Harry+Potter+and+the+Sorcerer's+Stone



Rowling, J.K. (1997). //Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone//. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc.

Plot:

Through a conversation between Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall, the reader becomes aware that Voldemort, an evil wizard, has been defeated by Harry Potter, the infant son of Lily and James Potter. Harry survived (leaving only a lightening shaped scar on his forehead), but his parents were killed. The professors are discussing this as they wait for Hagrid (a giant man who works with the Professors) on the street corner of the house of Harry’s aunt and uncle, the Dursleys. Dumbledore leaves Harry on the doorstep of the Dursley's, with a note tucked into his baby blanket. Ten years later Harry is still living with the Dursleys, forced to live in the cupboard under the stairs while his aunt and uncle spoiled his cousin Dudley rotten. Harry begins to notice strange things happening around him, things he is able to do with his mind. Just shy of his eleventh birthday Harry begins receiving letters addressed to him, but the Durselys won't let him have them. On his birthday Hagrid comes back into Harry's life and presents him with the letter the Dursleys had been withholding. It states that Harry is accepted into the Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hagrid reveals to Harry the truth about himself, the death of his parents, and Voldemort.

Hagrid takes Harry with him to Diagon Alley, a shopping place for wizards. It is here that Harry gets his supplies for school, including a wand (which contains a feather from the same Phoenix as the one in Voldemort's wand), and discovers that his parents left him a good sum of money in Gringott’s Wizarding Bank, a bank run by goblins. Once he has everything he needs, Harry is taken back to the Dursley’s where he must remain until school begins. On the day he is to report to school, Harry has to take Platform nine and three-quarters and board the Hogwarts Express to Hogwarts. It is on the train that Harry becomes aquainted with Ron Weasley, who becomes a good friend of Harry's, and Draco Malfoy, who becomes his enemy.

Once they arrive at Hogwarts, Harry is led with the rest of the first year students to the sorting hat in the front of the Great Hall. Harry learns that the school is divided into four houses: Gryfinndor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. When placed on the new students' heads, the sorting hat determines which house they will join. The sorting hat debated with Harry between Slytherin (Voldemort's house) and Gryfinndor. Harry pleaded with the hat for Gryfinndor, and the hat relents.

Hogwarts and the Gryfinndor common room are incredible, full of ghosts and moving pictures. Harry begins taking his classes, making friends, and even becoming the seeker for the Gryfinndor Quidditch team, a team sport performed on broomsticks. Harry and Ron eventually gain the friendship of Hermione Granger, a very smart Gryfinndor. Through a newspaper article Harry discovers that the Grigott's Wizarding Bank was burgled on the same day that he and Hagrid were there. The burglar got away empty handed because the vault had been emptied earlier that day. Harry realizes this must have been the same vault Hagrid had emptied that day. While sneaking around at night, Harry, Ron, Neville (another friend) and Hermione come across an enormous dog with three heads guarding a trapdoor beneath it. Harry believes that the package Hagrid had taken from Gringott's is being hidden beneath the three headed dog.

Over the course of the next few months Harry and his friends start to discover certain things. They learn about something called the Sorcerer's Stone, which contains the Elixir of Life, which when drank makes a person immortal. They believe this is what is being protected by the dog. They believe Professor Snape, their Potions instructor, is trying to get it and Professor Quirrel, the Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor, has set up defenses against him to protect the stone. Harry meets a hooded creature in the Forbidden Forest around Hogwarts who killed and drained the blood of a unicorn, this creature makes Harry's scar sear with pain, causing him to blackout. Harry realizes that this creature is Voldemort and he is drinking the blood to give him the strength to go after the Sorcerer's Stone.

 Shrouded by an Invisibility Cloak, which Harry received mysteriously as an anonymous gift, he and Ron and Hermione sneak out to get the Sorcerer's Stone before Snape can get to it. They each use their individual gifts to get past a series of defenses meant to protect the stone. Harry is surprised to find that it is Quirrell who beats him to the stone, not Snape. He realizes Quirrell has been serving Voldemort, even allowing him to possess him, and Snape has been trying to protect the stone. Harry defeats Voldemort once again and the stone is destroyed. The school year ends and Harry returns to the Dursley's to wait out the summer before he can return to Hogwarts for his second year.

Personal Thoughts: This book is incredibly rich with imagination. The descriptions of the wizarding world are fantastic, down to minute detail. Rowling created an world beyond anything I have ever read, filled with fascinating adventures and battles of wit between good and evil. This is a wonderful series to introduce young readers to the fantasy genre. The books in the series grow along with the characters within them. I absolutely love this series. I look forward to reading them again and again.

Genre: Fantasy

Reading Level: Ages 9 - 12

Awards:  Nestlé Smarties Book Prize 1997 Gold Medal 9-11 years <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> FCBG Children's Book Award 1997 Overall winner and Longer Novel Category winner <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Birmingham Cable Children's Book Award 1997 <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Young Telegraph Paperback of the Year 1998 <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> British Book Awards 1997 Children's Book of the Year <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Sheffield Children's Book Award 1998 <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Whitaker's Platinum Book Award 2001 <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">A //New York Times// Bestseller <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">A //USA Today// Bestseller <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">A //Publishers Weekly// Best Book of 1998 <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">//Booklist// Editor's Choice <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">An ALA Notable Book <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year 1998 <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">//Parenting// Book of the Year Award 1998

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Series Information: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">//Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone// is the first book of Rowling's Harry Potter series (originally released in the UK as //Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.// //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets // //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban // //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire // //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix // //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince // <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">//Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollow//s

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Film Information: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">A film version of //Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone// was released in 2001.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Reviews: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">//Kirkus Reviews// (1998, September 1). <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">//Booklist// (1998, September 15). //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Publisher's Weekly //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">(1998, July 20). //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">School Library Journal (1998, October). // <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">//New York Times Book Review// (1999, February 14). //The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction// (2000, January).

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Character List: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Harry Potter: He is an eleven year old boy orphaned as an infant by an evil wizard, Voldemort. Harry defeated the wizard, still bearing the lightening shaped scar on his forehead. Attends Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where he is a Gryfinndor, and seeker for his house team.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Ron Weasley: Ron is Harry's best friend. He has quite a few siblings, all recognizable by their bright red hair. He is skilled at the game of chess.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Hermoine Granger: Hermione becomes close friends with Harry and Ron. She is a muggle, which means that neither of her parents were wizards. She is very smart and a talented wizard.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Professor Dumbledore: He is the headmaster of Hogwarts.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Hagrid: He is a giant man who was expelled from Hogwarts long ago, but remains as the school's gamekeeper. He is a good friend to Harry and very close to Professor Dumbledore.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Voldemort: Voldemort is an evil wizard, defeated by Harry when he was just a baby. He is trying to rise again.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Annotation: On his eleventh birthday Harry learns that he is well known in the wizarding world for ridding them of the dark wizard, Voldemort. Harry's life becomes much more interesting begins to attend school at the Hogwart's School of Witchcraft Wizardry and becomes aware of a whole other world he had never known existed. Unfortunately, Voldemort is on the rise once again and it is up to Harry and his friends to stop him.