Episodes
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Order of the Phoenix: Chapter 1. Dudley Demented
After a few years off we return to Harry Potter. We start off with a bit of catch-up to jog our memories on what happened in the last book, and then we learn that one of us has a lot of faith in the Ministry of Magic. This book (mild spoiler alert) is going to rock him to the core, I can already...
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 22. The Prophecy Comes True
And that's a wrap on Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief!
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 21. I Settle My Tab
I have a feeling this kid's ability to rattle off lines of prophecy from memory after hearing them only once is going to come in handy in some of the future books we read together...
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 20. I Battle My Jerk Relative
In which we devise better battle strategies than the God of War and a demigod.
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 19. We Find Out the Truth, Sort Of
Have you ever been right in the thick of an exciting chapter only to have a stranger knock on your door to let you know your backyard chickens have escaped and are roaming the neighborhood? Well, now we have!
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 18. Annabeth Does Obedience School
We read this chapter on Christmas Day, so one of us was still riding that Christmas high!
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 17. We Shop for Water Beds
What would you do if you had infinity dollars? Well, you could buy something that cost $350, for starters...
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 16. We Take a Zebra to Vegas
Wait, are you telling me you don't know the difference between an antelope and a Thompson's gazelle? *scandalized*
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 15. A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers
I always like the stories where brains defeat brawn.
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 14. I Become a Known Fugitive
When you end up reading four chapters in one sitting at bedtime, you get a little loopy by the time you get to that last chapter.
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 13. I Plunge to My Death
If you don't know what they look like, go ahead and do an image search for echidnas now. It'll save you having to do it later!
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 12. We Get Advice from a Poodle
We ended up reading four chapters (!) this bedtime. This is the second.
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 11. We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium
Do you know who Auntie M. is? Because we have some guesses! Actually, we just have one guess, but we guess it often.
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 10. I Ruin a Perfectly Good Bus
A lot of exciting action in this one, and I'm not just talking about the demonstration of musk ox headbutting techniques!
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 9. I Am Offered a Quest
Some technical difficulties in this one! But don't worry, you won't be able to tell where they... *puts finger to earpiece* this just in, you WILL be able to tell where the technical difficulties occur. Apologies in advance!
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 8. We Capture a Flag
Do you know how to pronounce Hephaestus? Me neither.
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 7. My Dinner Goes Up in Smoke
I'm pretty sure he prefers the illustrated editions so he can get spoilers from the pictures.
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 6. I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom
There's a great two-page illustration of all of the Camp Half-Blood cabins, so we have to stop and examine it regularly as we read.
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 5. I Play Pinochle with a Horse
This chapter includes a map of the camp, which we spent a good chunk of time looking at and discussing. So, sorry in advance to those of you who don't have a big map of the camp to look at.
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 4. My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting
This is the last chapter we had to re-read: after this we're back into those first-time-around reactions!
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 3. Grover Unexpectedly Loses his Pants
Listenin' and Legos, Legos and listenin'.
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The Lightning Thief: Chapter 2. Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death
We read the whole book over about two weeks in December, but when I went back to check the recordings I found that chapters 2, 3, and 4 did not record for some reason. So these next three chapters are from the second time through reading (in case you notice that he suddenly knows what's going to...
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Percy Jackson and the Olympians - The Lightning Thief: Chapter 1. I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher
So we're reading the first book of a new book series, and thought you might be interested in joining us!
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The Tales of Beedle the Bard: The Wizard and the Hopping Pot
While visiting his grandparents he found Aunt Tori's copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, so he brought it home so we could read it together (thanks, Tori!). For those who may not know, Beedle the Bard penned many popular wizarding world fairy tales, much like the Brothers Grimm did for Muggles....
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A Quick Aside: I Answer Your Questions
As a quick aside, if I ever had a podcast that wasn't this it would probably be called "A Quick Aside."
