slughorn?s ??Slug?? club and leading the Gryffindor Quidditch team to the finals, Harry is exhausted. Soon, he finds the Half-Blood Prince?s Potions book, (full of tips on how to excel in potions), wins a bottle of Felix Felicis lucky potion, sends Dobby and Kreacher, the house-elves to spy on Draco Malfoy, and attends Aragog, the giant?s spider?s funeral.

A lot of questions arise: What is Draco up to? Is he really a death-eater? Who is responsible for Katie Bell and Ron Weasley?s accidents? What are Horcruxes? How will Harry manage to enter the requirement room? Why is Snape behaving so strangely? And most importantly, Who is the Half-Blood Prince?

The answers to all these questions reveal themselves very slowly, one by one, and this year, something tragic will happen? something which will change Hogwarts? fate ? and Harry?s life and destiny? forever?

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K Rowling, published for the first time in mid 2005 by Bloomsbury, is available in all major bookshops.

<B>Nikhita Obegadoo (11 years-old) </B>