Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is a novel by J. K. Rowling about a young boy named Harry Potter who discovers that he, like his parents, is a wizard. One day he is whisked from his normal life at his aunt and uncle's house and taken to Hogwarts, school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Before his arrival, he learns about his role in the temporary halt of one of the reign of one of the darkest wizards of all time: Lord Voldemort. At Hogwarts, students are sorted into four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin; Harry ends up in Gryffindor. Students in a house take classes together, share a common room, and act as a small family. During his time at Hogwarts, Harry makes friends with two people with whom he will later share many adventures: the red-haired Ron Weasley, and the very studious Hermione Granger. He makes enemies as well, such as the bully Draco Malfoy, who belongs to Slytherin. It doesn't take long for Harry, given his tendency for mischief, to discover a secret being kept hidden from Voldemort inside Hogwarts: the Sorcerer's Stone, which has the power to grant immortality. Harry, Ron, and Hermione suspect one of their teachers, Professor Snape, to be working for Voldemort and trying to obtain the stone for him, despite it being guarded by many obstacles. The three friends follow Snape through the series of traps. Only Harry makes it to the end, where he discovers it was not Snape, but someone else who was working for Voldemort. Upon looking into an enchanted mirror, Harry finds himself miraculously in possession of the stone. Voldemort tries to persuade Harry to hand it over, but he refuses, and finds he is able to chase away Voldemort once again. Harry is rescued, and Dumbledore explains to him the reason he was suddenly in possession of the Sorcerer's Stone: by looking into the mirror, only someone who wanted to obtain it, but not use it, would be able to get it.

Many things about this book were fantastic. The plot was thorough, easy to follow, and contained very exciting twists and turns all over the place. I had a hard time putting it down, even during the parts when Harry and his friends were simply sitting through classes at Hogwarts, because there was always something interesting going on. Also, I thought the book had a very nice variety of characters. First there is Harry Potter, who is intelligent and possesses a surprising amount of nerve- nothing scares him, as long as he has his friends by his side. His character can also be a little sad at times, and this is demonstrated whenever the matter of his parents comes up: the author is good at showing how learning the truth about his parents' death left a sort of hole in Harry's heart. There are also many other characters in the book, such as the largely built but soft-hearted Hagrid; the studious and level-headed bookworm, Hermione; the odd but very wise Dumbledore; the snide Malfoy; and the malevolent Voldemort. I also liked the way the book displayed the unappealing qualities of the potion teacher, Severus Snape, and how the author made the reader think he was in league with the bad guy, but then completely changed direction when it turned out to be the anxious, stuttering Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrel. There wasn't much I disliked about this book; I absolutely despised Draco Malfoy, but this just demonstrates the author's talent at creating characters. If there was one thing I wasn't fond of about this novel, though, it would have to be the way the focus was almost always on the Gryffindor and Slytherin houses, while the other two, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, were hardly even described. I would have liked it if there were a few important characters that came from those two houses.