Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)
by J.K. Rowling
|
List Price: Our Price: $10.93 You Save: $14.06 (56%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.20 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)
Book Review: Erin Duffy
Summary: 5 Stars
A young boy named Harry Potter is living with his aunt and uncle and his cousin, Dudley. While Dudley is spoiled, Harry is treated like a servant for the family. Soon, Harry starts receiving mysterious letters and discovering strange powers that he never knew he had. For example, when the family when to the zoo for Dudley's birthday one day, Harry made a boa constrictor come out of his cage and scare the whole zoo.
When Harry's uncle takes the family to an island far away from their home, a strange man enters the building. They soon learn that this man's name is Hagrid, and that he is teacher at Hogwarts school, where witches and wizards are taught. He also tells Harry that the reason for all of the starange happenings was that he is actually a wizard and that he is invited to attend Hogwarts.
Harry agrees and Hagrid takes him shopping for school supplies in a secret marketplace. First they go to Gringotts, the bank, where Harry learns that his parents have left him an infinate amount of money.
Weeks later, Harry goes to the train station where he is magically transported to a platform called "nine and three quarters" Hogwarts also invited a boy named Ron Weasley and a girl named Hermione Granger to attend, who both become fast friends with Harry. When they arrive, each student must be sorted out into their "houses". All three of the children are sorted into the Griffindor house.
In the beginning of the school; year, a professor at Hogwarts, Professor McGonnagall, chooses Harry to play Quiddich, a popular wizards game.
While Harry is sneaking around the school, he discovers a trapdoor with a three- headed dog on the top of it. He finds this to be very mysterious and it interests him to try and find out what it was put there for.
On Halloween, a troll is found roaming around in the school. Both Harry and Ron are very scared of this troll, but they knowthat Hermione is in very great danger if they do not try to help her. They find hermione and together, all three of them defeat the troll.
During Harry's first Quidditch match, his broom is obscurely swaying this way and that. Hermione sees that Snape is staring at Harry and supposedly cursing the broom.She comes to the rescue and sets Snape's clothes on fire. Harry perseveres and makes a spectacular play to bring the Griffindor team to victory..
For Christmas, Harry receives his father's invisibility cloak, and he explores the school, late at night with the cloak on.. . He discovers the a mirror which displays the upmost desire of whoever looks in it. Harry looks in it and sees his parents stanmding with him. He goes back to his room and goes to sleep.
Harry learns that the dog that was seen on the trap door was guarding the Sorcerer's Stone, which is a stone that gives you life forever.
A few weeks later, Hagrid wins a dragon egg in a poker game. It is illegal to own dragons,at Hogwarts so Harry, Ron, and Hermione get Ron's older brother to arrange to pick up the dragon and transport him to a better home. The group gets caught, though, and are punished Their punishment is to go into the forest with Hagrid. Their assignment is to discover who has been murdering unicorns. In the forest, Harry sees a man drinking animal blood. The man tries to attack Harry, but he is saved by a friendly figure who tells him that the man trying to kill him was Voldemort, the murderer of his parents It is also Voldemort who has been trying to steal the Sorcerer's Stone.
Harry decides to try and find the stone before Voldemort does. He, Ron, and Hermione sneak off that night to start their adventure. They get past the three- headed dog and persevere manyother obstacles to retrieve the stone. Harry finds the stone, but along withit, he finds his evil proffesor Quarrel, who plans to kill him. Quirrell puts Harry in front of the magic mirror. He tells him to announce what he sees. Harry sees himself with the stone in his pocket. He reaches in to his actual pocket and coincidentally finds the stone in there. He lies to Quarrall and tells him that he sees him winning a prize. Quirrell removes his turban and Voldemort's face is revealed on the back of his head. Voldemort instructs Quirrell to kill Harry, but when he tries, Quirrell is burned on both of his hands. Soon, Harry faints.
When Harry regains consciousness, he finds himself in the hospital. Dumbledore explains to Harry that the Sorcerers' Stone has been destroyed and that his friends are both okay. Harry later goes to the end-of-the-year banquet, where his house is awarded the "House Cup" .
I highly enjoyed this book and would recommend it highly for anyone enjoying adventure and suspense.
Book Review: From a Catholic homeschooling father's perspective...
Summary: 4 Stars
As a youth, fantasy lit was for me a way of making a seemingly mundane life more interesting. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the kind of book that would have intrigued me at age 12 or there abouts--a young boy who's something of a misfit in his everyday life, suddenly discovers that he's actually much more. There's something secret, special, and interesting about him that nobody dared guess.
