Harry Potter by J.K Rowling, illustrated by Mary GrandPre was published by Scholastic Inc. in 1998. It is in the fantasy genre and is about a boy who learns he is a wizard and goes off the wizard school and also on an incredible adventure.
Harry is about as plain as they come. He lives with his Aunt, Uncle and spoiled rotten Cousin, who treat him awfully. One day Harry receives a letter and after a struggle finds out that the letter is from a wizarding school. Harry is actually a wizard! He goes off to school and meets Ron and Hermione and quickly realizes that he is not just going to blend in with everyone else. Everyone in the wizarding world knows Harry’s name and considers him a hero for something he has no idea about. Harry learns that when he was a baby his parents were killed by an evil wizard names Voldemort, but when Voldemort tried to kill Harry, the spell backfired for some reason and Voldemort was supposedly killed.
When Harry arrives at school he is sorted into a dormitory and starts his schooling. He quickly becomes involved in the Quidditch team and sticks to his two friend Ron and Hermione. One day he stumbles upon a hidden room while running from a professor. In the room is a mirror and when Harry steps in front of it, he sees his parents. Harry cannot explain why he can see his parents in a mirror in a random school room, but he spends hours and hours there before the headmaster Dumbledore shows up in this random room and explains to Harry that the mirror shows our heart’s deepest desire. Harry goes on to be very successful at Quidditch and then Hermione, Ron and Harry become entranced trying to figure out who Nicolas Flamel is. They know there is something being hidden in the castle and they know Nicolas Flamel has something to do with it, but they struggle to learn who he is. Finally one day they learn that Flamel is the inventor of the Sorceror’s Stone. As the year finishes out Harry, Ron and Hermione find out more and more about the Sorceror’s Stone and the book ends with a battle between Harry and supposedly Professor Quirrell, a meek, studdering professor, who turns out to be just the host of Voldemort’s weak soul. Harry manages to take the Sorceror’s Stone from the mirror of Erised and keeps Voldemort from coming back to full life.
I, like most of it’s readers, really enjoyed this book. It is so packed full of adventure and friendship and mischief that I don’t know how anyone could not love it. Harry is a classic underdog and he comes out on top! He goes from a miserable life to one full of friendship, love, excitement and belonging. Harry finds friends in Ron and Hermione and never purposefully compromises that friendship. This book showed me a lesson in loyalty. The book talks about the power of love, especially at the very end when Dumbldore is explaining things to Harry. He explains that love like Harry’s mother gave to him when she was trying to protect him from Voldemort leaves a powerful mark on him. When someone loves you, they give you something that cannot be taken away and that makes a lasting impression on you and those around you. I love that the power of love is taken so literally here. That the fact that Harry’s mother loved him so greatly means that Voldemort cannot even touch him because his skin will burn from the love. I know kids already adore this book, but I think reading it with a class and allowing them to talk about it with each other and offering them ideas about plot and character development would be an excellent way to show kids about great literature. This book combines just enough magic with just enough everyday kid stuff to pull in all kinds of children. Kids can relate to Harry and being picked on. The richness of the language pulls you into the story and creates a whole Harry Potter world inside your head. The reader gets caught up in the adventure and just thank goodness there is a sequel. I think the ultimate message of this book has a lot to do with belonging. Harry goes from a house full of people he can’t stand to a school with friends he loves dearly and would do anything for. He finds a home and a family and that is worth more than anything he can imagine.
Obviously this novel would be great for teaching kids about fantasy literature. It can also teach them about friendship and ability. Harry isn’t very old when he starts this adventure, but achieves great things and encouraging your students to believe this about themselves is a worthwhile task. I loved the idea of the Mirror of Erised and how it helped him in the very end. This is a novel idea to think about. What is a deepest most desperate desire. I honestly hope mine is to see God in the Mirror of Erised. I think things like true love and success in life would come to mind as well. But I hope my heart would instantly go to God and find in the mirror, confirmation and affirmation in His face. This activity would be a great one to go along with reading this book to a class. Ask them to think about what their deepest desire is and have them draw it in a mirror template.
