|
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stoneby J. K. Rowling
Order This BookOrder The PaperbackOrder The Audio Cassette |
|
|
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stoneby J. K. Rowling
Order This BookOrder The PaperbackOrder The Audio Cassette |
It isn't often that a (supposedly) children's book makes the NY Times best seller list for so many weeks in a row. This and my curiosity lead me to get the first of three Harry Potter stories by J.K. Rowling, a British writer. (The other two are Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.)
I read the first story with enthusiasm mainly because the story kept getting better and better as it unfolded. The story begins with a young boy who is orphaned as a child and left to grow up with an unloving and downright uncharitable aunt, uncle and cousin. They are basically afraid of him, because his parents represented a "different" (they were wizards) and thus "un-normal" way of living. The young boy is rescued from this dire situation via an invitation to attend wizardry school and there his adventures begin.
At the school, he develops friends and enemies, get's recruited to be the star of a rather wild three-dimensional broomstick ball game called Quidditch, meets ghosts and talking paintings and moving storybooks, and has lots of adventures as he sorts out some of his obscure past from his teachers and a villian who "can't be named" (also known as Voldemort). Oh yes, he also uncover's the Sorcerer's Stone and has a battle. And there is where I leave the rest of the story to the reader...
It's easy to see why this story is so enthralling for children and adults. It contains both the elements of real child's life and the imaginary life full of mystery and adventure that we all love in good fiction. It reminds me a bit of J. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit".
The book is rated for an audience of children ages 8 to 13, but I have known a few 6 and 7 year olds that have spent many an hour listening to or reading this book. My only caution is that use your parental judgement when exposing this to children younger than advised by the publisher, the ghostly characters and mean behavior of Harry Potter's family may disturb the younger set.
Say you've spent the first 10 years of your life sleeping under the stairs of a family who loathes you. Then, in an absurd, magical twist of fate you find yourself surrounded by wizards, a caged snowy owl, a phoenix-feather wand, and jellybeans that come in every flavor, including strawberry, curry, grass, and sardine. Not only that, but you discover that you are a wizard yourself! This is exactly what happens to young Harry Potter in J.K. Rowling's enchanting, funny debut novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. In the nonmagic human world--the world of "Muggles"--Harry is a nobody, treated like dirt by the aunt and uncle who begrudgingly inherited him when his parents were killed by the evil Voldemort. But in the world of wizards, small, skinny Harry is famous as a survivor of the wizard who tried to kill him. He is left only with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, curiously refined sensibilities, and a host of mysterious powers to remind him that he's quite, yes, altogether different from his aunt, uncle, and spoiled, piglike cousin Dudley.
A mysterious letter, delivered by the friendly giant Hagrid, wrenches Harry from his dreary, Muggle-ridden existence: "We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Of course, Uncle Vernon yells most unpleasantly, "I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" Soon enough, however, Harry finds himself at Hogwarts with his owl Hedwig... and that's where the real adventure--humorous, haunting, and suspenseful--begins. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, first published in England as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, continues to win major awards in England. So far it has won the National Book Award, the Smarties Prize, the Children's Book Award, and is short-listed for the Carnegie Medal, the U.K. version of the Newbery Medal. This magical, gripping, brilliant book--a future classic to be sure--will leave kids clamoring for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. (Ages 8 to 13)
Harry Potter has never been the star of a Quidditch team, scoring points wile riding a broom far above the ground. He knows no spell, has never helped to hatch a dragon, and has never worn a cloak of invisibility.
All he knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley - a great big swollen spoiled bully. Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs , and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years.
But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to an incredible place that Harry - and anyone who reads about him - will find unforgettable.
For it it's there that he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic in everything from classes to meals, but a great destiny that been waiting for him...if Harry can survive the encounter.
J.K. Rowling was a struggling single mother when she wrote the beginnings of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on scraps of paper at a local cafe. But her efforts soon paid off, as she received an unprecedented award from the Scottish Arts Council enabling her to finish the book. Since then, the debut novel has become an international phenomenon, garnering rave reviews and major awards, including the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, and the Smarties Prize.
Ms. Rowling lives in Edinburgh with her daughter.