As far as this theme goes, this book is one of many, nothing special. Heck, for a while, almost every Disney movie carried exactly this trope. What makes Harry Potter stand out is the creativity of J. K. Rowling. Is she a prose-master? Not exactly. But as fantasy lit for kids goes, the writing is intelligent, yet fast-paced and readable. The characters, both major and minor, are vivid, sympathetic, and brilliantly developed. Rowling's world-building skills are also incredibly good. The profusion of funny incidental items she introduces into the story, from the Nimbus 2000 flying broom to Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans help add a certain quirkiness that is undeniably charming.
However, my opinion of the value of mainly escapist fantasy literature has changed substantially in the 25-odd years since I was 12. In the interim, I have realized that life itself is interesting enough and that if you're easily bored with it, it's most likely because you're a boring person. Therefore, for a book of this sort to have some real value--especially for younger readers--it needs to teach them something good and noble about real life outside of Hogwarts Academy. It is on this point that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone stumbles. My main criticism of the book can be summed up in one sentence:
"Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking the rules since Harry and Ron had saved her from the mountain troll, and she was much nicer for it." (pg. 181)
Upon finishing the book, it was that sentence that stuck with me. To paraphrase the apparent message: rules are for stuck-up prigs, and if you want to get anywhere and have people like you, you need to break 'em with abandon, even if you lack the experience necessary to fathom why the rules are there in the first place. Again, this is a standard Disney-style trope that I have always hated. And to make matters worse, Harry and his friends are rewarded repeatedly in the aftermath of their rule-breaking. It was a disappointment to me (and a literary mistake, if I may be so bold) at the end that Harry and Gryffindor were awarded enough points at the last possible second to give them the House Cup. It actually made me feel bad for Slytherin--as a Philadelphia sports fan, I know that feeling of being ripped off by the officials all too well.
This annoying element is mostly balanced out, however, by the overriding sense of good and evil that is present throughout the book. "There is no good and evil," says the slavish and simpering Professor Quirrell, servant of the evil Voldemort, "only power and those too weak to seek it" (pg. 291). To its credit, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is not a relativistic book. Evil is well defined. Good is also presented, though perhaps a bit more vaguely and occasionally with a Machievellian undercurrent--in the fight against evil, the rules are not all that important. Love, particularly familial and self-sacrificial love, is also extolled.
Having only read the first book in the series, I'll give Rowling the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the rule-breaking stuff. Perhaps she's got a reasonable explanation for it in the future volumes. I'll be looking for it as I read volumes 2 through 7. I must say, though, that there are plenty of fantasy lit books for young people out there that do a much better job of tackling the subject of good and evil than this one, among them Niamh and the Hermit: A Fairy Tale and Dream of Fire.
As for the common criticism that the Harry Potter series is a gateway to the occult, both Fr. Amorth, a famous exorcist, and Pope Benedict XVI (albeit before he was elected Pope) have warned about this, so the subject shouldn't be taken lightly. As far as I could tell, for a well-catechized young person over the age of 13 or 14, this book should cause no problem in that regard. However, if the reader is an impressionable child of 8 or 9 who is not well-catechized, I would be a lot more cautious. If they must read it, I would strongly encourage a parent to read along with them.
Book Review: Confessions of a Book-cover Judge
Summary: 5 Stars
Admittedly, I don't remember ever hearing of Harry Potter before the summer of 2000, when there was all of the buzz about how well the fourth book sold. I was in college and not even remotely interested in reading some children's book. Reading the adventures of some kid that lived in a different type of reality just didn't seem even remotely entertaining. I was one of those people that hated all of the Harry Potter books, without ever having read them.In November 2001, a friend repeatedly asked me to go see the "Harry Potter movie" with her. After complaining quite a bit about how the theater would be filled with just a bunch of whining little kids, I finally gave in-very reluctantly. My friend then insisted that I read the book beforehand. With a little resistance, I gave in yet again, picking up the first book a few days later. Working at a small shop, I had intended to read it on work breaks and between waiting on customers, but it wasn't long before I began to fall behind in my work, because I was engrossed in this novel. I, eventually, had to force myself to put it away to get my work done. As soon as I arrived home that evening, I pulled the book back out and read until late into the night, when I finally completed the book. Before the week was out, I had read the next three books and was anxiously waiting for the release of the fifth book in the Harry Potter series.