Harry is about as plain as they come. He lives with his Aunt, Uncle and spoiled rotten Cousin, who treat him awfully. One day Harry receives a letter and after a struggle finds out that the letter is from a wizarding school. Harry is actually a wizard! He goes off to school and meets Ron and Hermione and quickly realizes that he is not just going to blend in with everyone else. Everyone in the wizarding world knows Harry’s name and considers him a hero for something he has no idea about. Harry learns that when he was a baby his parents were killed by an evil wizard names Voldemort, but when Voldemort tried to kill Harry, the spell backfired for some reason and Voldemort was supposedly killed.
When Harry arrives at school he is sorted into a dormitory and starts his schooling. He quickly becomes involved in the Quidditch team and sticks to his two friend Ron and Hermione. One day he stumbles upon a hidden room while running from a professor. In the room is a mirror and when Harry steps in front of it, he sees his parents. Harry cannot explain why he can see his parents in a mirror in a random school room, but he spends hours and hours there before the headmaster Dumbledore shows up in this random room and explains to Harry that the mirror shows our heart’s deepest desire. Harry goes on to be very successful at Quidditch and then Hermione, Ron and Harry become entranced trying to figure out who Nicolas Flamel is. They know there is something being hidden in the castle and they know Nicolas Flamel has something to do with it, but they struggle to learn who he is. Finally one day they learn that Flamel is the inventor of the Sorceror’s Stone. As the year finishes out Harry, Ron and Hermione find out more and more about the Sorceror’s Stone and the book ends with a battle between Harry and supposedly Professor Quirrell, a meek, studdering professor, who turns out to be just the host of Voldemort’s weak soul. Harry manages to take the Sorceror’s Stone from the mirror of Erised and keeps Voldemort from coming back to full life.
I, like most of it’s readers, really enjoyed this book. It is so packed full of adventure and friendship and mischief that I don’t know how anyone could not love it. Harry is a classic underdog and he comes out on top! He goes from a miserable life to one full of friendship, love, excitement and belonging. Harry finds friends in Ron and Hermione and never purposefully compromises that friendship. This book showed me a lesson in loyalty. The book talks about the power of love, especially at the very end when Dumbldore is explaining things to Harry. He explains that love like Harry’s mother gave to him when she was trying to protect him from Voldemort leaves a powerful mark on him. When someone loves you, they give you something that cannot be taken away and that makes a lasting impression on you and those around you. I love that the power of love is taken so literally here. That the fact that Harry’s mother loved him so greatly means that Voldemort cannot even touch him because his skin will burn from the love. I know kids already adore this book, but I think reading it with a class and allowing them to talk about it with each other and offering them ideas about plot and character development would be an excellent way to show kids about great literature. This book combines just enough magic with just enough everyday kid stuff to pull in all kinds of children. Kids can relate to Harry and being picked on. The richness of the language pulls you into the story and creates a whole Harry Potter world inside your head. The reader gets caught up in the adventure and just thank goodness there is a sequel. I think the ultimate message of this book has a lot to do with belonging. Harry goes from a house full of people he can’t stand to a school with friends he loves dearly and would do anything for. He finds a home and a family and that is worth more than anything he can imagine.
Obviously this novel would be great for teaching kids about fantasy literature. It can also teach them about friendship and ability. Harry isn’t very old when he starts this adventure, but achieves great things and encouraging your students to believe this about themselves is a worthwhile task. I loved the idea of the Mirror of Erised and how it helped him in the very end. This is a novel idea to think about. What is a deepest most desperate desire. I honestly hope mine is to see God in the Mirror of Erised. I think things like true love and success in life would come to mind as well. But I hope my heart would instantly go to God and find in the mirror, confirmation and affirmation in His face. This activity would be a great one to go along with reading this book to a class. Ask them to think about what their deepest desire is and have them draw it in a mirror template.
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