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Summary: What a Gem!
Review: Rowling has an amazing imagination. Do you and your child a favor and read this book together. I'm rushing out to buy the next in the series.
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Summary: This book is the greatest!!!!!
Review: Rowling has certainly produced one of the greatest books of all times in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Perhaps a book geared toward the young adult reader, any adult will thouroughly enjoy this book. Even if you don't regularly read fantasy type books, this one is not to be missed.
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Summary: A masterfully told story that reminds me of C.S. Lewis.
Review: Rowling has created an entire world in great detail and skill, pulling the reader into her imagination and allowing one to follow Harry Potter as if his shadow. It combines mystery, magic, a sense that anything is possible, witty humor, and fine characters that drive the storyline effortlessly. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the book is a sense of grey. There is "good and evil," but there is also the people one simply hates, although they still fit under the umbrella of "good." Rowling's characters are all very believable and not at all stock characters she pulled off the shelf. Although quite escapist as a story (I haven't been able to concentrate on work, chores, or food), I reached the end of the book having somehow changed myself, reminded once again that there is another world beyond the material, that life is mysterious, beautiful, and quite humorous. The story itself is both quaint and domestic while at the same time outrageous and tall. The characters struggle with common pettiness, fears, and responsibilities as they participate in a world that is so different and intriguing. Thus the reader can easily place himself or herself within the very company of the characters. I have waited a long time for an author to write a children's book seriously, treating children with respect as well as adults intellectually. J.K. Rowling has accomplished this task quite well.
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Summary: Journey of Enchantment
Review: Rowling has done what few, but great, others have. She has created an enjoyable read appealing to the fancy and imagination of all age groups, by masterfully binding each fiber of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone closely together and building each detail upon the other. The vocabulary increases gradually with reading, but with ample context clues so as not to lose the children with words they do not know. She also creates a language all her own, throwing in artistic and ingenious words like muggles, knuts, galleons, and many more to add a mystic air to the storyline. Rowling came up with games played with live chess pieces and a sort of soccer in air, called Quidditch. She fabricated pictures in which the people don't stay still, they move and much more. She created a fanciful journey filled with dragons and bullies, unicorns and evil wizards that keep the pages turning. She gives Harry a whole life history in the first few chapters and continues building on him, adding new pieces to his life and adventures. We first find out what life is like for Harry with his Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and cousin Dudley. Life there, with them, is horrible. He sleeps in a little closet under the stairs and always seems to get in trouble for something he cannot even remember doing or cannot control, like when they cut his hair and it all grew back. This part goes into great detail of how he was treated at home and at school. Then, a magical letter appears that changes his life for the better, because along with it comes the key to a mystical world of enchantment and adventure, danger and courage, a world of witches and wizards, where he can finally fit in. He and his friends, Ron and Hermoine, come across adventures right and left with Draco Malfoy, Magrid, trolls, centaurs, and others. However, underlying it all in a shroud of mystery is a small, brown, package picked up from Grigotts the very day an attempt to steal it was made. Although she goes to great depths of Harry's life with where he came from, how he's lived, and such, she didn't go into all that much detail with the sidekicks, which creates in them a quality of mystery. All in all, I agree with Matchgirl's review when she wrote, "She has built a superb story from the ground up...". Rowling is like the Poe of children's fantasy books.
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Summary: Amazing!
Review: Rowling has made the ideal fantasy world! This is totallyamazing! I have been waiting for a book like this for a while. Anoriginal story-line, plot, and charecter. I have read the other two books and am eagerly waiting for the fourth. I read Books three and four in two days, that's how excited I was to get them and that's how good they are!9-12? Hah! I'm not far from being fifteen and I love these books!
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Summary: The legend begins.
Review: Rowling's beginning to a fantastic series is easily the greatest example of her ability to write simple plotlines that steamroll into brilliant pieces of literature. As we continue, the book changes from an everyday fantasy into an intricate web of wonderful writing and story that will go down in history as some of the greatest writing ever.
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Summary: Delightfull writing for any age.
Review: Rowling's prose is transparent in the sense that the reader forgets about reading and enjoys the story. In my view, many contemporary authors let the writing get in the way, as if it has become more important than the story itself. This is an enjoyable read for anyone.
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Summary: Go for the paperback
Review: Sadly disappointed by this book. Everyone who'd be interested in a collector's edition will already know the story, so I'm not going to bother with a plot summary. This book is seriously overpriced for what it costs to actually produce it--but then, they're milking wallets like crazy. I found that the leather binding was rather funny-looking, the illustration had somehow been altered in a way that was VERY unappealing, and the picture of Harry by Rowling somehow... uh... it just didn't make me feel any less odd about it. I don't have a problem with, say, the leather-bound LOTR volume because they bothered to make it more worth the money. I'd advise that either you take the advice of the other reviewer and get it from the UK (where people apparently don't get quite so milked for their merchandise) or buy several paperback copies. It's not worth seventy little ones just for a semi-nice cover.
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Summary: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone(Book 1)
Review: Sana-Casserly (5)
In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling uses her inventive mind to create a magical novel. Rowling's plot includes simple ideas with an added touch of creativity, which catches the reader's eye. The use of many distinct characters gave humor and conflict in the story line. Imagination was an essential key in the readability of the novel. The strengths of the plot, characterization, and readability all surpass the weaknesses.
J.K. Rowling takes ordinary topics such as sports, student rivalry, and strange faculty members to the next level by elaborating on these topics. Harry Potter is introduced to Quidditch, a sport like soccer except it is played on broomsticks and there is more than one ball. Harry Potter becomes a Quidditch champion. Like any other school, at Hogwarts student rivalry exists between competing classmates. Draco Malfoy instantly becomes the bully and with magic involved the story line becomes humorous and clashing. Then you have the teachers who are in control and discipline the students. Professor Snape, a mean and strict teacher, have Harry Potter and his friends, Ron and Hermione curious over Snape's involvement with Voldemort, the mysterious and unknown person who killed Harry's parents. Rowling's plot has humor, action, and suspense, which keep the reader entertained.
The huge cast of characters gives the book plenty of laughs and adventure. Conflicts and brawls between Neville, a clumsy and cowardly student, and Draco added enjoyable scenes. Neville could never stand up for himself when he was picked on but at the end he stood up for himself, when it was for the wrong reason. Hagrid, the keeper of the keys at Hogwarts, added comedy because of his forgetfulness and the fact that he was an enormous man and acted like a kid, shocked many students. When Harry and his friends were trying to get the sorcerer's stone before Voldemort, they had to go through rooms filled with adventures. One room was a human chessboard and another was one filled with numerous keys and you had to select the right one to get passed the door. There were so many characters in the story it was hard to remember who was who at times, however the unique names added a splash of diversity in the book.
J.K Rowling captivates the reader's interest through her descriptive details and different characters. Fantasy is a genre that she fulfills without hesitation. Rowling's sense of writing style appeals to all ages, mainly because of its brilliance.
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Summary: Harry Potter is cool
Review: Sarah and Me think this book was full of excitement and adventure. The amazing world that Joanne Rowling creates traps the imagination with its sorcery. It's all about this normal boy who finds he is a wizard. He meets friends and enemies in his school,Hogwarts, for witchcraft and wizardry. But one enemy stands above the croud. His name, his name is VOLDEMORT!
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