Sometimes when I want to read Harry Potter I just find a comfortable spot and start reading out loud. I never make it past the first sentence before I have a kid snuggled up next to me.

The Weasley's flying car is a fairly regular subject of discussion in our house, so it's always fun to revisit it.

My Dobby voice got huge belly laughs the first time we read this book. This second time it got huge smiles, which you obviously can't see. I never heard what my Dobby voice sounded like until I listened to this recording and, well... I'd like to apologize to everyone who has to listen to my Dobby voice.

Welcome to The Chamber of Secrets! We had to skip the last chapter of Sorcerer's Stone because it was deemed too scary, so if you're wondering what happened to Harry as he entered the final room protecting the Stone, well, sorry, we constantly spoiled that big reveal through the entire reading of Sorcerer's Stone (it was Quirrel all along!). Don't worry, Griffindor wins the House Cup!

Also, become a supporter of this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reading-harry-potter/support

We begin with a brief detour back to the troll illustrations in Chapter 10 (which includes a wonderful two-page spread about trolls from Newt Scamander's Fantastic Beasts) and end by playing Harry Potter, which almost always means I'm Ron and I'm trying to keep Crookshanks from eating Scabbers. I honestly have no idea if we're actually going to be able to read the next chapter. We might seriously skip it.

It's been a while since we've read Harry Potter: partly because we've been on vacation and partly because I think he might be a little nervous to reread the Voldemort chapter again. But then we found out Harry and the Potters would be playing near us, so I decided to take him. He was a little overwhelmed by the volume of the show while we were there, but he wouldn't stop talking about it on the way home. And so I pulled out our little audio recorder, we had a long discussion about the show, and then read the next chapter and half. And then... I realized our recorder's battery had died mid-chapter and we had lost everything. I was devastated. Like, I think I freaked him out a bit by how upset I was. He was ready to move on, but he was willing to sit and talk about the show a little more with me. Our Felix Felicis had run out, though, and we couldn't quite capture lightning in a bottle twice. We'll read more soon: I think the show helped get him energized about Harry Potter again.

We read this half of the chapter the day before his preschool graduation, and his feelings on it seem to have changed dramatically.

We read this chapter a few days before his pre-school graduation, which I learned he has a LOT of feelings about. Transitions are hard, man.

This is also the episode where we reveal our Potter Puppet Pals fandom. (Note to parents: screen Potter Puppet Pals before watching them with your young kids unless you're cool with them running around the playground shouting "Hagrid's butt crack" and other such wizard swears. Trust me, you don't want that.)

Recorded this one on Father's Day. Sitting and reading together was really all I wanted.

It's hard to read a chapter in a book when someone keeps pulling out their "wand" (i.e. a stick they found on a walk a month ago that they use as a wand ALL. THE. TIME.) to do the Leg Locking Curse on you, but somehow we manage.