I had mistakenly believed that since Harry, Hermione, and Ron were only eleven years old, they couldn't possibly peak the interest of a 19-year-old young woman, but the characters and themes dealt with in this book are not specific to any one certain category or age group. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is perfect for anyone who has ever felt alone and unloved or anyone who has wanted to be something more than they think they are. It's also wonderful for people who have always followed in the shadow of a talented friend or family member or for anyone who has been picked on for being too smart or too slow to learn. The characters in J.K. Rowling's series deal with all of the same problems that just about all of us have had to deal with at one point or another.
When the book begins, the completely normal Dursleys are having a completely normal day, as everything around them is utterly not normal. There are odd people running around in cloaks, owls flying through the daylight sky of city streets, and shooting stars seen all over the country. That night, as the Dursleys sleep, Mrs. Dursley's nephew is left upon their doorstep. Nothing in their lives will ever be the same again, as they do everything in their power to convince this child that there is nothing special about him and that he is completely "normal."
Young Harry Potter grows up living in a cupboard under the stairs of his aunt and uncle's house, wearing hand-me-down clothes that are much too big for his thin, frail frame, and believing that his parents were killed in the same car accident which left him with a jagged lightening-boltlike scar on his forehead. His slightly older, portly cousin antagonizes him mercilessly as Harry just tries to survive growing up, so he can leave the Dursleys' home.
As Harry's eleventh birthday draws near, he begins to receive letters in the mail-then letters delivered by owls-all of which his Uncle Vernon tries his best to destroy. These events, combining with a few odd occurrences which occurred when he had been angry or afraid, begin to let Harry Potter know that no matter what he has always been told, he is anything but normal.
Perhaps the best thing that could ever happen to young Harry takes place when he learns that for the past ten years, his aunt and uncle have been hiding the fact that Harry is a wizard, and he is sent away to school to learn to properly use and enhance his magical powers. The book continues, constantly drawing the reader into a world filled with familiar types of people, with just enough of a magical twist to make the reading very entertaining without being difficult to understand.
Please, if you have never read any books in the Harry Potter series, read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The entire series has been written so well, it is hard to believe it to be a work of fiction. This is one set of books you will want to read over and over again. J.K. Rowling, undoubtedly, has a gift-one that I'm sure you will appreciate as you read this astounding novel.
Book Review: Where it all began...
Summary: 5 Stars
Harry has been orphaned as a baby and brought up by his Aunt and Uncle, the Dursleys, who have a son of their own around Harry's age. It is not a happy childhood for Harry, always in the shadow of his oversized bullying cousin, he sleeps in the cupboard under the stairs, wears worn out, second hand clothes, which are too big and never receives any love or treats from his Aunt and Uncle, Harry is led to believe his parents were killed in a car crash and he survived. Odd things happen to Harry without explanation, like the day his Aunt and Uncle took Harry to the zoo, a birthday treat for his cousin, and Harry discovered he could talk to a snake. It is approaching Harry's eleven birthday and a letter arrives for him, Harry has never had a letter before, his Uncle is furious and will not allow Harry to read the letter, letter upon letter arrives and they are kept from Harry and the family go into hiding to avoid more letters, eventually on Harry's eleven birthday an enormous man called Hagrid turns up and tells Harry he has been offered a place at a boarding school, he is not an ordinary boy and the school is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Hagrid is the gamekeeper at the school, a wizard who was expelled from school in his third year.
Harry is told his parents were a wizard and witch, that they were murdered by Voldermort, the dark lord who is so terrifying all but one or two wizards are frightened to even say his name, and that when Voldermort tried to murder Harry something happened, the spell failed, Harry was left with a lightning scar on his forehead and Voldermort became very weak and lost most of his power. Harry was famous in the world of witches and wizards. The Dursleys have always known the truth about Harry but they have an intense fear and hatred of anything abnormal, they believed they could keep the truth from Harry and he would never discover his magical powers.
Hagrid takes Harry to London to buy everything he needs for the start of term and his new life at Hogwarts. They enter the Leaky Caldron pub, which can only be seen by witches and wizards, go out the back and into Diagon Alley a street full of magical shops, he discovers that he has a wealth of money in the bank, although the money is in a currency used only by witches and wizards, he gets his cloak, books, caldron, a pet owl and is measured for his wand. Harry returns to his Aunt and Uncle's home until the start of term at his new school.
