Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

“It's Harry Potter... a.k.a. the gold standard by which children's literature will be measured for years... need I say more? The classic battle between good and evil, a beautifully constructed magical world, and intricate backstory all set in a perfectly appropriate eleven-year-old's version of the world with school, teachers, friends, sports (Quidditch!) and rivalries with bullies.”

“A perfect start to a wonderful adventure! Young readers will happily tumble into the wizarding world as they discover magic alongside Harry. While the plot elements and themes of the series do grow darker and more complex as the books continue, this first book is perfect for elementary school and early middle school readers.”

“Throughout most of the book, the characters are impressively three-dimensional (occasionally four-dimensional!) and move along seamlessly through the narrative. However, a few times in the last four chapters, the storytelling begins to sputter, and there are twists I found irritating and contrived. To serve the plot, characters begin behaving out of character. Most noticeably, Hagrid, the gentle giant of a groundskeeper who has selflessly protected Harry over and over, suddenly turns so selfish he is willing to let Harry be punished for something that is Hagrid's fault. That's not the Hagrid I'd come to know. These are minor criticisms. On the whole, *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* is as funny, moving and impressive as the story behind its writing. J. K. Rowling, a teacher by training, was a 30-year-old single mother living on welfare in a cold one-bedroom flat in Edinburgh when she began writing it in longhand during her baby daughter's nap times. But like Harry Potter, she had wizardry inside, and has soared beyond her modest Muggle surroundings to achieve something quite special.”

“Harry Potter also has echoes of children's classics Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. With the help of a noble if nitwitted giant, a few inept but big-hearted student magicians, even a concerned if somewhat distant centaur, Harry takes on powers bigger and stronger than him, growing older and wiser in the process. You don't have to be a wizard or a kid to appreciate the spell cast by Harry Potter.”

“Published to praise and awards, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is as inventive and engaging a title as one could hope to find. Designated for ages 8 to 12, but written for anyone who loves a good tale well told, this is a book to engage the mind and grab the heart . . . and J.K Rowling is a writer to watch and remember.”

“I brave the wrath of millions by daring to say so, but it really doesn't take a high-minded killjoy to worry what these books are doing to the literary taste of millions of potential young readers...What I do object to is a pedestrian, ungrammatical prose style which has left me with a headache and a sense of a wasted opportunity. If Rowling is blessed with this magic gift of tapping into young minds, I can only wish she had made better use of it. Her characters, unlike life's, are all black-and-white . Her story-lines are predictable, the suspense minimal, the sentimentality cloying every page. (Did Harry, like so many child-heroes before him, HAVE to be yet another poignant orphan?)".”