Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling

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Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
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It was the christmas of 1997 and everyone was in a exited and anticipated mood to open their gifts. I was the first one to be down the stairs to fetch my breakfast then have a look at my presents. I went through the usual shampoo, chocolates, shower gels and ...
...the colourful cover read " Harry Potter " and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling...

I looked at the book but didn't seem to bothered about it so I put it in the " Look at later pile ". I opened the rest of my gifts and later in the day after my lovely christmas lunch, the Harry Potter book re appeared when I was cleaning up my rubbish from the wrapping of presents...

I picked up the book and took ... more

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Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
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It was the christmas of 1997 and everyone was in a exited and anticipated mood to open their gifts. I was the first one to be down the stairs to fetch my breakfast then have a look at my presents. I went through the usual shampoo, chocolates, shower gels and all of the boring little gifts...

When I finally got through all of my small stocking fillers, I came to what appeared to be a paper back book. I had never really received any books for christmas as I was younger and wasn't really into reading, but I studied the book carefully and the title on the front of the colourful cover read " Harry Potter " and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling...

I looked at the book but didn't seem to bothered about it so I put it in the " Look at later pile ". I opened the rest of my gifts and later in the day after my lovely christmas lunch, the Harry Potter book re appeared when I was cleaning up my rubbish from the wrapping of presents...

I picked up the book and took it to my room with a hot chocolate and sat and relaxed, looked at the blurb and I was quite ammused by the witchcraft and wizardry background. I had never read a book like this before and the first word that popped into my head was " Wow ", this JK Rowling has a great mind. So I began to start reading the book and wow I was very ammused, so instead of looking at the book I thought I would try and read it all...

Now that was when I was so impressed with the book back in 1997, but in the last year I have been reading the whole Harry Potter trilogy now that all of the books have been released...

What Is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and The Plot

Don't worry , if you have never heard of this best selling book before of even a little bit about what Harry Potter is, don't panic because here is a little bit about what Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone actualy is...

Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone is a fictional novel written by JK Rowling. The Philosophers Stone is the first novel in the list of eight books of the Harry Potter trilogy written by JK Rowling over the years. Harry is a young boy who thinks he's just ordinary, but is he correct?...

The first book sees that Harry Potter is a young boy living in a cupboard under the stairs of his auntie and uncles house. The Dursleys is the surname of Harry's Auntie and Uncle and cousin, where they treat Harry like a bit of dirt and want nothing to do with him, although they let him stay at their house in a grotty cupboard at that because Harry's mother is Aunt Petunia's sister...

Harry ended up in this place after both of his parents, Lily his mother and James his father were killed 10 years ago, where Lily was killed by the main antagonist who is the very evil and dangerous Voldemort when she tried to protect Harry when he was one year old and then he received a curse, a lightening like scar on his head which showed that the curse is still there...

Ten years into the future from this terrible death of Harry's parents, it is his 11th birthday but it just seems like a normal day for Harry. Later on, after several letters have been ripped up by the Dursleys as they don't want Harry to know that he is a wizard. When the Dudleys get sick of all of these letters piling through the door which is drilled by Uncle Vernon to stop the letters being delivered, and then more owl's drop letters through the roof, the family decide to get away from it all and take Harry to...

A giant man named Rubeus Hagrid bursts throuhg the door of this place that the Dudleys and Harry have escaped away to and Hagrid informs Harry that he is a wizard and that he is going to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardy, Harry is shocked...

Later on in the story , Harry Potter sets off from Kings Cross Station in London to travel to hogwarts by train. Harry finds it strange as he has to catch the Hogwarts express from platform 9 and three quarters which seems very odd, but Harry meets a new pupil at Hogwarts who goes by the name of Ron ( Ronald ) Weasely who's mother tells Harry how to get to platforum nine and three quarters by speeding into an empty wall. The couple finally get through the wall and aboard the train where Harry meets another new friend who comes in the story. Her name is Hermione Granger who appears to be fairly snobby but very intelligent.

When Harry arrives at the school, he learns that he will have friends and foes. Albus Dumbledore who is the head master of the school and one of the most powerful wizards needs to protect Harry from the dark Lord Voldemort. Harry also has other enemies such as Severus Snape who is the potions teacher at Hogwarts who was a good friend of James Potter who was Harry's father. Harry has some friends such as Ron and Hermione, but he could have had another who was named Draco Malfoy. Draco offered to be Harry's friend after Ron giggled at Draco's name, but Harry didn't like this Draco character so he turned down the offer, and a wise choice it was indeed...

Harry and the rest of the new witches and wizards at Hogwarts school have to through the sorting hat process which sorts the new pupils into four seperate houses. The houses are named " Gryffindor " , " Hufflepuff ", " Ravenclaw " and " Slytherin ". Gryffindor hosts the most courageos and good pupils whereas Slytherin holds the sort of snobby and some evil witches and wizards such as Malfoy who get's into the Slytherin house. Harry Ron and Hermione all make Gryffindor after Harry begs for the hat to put him in Gryffindor and not Slytherin. Will Harry and the gang appear courageos later on?...

