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Summary: WOW!!!
Review: Absolutely impressive... I thought, since the Harry Potter series were Amazon Rank 1, 2, and 3 respectfully how could I go wrong? I started the Sorcerer's Stone book Friday night and finished it Saturday night. I was not disappointed!!! I could not put it down!!! They are saying that the Harry Potter books are the most famous books n since the Chronicles of Narnia. And I agree!!! I am going to start the second book next weekend and have already ordered the new one. I can't wait!!! If you do not own a copy, quickly order one, and if you do own a copy, buy another one and give it to a friend. They will appreciated it!
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Summary: BEST BOOK I EVER READ. A TRUE CLASSIC!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Absolutely spell binding!!! Joanne Rowling created a wonderful book full of imagination and charm. Roald Dahl, to my knowledge never wrote a book better than Ms.Rowling did. I would never imagine that an author could do so much! I read her first book, HARRY POTTER and the SORCER'S STONE five times while I was in California, because I had forgotten to take HARRY POTTER and the CHAMBER OF SECRETS and HARRY POTTER and the PRISONER of AZKABAN with me. (You can get Harry Potter and the Prisnor of Azkaban at www.amazon.co.uk now.)
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Summary: Does this book really need another glowing review?
Review: ABSOLUTELY!!!Let me begin by stating that I am unquestionably a Conservative Christian. Many who share my other beliefs have attacked this book (and the movie based upon in) without having read it. So, this review is directed to those types and anyone who wishes to discuss the issue intelligently with someone who claims religious objections to this book and the rest of the series. The primary objection that is raised is the use of magic in the book. Afterall, the book is about a school of wizardry and witchcraft. Well, hold the phone! If the use of magic as a plot device makes a book inherently unsuitable for Christians, then let us gather at the river and throw away our beloved Chronicles of Narnia and Ring Triology. To be fair, some of Potter's critics do object to Lewis's and Tolkien's works as well, but the vast majority of the Conservative Christian world embraces those authors with no reservations. So, this leads to another possible basis for objection to the Harry Potter series: the books don't promote an explicitly Christian worldview. Well, back the bus up!! If that's our standard, then to be consistent, we would have to object to John Steinbeck, Herman Melville, Ernest Hemingway, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Pat Conroy, . . . well, you get my point. Okay, so maybe the Potter books really do teach bad lessons. Ummmm . . . NOPE! The books are classic Good vs. Evil stories. Yes, Potter, Ron, & Hermione don't always show proper respect for their elders, but in this book they are only 11 years old, so for the most part, that's realistic. Plus, in the books, there is usually some negative consequence to the characters' "bad" actions. Now, onto this book itself. The plot twists in this book were not terribly difficult to see coming, but then again, I'm a voracious reader, and I'm 33 years old and an attorney. To the target audience, I would wager that the developments of the story were not nearly so transparent. Putting that aside, this book was still a "page-turner." I finished it in two evenings of reading (actually, 2 late nights of reading). My recommendation: Buy this book for your kids, and read it yourself.
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Summary: Confessions of a Book-cover Judge
Review: Admittedly, I don't remember ever hearing of Harry Potter before the summer of 2000, when there was all of the buzz about how well the fourth book sold. I was in college and not even remotely interested in reading some children's book. Reading the adventures of some kid that lived in a different type of reality just didn't seem even remotely entertaining. I was one of those people that hated all of the Harry Potter books, without ever having read them. In November 2001, a friend repeatedly asked me to go see the "Harry Potter movie" with her. After complaining quite a bit about how the theater would be filled with just a bunch of whining little kids, I finally gave in-very reluctantly. My friend then insisted that I read the book beforehand. With a little resistance, I gave in yet again, picking up the first book a few days later. Working at a small shop, I had intended to read it on work breaks and between waiting on customers, but it wasn't long before I began to fall behind in my work, because I was engrossed in this novel. I, eventually, had to force myself to put it away to get my work done. As soon as I arrived home that evening, I pulled the book back out and read until late into the night, when I finally completed the book. Before the week was out, I had read the next three books and was anxiously waiting for the release of the fifth book in the Harry Potter series. I had mistakenly believed that since Harry, Hermione, and Ron were only eleven years old, they couldn't possibly peak the interest of a 19-year-old young woman, but the characters and themes dealt with in this book are not specific to any one certain category or age group. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is perfect for anyone who has ever felt alone and unloved or anyone who has wanted to be something more than they think they are. It's also wonderful for people who have always followed in the shadow of a talented friend or family member or for anyone who has been picked on for being too smart or too slow to learn. The characters in J.K. Rowling's series deal with all of the same problems that just about all of us have had to deal with at one point or another. When the book begins, the completely normal Dursleys are having a completely normal day, as everything around them is utterly not normal. There are odd people running around in cloaks, owls flying through the daylight sky of city streets, and shooting stars seen all over the country. That night, as the Dursleys sleep, Mrs. Dursley's nephew is left upon their doorstep. Nothing in their lives will ever be the same again, as they do everything in their power to convince this child that there is nothing special about him and that he is completely "normal." Young Harry Potter grows up living in a cupboard under the stairs of his aunt and uncle's house, wearing hand-me-down clothes that are much too big for his thin, frail frame, and believing that his parents were killed in the same car accident which left him with a jagged lightening-boltlike scar on his forehead. His slightly older, portly cousin antagonizes him mercilessly as Harry just tries to survive growing up, so he can leave the Dursleys' home. As Harry's eleventh birthday draws near, he begins to receive letters in the mail-then letters delivered by owls-all of which his Uncle Vernon tries his best to destroy. These events, combining with a few odd occurrences which occurred when he had been angry or afraid, begin to let Harry Potter know that no matter what he has always been told, he is anything but normal. Perhaps the best thing that could ever happen to young Harry takes place when he learns that for the past ten years, his aunt and uncle have been hiding the fact that Harry is a wizard, and he is sent away to school to learn to properly use and enhance his magical powers. The book continues, constantly drawing the reader into a world filled with familiar types of people, with just enough of a magical twist to make the reading very entertaining without being difficult to understand. Please, if you have never read any books in the Harry Potter series, read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The entire series has been written so well, it is hard to believe it to be a work of fiction. This is one set of books you will want to read over and over again. J.K. Rowling, undoubtedly, has a gift-one that I'm sure you will appreciate as you read this astounding novel.
