Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling, and was published on 21 June 2003 byBloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic in the United States, and Raincoast in Canada. Five million copies were sold in the first 24 hours of publication.
The novel features Harry Potter's struggles through his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, including the surreptitious return of the antagonist Lord Voldemort, O.W.L. exams, and an obstructive Ministry of Magic.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has won several awards, including being named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults in 2003. The book has also been made into a film, which was released in 2007, and into several video games by Electronic Arts.
From the book
The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive. Cars that were usually gleaming stood dusty in their drives
and lawns that were once emerald green lay parched and yellowing; the use of hosepipes had
been banned due to drought. Deprived of their usual car-washing and lawn-mowing pursuits, the
inhabitants of Privet Drive had retreated into the shade of their cool houses, windows thrown
wide in the hope of tempting in a nonexistent breeze. The only person left outdoors was a
teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four.
He was a skinny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who had the pinched, slightly unhealthy look of
someone who has grown a lot in a short space of time. His jeans were torn and dirty, his T-shirt
baggy and faded, and the soles of his trainers were peeling away from the uppers. Harry Potter’s
appearance did not endear him to the neighbors, who were the sort of people who thought
scruffiness ought to be punishable by law, but as he had hidden himself behind a large hydrangea
bush this evening he was quite invisible to passers-by. In fact, the only way he would be spotted
was if his Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia stuck their heads out of the living-room window and
looked straight down into the flowerbed below.
On the whole, Harry thought he was to be congratulated on his idea of hiding here. He was not,
perhaps, very comfortable lying on the hot, hard earth but, on the other hand, nobody was glaring
at him, grinding their teeth so loudly that he could not hear the news, or shooting nasty questions
at him, as had happened every time he had tried sitting down in the living room to watch
television with his aunt and uncle.
Almost as though this thought had fluttered through the open window, Vernon Dursley, Harry’s
uncle, suddenly spoke.
“Glad to see the boy’s stopped trying to butt in. Where is he, anyway?”
“I don’t know,” said Aunt Petunia, unconcerned. “Not in the house.”
Uncle Vernon grunted.
“Watching the news…” he said scathingly. “I’d like to know what he’s really up to. As if a
normal boy cares what’s on the news - Dudley hasn’t got a clue what’s going on; doubt he knows
who the Prime Minister is! Anyway, it’s not as if there’d be anything about his lot on our news–”
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