Review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling

Harry Potter was an orphan with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. He lived with his uncle, aunt and cousin, the Dursleys after his parents were killed in a supposed "car accident". He was unhappy and unloved by the only relatives that he have left, was only given a small closet under the stairs as his own room, and hand-me-down clothes from his cousin Dudley. He didn't have any friends at school because Dudley is a bully and Harry's schoolmates didn't want to cross Dudley.

Then, when Harry was nearing his eleventh birthday, he started getting letters delivered by owls (whatever happened to pigeons you think?). His uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia was horrified, and forbade him from reading the letters and destroyed all of them. The owls however were very persistent, and more and more letters were being delivered at wherever the Dursleys took Harry, even when they tried to hide in a dingy hotel after using spy-like maneuvers to shake off whoever was looking for them.

Finally, at midnight of Harry's birthday, a large odd looking man named Hagrid woke them up at the small island that they were hiding in, and delivered the letter personally to Harry.

Harry was surprised to learn that he is actually a wizard, and all the weird unexplainable things he did were all magic (like setting a snake on his cousin at the zoo and regrowing his hair overnight after an awful haircut) His parents, James and Lily Potter were actually wizard and witch, and they didn't die in a car accident (a lie told by his aunt and uncle) but was killed with a curse by the evil wizard Lord Voldemort when Harry was a baby. Harry is the only person to survive the killing curse, with only the lightning-bolt scar on his forehead. The killing curse somehow failed to kill Harry but rebounded on Voldermort, and broke his powers, and liberated the wizarding world from the terror of his regime.

Harry was accepted to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, whose headmaster is Professor Dumbledore who was considered as the greatest wizard of modern times. There, Harry made friends with Ronald Weasley, a red-haired boy whose many brothers ahead of him were famous at Hogwarts, and Hermione Granger a very intelligent Muggle born (people whose parents are neither witch nor wizard).

They spent their first school year learning and practicing magic under the many wonderful teachers, except perhaps Professor Snape who taught Potions, and seemed to have a vendetta against Harry especially, and the nervous Professor Quirrel, who's supposed to teach on Defense Against the Dark Arts but seemed terrified of his own shadow.

Harry really enjoyed school, and was even accepted to be a player (the Seeker) on his house's Quidditch team. (a game played almost similar to football, but on brooms, yes, brooms) And then the three friends discovered a plan by Voldemort to steal the Philosopher's Stone to regain his powers and return to terrorize the wizarding world.

I'm not going to spoil it for you, you must read the book to find out more. If you have seen the Harry Potter movie, trust me, the movie doesn't justify the book not one bit. I was very disappointed when I first saw the movie, the graphics technology were not at a good enough level at the time, and most of the scenes (especially on Quidditch) seemed very roughly done. The casting however, were excellent. The actors nailed all the characters down right on the button.

Now, if you read the book, you'll be able to enjoy the story whole, imagine all the scenes in your more powerful graphics technology called your mind. Its power is so captivating, one can only compare the series from JK Rowling to a level of imagination almost similar to the Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. They created a whole new world, a world that we actually can believe exist.

The Harry Potter series is one of the reasons why many children have regained or found the love of reading. Who would have thought that children can be excited to read an ever increasing number of pages for each book from in the 200s to almost 800 pages.

This book might have started out as a children's story, but when you read the whole 7 books, you will find that the whole series is actually aimed at both adult and children readership. If you haven't read the first book, read it now. And continue on the whole series before the movies come out. Trust me, they're worth it.


Anna rates it at 4/5
Why you should read it? A must for the current generation. How can you not read Potter? Are you mad?