Harry has to get the Hogwort Express to school, it leaves from Kings Cross station out of platform nine and three quarters, between platform nine and ten and only accessible to witches and wizards, but Harry does not know how to get onto the platform, he meets a women with her children and asks for help; here we are introduced to the Weasley family, Mrs. Weasley is a witch, she has four sons and a daughter with her, Percy is a prefect at Hogworts, Fred and George are twins, also at Hogworts and both are practical jokers, Ron is starting his first year and little Ginny is seeing the boys off with her mother.
Once on board the train Harry shares a compartment with Ron and Ron's pet rat scabbers, they look forward to their first year at Hogwarts and meeting Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, a great wizard and the only person Volermort fears. The school is in an old castle with hidden rooms and secret passages and Harry becomes best friends with Ron and Hermione Grainger, a very bright girl who is a bit of a know it all; he is introduced to flying on a broomstick, the wonderful sport of Quidditch, mystical creatures, spells, ghosts who wander around the school and he receives a cloak that makes the wearer invisible as an anonymous Christmas present. There are rumours that Voldermort is gathering strength and could regain power. Along with his two friends, Harry is led on an adventure of mystery, riddles and intrigue in an attempt to discover the Philosopher's Stone before Voldermort.
The book is full of clues and you think you know what's coming next but you never quite get it right and at the end of the book everything you have read in the two hundred and twenty three pages just fits into place. After reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone I had to get started on the next book.
Book Review: Rowling walking in large footsteps, but filling them
Summary: 5 Stars
Sometimes - and it's sadly rare - we can look at a picture or work of art, hear a piece of music, watch a film, and immediately upon our completion of the act of "surveying", know that what we have seen or heard will be timeless, will be passed down through the ages, will be discussed and enjoyed long after we are laid to rest. Such it must have been when children first read the Wizard of Oz in 1900, almost exactly 100 years before Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone would be published. The popularity of The Wizard of Oz was unheard of for the time - a children's book selling so many copies, engendering so many fans, children and adults alike. That book paved the way for thousands of writers after.
Such it also was when children read The Hobbit in 1937 (indeed, its popularity was so great that it demanded a sequel - unarguably the greatest sequel in fantasy literature), and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe in 1950.
While I was seventy-odd years removed The Wizard of Oz when I first read it, forty-odd years from the Hobbit, and 20-odd years from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, after reading each, they created within me a hunger, a desire for more that seemed unquenchable.
For me...such it was when I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - thankfully only a month or so removed from its actual publication date. I say thankfully because now I saw, for the first time, the excitement that a timeless book of children's literature creates.
And this book is timeless. While it's now five years since from the publication of the book, I can say with certainty that when I closed the cover of this book, I knew it. I knew that something amazing had happened, and I watched in mute astonishment as the rest of the literate world agreed with me.
What a tale this is! The character of Harry Potter virtually sparkles with eternity. Everyone who reads the story of this poor young boy, treated so appallingly by his Aunt and Uncle, who were meant to provide him with a good home, respectable clothing, and love, instead *locked him in a cupboard under the staircase* while allotting two full bedrooms to their own son! There are few stronger emotions than pity or empathy, and so strong are our feelings for the young Harry Potter that before we are completely aware of what is happening to us, we have fallen, somewhat, in love. In love with a character who leaps from the page as if the book itself was imbued with thaumaturgical qualities.
Cheering for him, once we learn that he is a wizard - of all things! - and the revenge visited upon the Dursley's by his new friend Hagrid, one can only laugh and feel your heart warmed as if you were drinking hot cocoa on a cold winter night. And when we find that he is an expert Quidditch player, with an uncanny ability to sight and grab the elusive Golden Snitch, we cheer for him even more. The poor, bedraggled boy we fell in love with is finally getting his.
There is so much that is brilliant about this book. Many writers have boundless, inventive imaginations, but scant few possess those qualities *and* the ability to interest readers in their inventions. Rowling is one of the few. From the Sorting Hat to the fantastic game of Quidditch to the paintings on the wall that talk to you - everything speaks to us so deeply, and arises within us - almost without knowing it - a sense of feeling very much at home while we're reading these books, even though we are being transported to a world that is far different than the one we live in. That's the dream and goal of every aspiring writer of fantasy, whether for children, young adults, or adults - to create a place so vivid and real that it makes you feel at home. Baum did it, Tolkien did it, Lewis did it - and some others, although perhaps with slightly less success - and now Rowling has done it.