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 37: The Beginning
Bringing it on home.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 36. The Parting of the Ways
We recorded this way back in February, just as schools were starting to close due to coronavirus and the idea of kindergarten-via-Zoom was still new and novel. What lives we've lived since then.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 35. Veritaserum
Have you ever wanted to spend 15 minutes talking through the events of a momentous Harry Potter chapter with a kindergartner while they lie in bed after reading said chapter? Well, now you can live the dream vicariously through us! (Note: we read this chapter four months ago, before the…
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 34. Priori Incantatem
Okay, sure, Voldemort is back to full power and he and Harry just had a mind-blowing duel, but let's not lose sight of the important issues: does Harry technically still win the Tri-Wizard Cup? And will it give Gryffindor enough House points to win the House Cup for the fourth year in a row?
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 33. The Death Eaters
In which we have SO MANY THEORIES about what the heck is happening here.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 32. Flesh, Blood, and Bone
Short, but thrilling!
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 31. The Third Task
This chapter is so much fun.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 30. The Pensieve
“Never make fun of someone if they mispronounce a word. It means they learned it by reading” - Anonymous We had a sieve in our kitchen when I was growing up, but we called it a strainer. I only knew the word from reading, and in my head it rhymed with "receive." I'm afraid I've taken the first...
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 29. The Dream
Having is a kid means sometimes having to explain concepts like "blackmail" on the spot, very poorly.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 28. The Madness of Mr. Crouch
We ended this one well after bedtime, but we still had a long and great conversation after I stopped recording. I'm sorry you couldn't hear it, but just know the wheels are turning in his head. He's really trying to figure this one out.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 27. Padfoot Returns
Seriously, this whole mystery of Mr. Crouch being "sick" is extremely suspicious.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 26. The Second Task
Do you remember how Professor Snape brought Harry to the Hospital Wing after he was almost killed by dementors in the last book? Well, five points to your House if you did! I did not immediately remember that, as you'll hear.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 25. The Eye and the Egg
Our conversation at the end of this chapter does include a minor spoiler, just FYI.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 24. Rita Skeeter's Scoop
We have a minor digression midway through the chapter as we try to solve some of the mysteries in the book. Who fired off that Dark Mark at the Quidditch World Cup, anyway?
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 23. The Yule Ball
In which I sidestep the conversation about the appropriateness of students going to the Yule Ball with teachers. To be honest, the whole concept of finding a date went over his head, but hey, he's only six.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 22. The Unexpected Task
WANGOBALLWIME?
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 21. The House Elf Liberation Front
In which we shake our fists skyward at the continued presence of Rita Skeeter and debate the likelihood of the second task involving a singing, showering prefect.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 20. The First Task
We were so excited to read about the first task we started our discussion during bathtime.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 19. The Hungarian Horntail
The recording cuts off before we identify the Harry and the Potters song that mentions the Hungarian Horntail, but don't worry, we do remember that it's The Yule Ball, off their first album.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 18. The Weighing of the Wands
Alright, real quick, I want to address the periodic crying baby in the background of many of these chapters: we've been reading mostly at bedtime lately, which is also the baby's bedtime, and once the baby realizes we're getting him ready for bed he protests loudly. Sorry! It's an honest little...
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 17. The Four Champions
Sometimes you really have to get into character if you want your Dumbledore voice to be believable.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 16. The Goblet of Fire
In which a song by the band Harry and the Potters spoils one of the big surprises in the book. It won't be the last time, I'm sure.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 15. Beauxbatons and Durmstrang
Thanks to the holidays and associated travels we took a little over a month off from Harry Potter, so it was great to get back in the saddle.
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 14. The Unforgivable Curses
Last year we received a note from his preschool teacher indicating that he was tested as having the vocabulary of an eight-year-old, and I 100% credit Harry Potter for that--how many other kindergarteners know what "constant vigilance" means? (Also, this week and last week there were some severe...
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Goblet of Fire: Chapter 13. Mad-Eye Moody
Thanks to a recording issue sound quality is a little bit off on this one, but the quality content is dead on.
About this show
It's like an audiobook if audiobooks included commentary from a four-and-a-half year-old self-proclaimed "Harry Potter expert." Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reading-harry-potter0/support
Hosted by
Doug Woodhouse
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