Neville Longbottom who is another Gryffindor student, although he is very shy and forgetfull, get's his remembrall which is something to remember his things by, is stolen by Malfoy and his Slytherins and it is thrown on the roof, so Harry decides to rescue nevilles remembrall from the roof of Hogwarts on a broom, and then realises that he is talented at flying his broom so he decides to join the quidditch team which Harry becomes the striker for what seems to be like a ball game but flying your broom at the same time. Will Harry capture the golden snitch to win the match, or will another house pick up the victory after Harry's broom being jinxed by what appears to be Severus Snpae, but is it Snape who is jinxing the broom?...

It is christmas at Hogwarts, and Ron receives a boring old sweater from his mother, but Harry receives an invisibility cloak to hide himself from people when he needs to. Harry is very unsure about who the cloak is from, however it comes in very handy. Harry goes on to discover a large mirror in an empty classroom which allows him to see his family behind him. The mirror has the writing of " The Mirror Of Erised " on the top of it which erised spelled backwards is desire and that is why Harry saw his parents. Harry is then joined by Dumbledore the headmaster who tells him a little bit about the mirror itself and that the Philosophers Stone that Hagrid picked up from gringots bank when Harry first collected his Hogwarts equiptment belongs to Nicholas Flemmel who receives an eternal life thanks to the stone...

On Harry's Way back to his dormitory in the Gryffindor house, Harry sneaks past Proffesor Snape and the stuttering Proffesor Quirrel by using his invisibility cloak, and over hears them talking about getting past a large three headed dog named fluffy who is gaurding the Philosophers Stone. Harry and friends ( Ron and Hermione ) think that Proffessor Snape is attemting to capture the Stone to restore Lord Voldemort back to life, but they are wrong when they are told by Hagrid in his hut when they visit him at night. Harry Ron and Hermione get caught being out of bed at that time of night after Draco Malfoy spies on them and tells Proffessor McGonagal who is in charge of the Gryffindor house...

They all get detention which means that they have to travel through the forest and look for Unicorns blood with Hagrid. Draco and Harry have to go together, but Draco runs away with Hagrids dog Fang after seeing a hooded looking feature drinking Unicrons blood. Harry trips over, but a centeur which is a half man half horse scares away what is Voldemort under the coat and that Harry needs to be carefull. Hagrid then tells the three friends accidently how to get past Fluffy who is gaurding the stone. Dumbledore can not warn Harry Hermione or Ron about trying to get to the Philosophers Stone as he has been called away...

Will Harry, Ron and Hermione reach the stone? Will they get past Fluffy for a start? Will it just be Fluffy that they face? Who will walk out safe, and could there be any sign of Voldemort?...
Theres only one way to find out and that is by getting the book for yourself...

How It All Started

JK Rowling moved to Manchester with her boyfriend in the year of 1990. She got the idea to write Harry Potter when she was travelling from Manchester to London on the train after looking for houses. JK actualy started writing about Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone the night she travelled. Miss Rowling also got more inspiriation when her mother sadly passed away and gave the idea that Harry was an orphan. In 1996 JK Rowlings Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone book was finally accepted by the publishing company of bloomsbury who then published the book in the year of 1997, and then the book was available on shop shelves that very year and many people found it such a great christmas present for 1997...

So it just shows that you really need inspiration from reality to write a book to expand it on, although JK Rowling did have the idea of Harry Potter just popping into the idea, if there wasn't anything else that inspired her, then the book wouldn't be as good as people see it who have the book...

Awards

This book has been quite successfull when it comes to awards. Five or Six months after it's release, the book was given a Nestle Smarties Book award, which is the children's award of the book. The British Book Award was given to this book for The Children's Book Of The Year 1997. This book was nominated for an award for the 1997 Carnegie and Guardian Award, but came up short. This January ( 2008 ), Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone was known as the third most best selling non religeos fiction novel, and was the twelth best selling book of all time!!!...

Interesting Facts

This book is written by JK Rowling.
The book is illustrated by Thomas Taylor in the UK.
The cover of the book sees Harry standing outside platform 9 and 3/4 looking surprised and confused...
There are over 130 million copys sold world wide.
This is the first book of 7 books of Harry Potter.
There are 223 reading pages in the book.
In the United States, this book was named " Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone ".
This book has a game and a film to go with it.

My Opinion

In my opinion, I can honestly say that this is one of the most exiting and well written books I have read. The whole Harry Potter series is just wonderful and so enjoyable to read. I have heard of this great fantasy being popular amoung teachers and pupils at differet school's, and I found that this book is just so easy to understand and I really can not find any flaw in JK Rowlings work.
People often say that the film of the Philospohers Stone is a little bit different to the book, with bits taken out of it, and that is true but it wouldn't be as exiting and thrilling that way. I can't think of a single person who ever found this book as a dissapointment becasue really there is only one word to describe the book itself and the awards it was given and that word is " Amazing "!!!...

Why Should You Buy The Book/Price

There is no reason why you shouldn't buy the book, and selling at the price of £6 to around £12 which is an extremely good price for this book and it is worth every penny. You should really try and find this book to purchase online or in shops because you will be most ammused with the fantasy that is brought to you by the magical mind of JK Rowling. Another reason to buy this book is for your own or your childs entertainment. Children love this book being read to them or by reading themselves. You will also be ammused as it is a very enjoyable book. I have also found this book a great one to discuss as it is easy to understand and give your analysis to. This book could be a great gift this Christmas so why not give it a go, I definitely recomend it!!!...

Thank you for reading...

(c) 2008 J24 

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