Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)
by J.K. Rowling

List Price: $50.00
Our Price: $27.90
You Save: $22.10 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $25.21 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

• ISBN13: 9780807281956
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

• GPX C3948BI Ultra-Slim CD Player with 40-Second Anti-Shock Protection and Car Kit

Book Reviews of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)

Book Review: The phenomenon started here!
Summary: 5 Stars

It begins in the affluent but bland London Suburb of Little Whinging where Harry Potter lives with his relatives, The Dursleys, comprised of Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Cousin Dudley Dursley. His life has been very miserable as his family has been very unkind to him throughout his life and his cousin especially was very bullying in character, not to mention being extremely spoiled such as getting fewer presents on his 11th birthday, even though he still got over 30 presents. Harry Potter however causes several bizarre things to happen in his family's house and receives a letter from a place called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry but the Dursley's, being very averse to magic, try to prevent him from going to Hogwarts but Harry Potter's life changes for both the better and the worse on his 11th Birthday when he is rescued by a half-giant being named Rubeus Hagrid and goes to Hogwarts for his first year as a magic student there. Once over there, Harry Potter meets another first year student named Ronald Weasley, who comes from a very poor (not wealthy) family background and the two meet a muggle-born named Hermione Granger.

Harry Potter, learns of what really happened to his parents when although his aunt and uncle said that they died in a car accident, Harry learns that they were really in fact murdered by an evil wizard named Voldemort. A series of unusual activities occur around Hogwarts during his first year which Harry along with his new friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger try to discover what is causing the series of unusual events around the school and discover that the evil Voldemort is after an ancient artifact called The Sorcerer's Stone in order to gain a hold of the Sorcerer's Stone, which holds the Elixir of Life which would grant him eternal life and Harry and his friends must stop Voldemort before he gains a hold of the Sorcerer's Stone. Can they make it in time before it's too late?

This first entry is a really excellent and fun children's book but it also succeeds at having enough plot, and complexities to make it a great read for adults. Some of the really interesting things about this series are that some of the characters are not what they seem to be. Take the malevolent Professor Severus Snape. Many newbies will think of him as a character that is of pure malevolence based on his appearance. Having a hooked nose, sallow skin, greasy black hair, and very foreboding in appearance, he isn't as one would expect but at the same time Snape is an amazingly complex character whose past has still not been delved far into even with the "Order of The Phoenix". Another character, who I will not mention on this review, isn't as the nice guy that he really is based on his appearance and clumsiness.

There are some things that may have been a bit iffy in my opinion but it's mostly on the Houses of Hogwarts. I'm not sure if Rowling has something to surprise us with the sixth or seventh books but I feel somewhat thrown off by the whole notion that all of the students who are sorted into Slytherin House are such bad apples and all of the students sorted into Gryffindor are the `heroes' of the books. While it gives the story a bit of an edge but the series so far has made all of the SLytherins the `bad guys' and hate ALL of the other houses that it sounds like things are being viewed in a black and white perspective. Draco Malfoy for instance, is sorted into SLytherin and becomes Harry and his friends' Hogwarts arch nemesis. I just feel that there needs to be a `good' Slytherin and/or an evil Gryffindor. This is just my opinion though. I can also agree but on a limted basis on how the book sometimes may portray rule-breaking as what heroes do but then again, by breaking rules they have been able to expose the truth about impending danger.

Some may have lost interest in reading the book after it was adapted to the big screen in 2001 but I still highly recommend buying this book because even if you've already seen the movie, the book can evoke images in your imagination that are far different from what the big screen offers and several elements in the book are overlooked on the big screen. Even the characters in the book look much different than how they look in the movie particularly Professor Snape. Believe me, I felt a whole new imagination of Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" even after seeing the movie rendition countless times over my lifetime. That's what's so good about books, they tell the story in a very different light from the movie version. This book is definitely a childrens book but I don't know if I could say the same especially with the OOTP book released in 2003 but we can't stay children forever and it's amazing to see how the books have gotten darker and more mature as the seventh book finale approaches. Even if the passing years and four books following have eclipsed it, there's no denying that "The Sorcerer's Stone" was the breakthrough in the classic Harry Potter book series.

Summary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)

School Books

• Books > Subjects > Children's Books > Social Situations
• Literature & Fiction
• Humor
• Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy & Magic