Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: We love it

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

I’m pretty sure every person in the western world knows who Harry Potter is and knows the basic story line. Harry Potter was The Boy Who Lived. Both his parents were killed by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the evil Lord Voldemort, but he survived the attack, somehow causing Voldemort to disappear. Now Harry is eleven, and off to his first year at Hogwarts wizarding school. But it seems like Voldemort is making a resurgence. Is Harry safe, even under the watchful eye of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore?

I recently felt a desire to go back and reread the HARRY POTTER books. I know I have a stack of books sitting on my bedside table that I need to read, and I will, but sometimes the lure of going back to visit an old friend is just too strong to be resisted. Sometimes this leads to disappointment, as books don’t live up to their memory, but I am happy to say that HARRY POTTER is as wonderful as I remember it being. It’s hard to believe that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone came out in 1999, so it’s been thirteen years. I took a poll of my friends on Facebook last night about which book or series they would keep if they were only allowed to keep one, and the majority of them said HARRY POTTER. For a bunch of adults with widely varied reading habits, that’s a pretty significant recognition, especially when you consider that it was originally written as a middle-grade to YA series.

So why the overwhelming love for these books? Because they are wonderful and magical and make another world come alive. I was reading this book and I would notice a huge smile on my face. There are lines of dialog that I remember verbatim after all these years. And unlike a lot of books pitched at this age group, there isn’t any sex, drugs or vampire worship. Instead, these books are about friendship and bravery and loyalty without being preachy about it. It’s rare to find a book that teaches such important messages without sacrificing the plot. There’s a reason why this book ignited such an amazing world-wide fandom, and it’s because it’s fantastic. Seriously.

I’m not sure this review is going to do anything for anyone, because it seems that everyone has already read the HARRY POTTER books, but if you haven’t, you really should. If you ask anyone who spent their high school years in the 90s what the most important song of the decade was, you’re almost guaranteed to get “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana as your answer. I don’t think this last decade has had a similarly seminal song. But it had the Harry Potter phenomenon, and I can’t think of a similarly influential book or series of books from the earlier decade to match the effect these books had on the publishing industry, the movie industry or a generation of readers.

So, if you haven’t read Harry Potter, you should. Right now. You’ll thank me.

~Ruth Arnell

I read the Harry Potter books because I wanted to make sure they were suitable for my kids. I fell in love with Harry and his friends but perhaps what I love best is that J.K. Rowling got kids to start reading again. And not just reading, but reading fantasy literature!

~Kat Hooper

You know you’ve embarked on a journey you’ll remember all your life when you read this first book in the Harry Potter series. It’s charming.

~Terry Weyna

Whatever I thought about the final books in the series, this was a great start to a wonderful new series that everyone enjoyed.

~Marion Deeds

I resisted this series for years because the hype annoyed me, and finally read this book when it was the only thing I had to read in a hotel room. I read it in one night, had a dream about Platform 9 3/4, and have been hooked on Harry ever since. The books eventually get darker and more complex, but Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is just sheer whimsical fun.

~Kelly Lasiter