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Summary: It Was Like the Pages Kept Turning Themselves!
Review: Adrielle DeSchuytner Thursday, October 21,1999 Harry Potter: and the Sorcerer's Stone by: J.K. Rowling It was like the pages kept turning themselves! Harry Potter is just an ordinary kid who lives in a closet on Privet Drive, right? Wrong! Little does Harry know, but he is a famous wizard-to-be, that couldn't be killed by Vol-, I mean you-know-who. He has never had any friends or participated in group activities. Then one day, without warning, a giant named Hagrid comes to invite him to one of the best school of witchcraft and wizardry around, Hogwarts. Of course Harry accepts, anything to get away from his rotten family. I really liked the way Ms. Rowling had a front row seat in the book waiting for me. I felt if I were in the book with Harry. The desriptions were unbelievable, they helped paint a really live picture picture. I really think it is really cool how she can write the exact way people with lisps talk, I thought it was amazing to have that ability. I really liked the book a lot, so I gav it *****'s. I only recommend it though if you like adventure, mystery and friendship. Each page is filled with it's own special uniqueness to keep you turning the pages.
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Summary: Adventures at Hogwarts
Review: Adventures at Hogwarts
Want to read a good book? Read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It is about a boy who doesn't even know that he is a wizard. He finds out that he is a wizard and goes to a wizarding school called Hogwarts. He has two friends named Ron and Hermione. One day he finds out that Snape is to steal the sorcerer's stone; he tries to save it. When he gets there Quil's the one who's trying to get it! And he's going to kill Harry! What's going to happen to Harry? I think this is a good book for any reader.
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Summary: I'm hooked!
Review: Afer hearing of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as being either 1) a great children's book or 2) something akin to a witches' bible, I bought this book, as so many others have done, simply to see what all the Harry Potter hype was about. As a middle-aged adult whose taste in books ranges from literature to history to current events, may I say that I have seldom enjoyed a book as much as this one. I wonder if the benighted people who condemn JK Rowlings as guilty of promoting Satanism also pass the same verdict on Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm. The book was fun, fantasy, and pure escapism, and that is all it sets out to be. On all three counts, it succeeds brilliantly. I finished the first book yesterday and am looking forward to reading the sequels... hopefully, all six. Kudos to Rowling for creating an instant -- and enduring -- classic for all ages. (Now if I could just get hold of a real Nimbus Two Thousand.....)
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Summary: Suitable for Adults
Review: After a grueling session bent over a final analysis of T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland, I picked up Harry Potter for a coffee break. I had to be taken away from the novel by force. A wonderful, positive book. The writing is, of course, simplistic. It's a kid's book. Yet the style is suprisingly elegant and brings to mind other great children's novels (Ann of Green Gables or Little Women, for example). Like these classics, the book is refreshing and rewarding for parents and kids both.Children's minds are formed by what they absorb at a very early age. Harry's positive lessons of self-reliance, kindness, and a general goodness will stay with your child. After they go to bed, sneak it off the bookshelf and into the den. It's a wonderfully wholesome read for the whole family.
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Summary: Not exciting or thrilling
Review: After about 100 pages, this book seems like one of the dumbest books that you could have ever read or made up! There's this boy who gets a whole lot of letters (WOW, Creative!), and then they run off to an island or something where a giant guy meets y ou there. The rest of thebook isn't much better either. I thought it would be good because of all of these good reviews, but it was a huger dissapointment and a waste of money
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Summary: Contrary to popular belief....
Review: After all of the above nasty comments made about Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I would like to put in my two cents. I first came upon the Sorcerer's Stone when I was looking for a book to read.... I thought the premise looked interesting, therefore I bought it. Mind, this was before the books were a national craze. I read the book, and I must admit, it took me a while to get through the first chapter. But as I read on, I was lunged into a world full of wizards, witches, ghosts, Quidditch finals, raving professors, owls, crazy Muggles, and a series of interesting happenings which lead up to the exciting climax. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't judge this book by the fame it is being showered with, or it's five-star reviews by the New York Times or what have you, but you should actually give it a chance. The characters are interesting, indepth; though they may be fictional, they sure seem real to me.
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