Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling (1999)

THE BOOK WAS SOILED WITH SOME KIND OF PERFUME. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE BOOK WAS "NEW" AND THE NOTE WAS "MINOR DUST JACKET WEAR". IT WAS KIND OF MISLEADING. I CONTACT THE BOOKSELLER BY SENDING E-MAIL. AT FIRST, SOMEONE SENT AN E-MAIL BACK AND ASKED ME WHAT WOULD I LIKE TO DO. I SENT A E-MAIL BACK AND TELL WHAT I WANT. WHAT I WANT WAS ANOTHER BOOK AND I WILL SEND BACK THE ONE SOILED WITH PERFUME. BUT THEY NEVER SEND ME AN E-MAIL BACK. WHAT A SERVICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ANYWAY I DON'T WANT TO KEEP THE BOOK. SO I DONATED TO A LIBRARY.

In fact, I bought Harry Potter for my grand children. It's good mook for children. Easy for understand.

Someone once told me that when reading "Junk in is junk out" and refered to the multi-award winning Harry Potter series as junk. So I decided to see what this junk was all about. For a book written for children it grabbed hold of me and kept me glued to the pages. This book gives you a firm base story in getting to know the characters and their daily lives. Dislikes none. I'm looking forward to sharing these books with my grandchildren for many years to come.

To be quite honest, I had not heard of Harry Potter until the day it was announced in the news that Daniel Radcliffe was chosen to be him in the movie. I steadfastly swore off reading or watching anything so mainstream; if it made this much of a fuss, chances are I wouldn't like it.

My husband wore me down one day, about the time that the 2rd movie came out. We were at our local video store and couldn't find anything to get, when he stumbled across the 1st movie. He bribed me with ice cream (hey, I'm a cheap date) if we could watch it.

Shortly thereafter Book 5 was coming out, and a friend wanted to go to the midnight release. I figured, if I was going that far, I might as well read the books, since I'd seen a few of the movies by then.

I found the book sucked you in very quickly. The characters are all well written and easy to relate to. The book has more of a 'filled out' feel than the movie, but that's to be expected. There's a nice collection of supporting characters also.

I think Rowling does a very nice job of creating a magical world that sort of slides in next to the Muggle world. An excellent job was done coming up with a sort of magical 'language': Quidditch, Muggles, magical spell incantations, etc. There's a fantastic history in the book; you almost feel like you could call up a travel agent and book a weekend's vacation in Diagon Alley - I know I'd love to!

The story line flows well; Harry goes through all sorts of things one might expect he would getting tossed into a new world: the learning curve, teasing from other students, new friends, new subjects to struggle and excel at.

My son is just about 8 years old now. He's seen most of the movies, and I'm hoping to get him into reading this book soon. He's expressed interest in it, but he's steadily working his way through his Pokemon chapter books and also the Boxcar Children series.

I think what I love most about this series is how much it can appeal to both children and adults. Growing up, I didn't have any books that I could share and talk about with my parents, so this seems to be such a wonderful gift. I like to be involved with what my kids are doing; this makes it so much easier, since I enjoyed it too!


From the back of the book:
Harry Potter has never played a sport while flying on a broomstick. He's never worn a cloak of invisibility, befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon. All Harry knows is a miserable life with the Dursley's, his horrible aunt and uncle and their abominable son, Dudley. 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 own messenger: a letter with an invitation to a wonderful place he never dreamed existed. There he finds not only firneds, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him...if Harry can survive the encounter.

It's the beginning to an awesome series of seven books, one for each year of Harry's magical education, but although the series will come to a close, it'll be remembered forever, and anyone wanting a good read should be sure to read this series and start with this memorable tale of witchcraft and wizardry, and best of all, humor.

I wish this series could go on forever. This was a fun story with great and memorable characters. This is the only book series I've read where each book gets better, instead of getting worse. And it's great that it's written for many ages, not just for children. I found it not too childishly written, so I could enjoy it at 50 :-)

Harry Potter novels are great reading material for children. I have heard many people that are leary about the 'witchcraft' portion, but there is no serious witchcraft in any of the novels. It is pure fantasy that is good for a child's imagination. Really, what is more fun than playing a ball game on a broomstick? Any book that can hold a 5th grader's attention through 700 pages must have some special qualities. Highly reccommend.

Overall this book is very interesting and entertaing, but if you compare this book to some of the others in the series, it's not up to par. the other books are a heck of a lot better, but the Sorcerer's is still an excellent read!

I am not sure why there is such a craze for these books. While they are well written for the young viewer, I did not find this to be highly stimulating. The writing was not a challenge and the imagery and story telling are a bit bland. After reading the book on a three hour flight, I saw the movie and was much more entertained. Sure it was still a movie designed for young adults, it was half the time and the special effects kept me stimulated. Of course we all know how the story will end, there are a few surprises to keep young readers going and interested. I definitely suggest getting this for any young reader to encourage reading and get them started on marvelous journeys with fiction.