367. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Rating: ☆☆☆☆1/2
Recommended by:
Author: J.K. Rowling
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy
357 pages, published June 26, 1997
Reading Format: Audio Book
Summary
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the first book in the classic Harry Potter series. The book opens with orphaned Harry living a miserable life with his uncaring Aunt and Uncle. Harry sleeps in a closet under the stairs while they spoil Dudley, their only child who is the same age as Harry. Things soon change when Harry discovers that he is a Wizard and is sent off to the Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to learn about magic. There he meets new friends, discovers his own magical powers, has many adventures and confronts the evil Voldemort.
Quotes
“A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours’ time by Mrs. Dursley’s scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley…He couldn’t know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: “To Harry Potter – the boy who lived!”
“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
“The truth.” Dumbledore sighed. “It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.”
“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our
“Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. Love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves it’s own mark. To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.”
“Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.”
“There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.”
“To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”
“As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all – the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.”
“Now, you two – this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you’ve – you’ve blown up a toilet or –”
“Blown up a toilet? We’ve never blown up a toilet.”
“Great idea though, thanks, Mum.”
“So light a fire!” Harry choked. “Yes…of course…but there’s no wood!” …
“HAVE YOU GONE MAD!” Ron bellowed. “ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT!”
“Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.”
My Take
When my oldest child Nick was in grade school, we started reading the Harry Potter series together and I was completely enchanted. While recently checking out Lethal White (Book 4 in J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike Detective series), I asked the Librarian for a good audio book recommendation. She suggested the Harry Potter series. Well, as Gretchen Rubin says, “the best reading is re-reading” and she was never more right. Although this time around, I am going to listen to the audio version. The voice work of actor Jim Dale is an impressive delight and brings these creative and ingenious stories to magical life.
