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

 

 **__Bibliographic Data:__** Reading Level: Grades 4 and up Hard cover: $22.99, 309 pages Publisher: Scholastic, Inc. October 1998 Language: English ISBN-13: 978-0-590-35340-3 ISBN-10: 0-590-35340-3 **__Author Biography:__** J.K. Rowling, is the author of the Harry Potter series. These books have been featured on the New York Times best-seller list, and have earned countless other awards. Rowling, was born on July 31st, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, England. She is a graduate of Exeter University. Before the award winning Potter series, Rowling was a struggling single mother. However she came up with the idea for this series while she was traveling on a train to London. After a series of rejections she finally found a publisher to publish her book, and the rest as we know, is literary history. **__Summary:__** __Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone__, is a book about a young boy who lost his parents to and evil wizard, and is subsequently raised by his uncaring, unloving, aunt and uncle. He endures a hard life with this aunt, uncle, and cousin until the day he turns 11 and is taken by the game keeper of Hogwarts, to begin his wizard training, and to start the life he was really meant to lead. Through this fictional adventure Harry learns why he is the topic of so many conversations, finds friends, begins his first year of wizard training, goes on numerous adventures, learns about the wizarding world, and comes face to face with his enemy, who will follow him throughout the series. This book tells the courageous tale of a young boy thrust into a turbulent and trying life, in which he succeeds and triumphs, with the help of friends. **__Review:__** I chose this book because it is one that I have read over and over again. When the books were first published, when I was in 3rd grade, I refused to read them, because, “that’s what everyone else was doing.” Eventually my mom got me to watch the movie version of this book, and I instantly fell in love. I had always been an avid reader, and if the movie was that good, I knew the book must be better. I was not disappointed. This book was a thrilling tale of misfortune, friendship, adventure, and more. Not only did the book open up a new world to me, but it also provided hours of good entertainment. I could not get enough of this book. Luckily by the time I saw the movie and read the book, the 4th book in the series had already been published, so I had much more to read. These books are great for children; I would say even from an earlier age, someone could read them to children, if they cannot read themselves. The books teach about hardships of life, but how you can work to overcome them and be happy. They teach about friendship, and adventures. Overall the series would be great to use in a classroom to get children interested in reading for enjoyment. Not only does the first book pull you in, but it keeps who wanting more, and with seven books in the entire series, there are many hours of reading to be done. This is something I would defiantly recommend for classrooms around the world. **__Analysis of Literary Elements:__** __Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone__ can be used in classrooms to portray many themes; one of these themes includes friendship. This book shows that children do not have to be friends exclusively based on gender. In the Harry Potter series, the book features three best friends, Harry Potter, Ron Wesley, and Hermione Granger. Through their adventures, this young gang of wizards and witches go through many of the same experiences that children go through today. They experience happiness together, and fights, but in the end they always remember that they have each other. One such example happens in the middle of the book, where Harry, Ron, and Hermione, become friends. Hermione is a bit of a know it all, and because of this Harry and Ron seem to be annoyed by her. “Wingardium Leviosa!” he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill. “You’re saying it wrong,” Harry heard Hermione snap. “It’s Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the ‘gar’ nice and long.” “You do it, then, if you’re so clever,” Ron snarled. Predictably Hermione gets the feather they are casting the spell on the float in the air the first time she says the spell. As they leave the classroom Ron says, “It’s no wonder no one can stand her, she’s a nightmare, honestly.” Hermione overhears this comment and runs away in tears to spend the rest of the night crying in the bathroom. However as the night goes on a troll gets into the girls bathroom where Hermione is hiding from everyone and Harry and Ron go to her rescue. Hermione tells a lie to get them out of trouble when teachers find they have gone after the troll, and the end of the chapter culminates with, “But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.” This portrays the theme of friendship to students. Also at the end of the book when the three are all going back into the “muggle,” world to go home for the summer, Rowling writes, “He, Ron, and Hermione passed through the gateway together.” This further instills the theme that the three are friends, because they do things together, and share important moments with each other. This book would be great to use in a classroom to show children that friendships do not have to be any sort of stereotype. Friends can be tall, short, skinny, large, smart, less educated, anything. Everyone is a unique person and has something good to offer to others. I will gladly use this book in my future classrooms to teach children about friendships, and to share a book that I know will inspire future generations of readers for years to come.