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Book Details

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

71.4% complete
1997
76,944
2000
1 time
See 17
1 - The Boy Who Lived
2 - The Vanishing Glass
3 - The Letters from No One
4 - The Keeper of the Keys
5 - Diagon Alley
6 - The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-quarters
7 - The Sorting Hat
8 - The Potions Master
9 - The Midnight Duel
10 - Halloween
11 - Quidditch
12 - The Mirror of Erised
13 - Nicolas Flamel
14 - Norbert The Norwegian Ridgeback
15 - The Forbidden Forest
16 - Through the Trapdoor
17 - The Man with Two Faces
Book Cover
Has a genre Has a synopsis Has comments Has a year read Has a rating In my library In a series 
64
© 1997 by J.K. Rowling
for Jessica, who loves stories,
for Anne, who loved them too,
and for Di, who heard this one first.
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.
May contain spoilers
I'm going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer...."
Comments may contain spoilers
The original British version of this book is entitled Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Synopsis (may contain spoilers)
      Harry Potter, at the age of one, was delivered on the doorstep of his aunt and uncle's house by Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and Hagrid.  His parents had just been murdered by an evil wizard and the death curse placed on Harry had gone wrong.  They were giving him to his aunt and uncle to raise even though they were not wizards themselves.  Because the Dursleys (Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia) did not like witches and wizards, they raised Harry without the knowledge that his parents were magical.  They also raised him in contempt and caused him to live in a small closet under the stairs.  On Harry's cousin Dudley's birthday, they all go for a trip to the zoo.  After Dudley taps on the glass at the snake house, Harry tells the snake he knows what it's like to be caged.  When Dudley sees the snake awake he shoves Harry out of the way at which point the glass to the cage disappears and Dudley falls in.  Harry is sent to his "room" when they get home.
      A letter arrives for Harry but, when Dudley tells Uncle Vernon about it he destroys it.  Later more letters arrive and eventually so many do that they are overrun by them.  Uncle Vernon takes Harry and his family to an abandoned shack on an island.  Hagrid, a very large man, appears at the island and tells Harry that he is a wizard and that he has been accepted to Hogwart's, a school for magical learning.  He also tells Harry the truth about how his parents died and how he got the scar on his forehead.  Hagrid takes Harry to London to a place called Diagon Alley.  Here he gets access to his parents wealth at Gringott's Bank.  They also stop by another vault to pick up a package for Hogwart's.  He uses some of this to buy his school supplies which include books, a cauldron and a wand.  Hagrid get his Hedwig, an owl, as a present.  Hagrid then gives Harry his tickets for the Hogwarts Express before he has to leave on further business.
      Uncle Vernon takes Harry to the station to meet the train.  Harry cannot figure out how to get to Platform 9 3/4 when he meets the Weasleys.  They help him get onto the train.  He gets to know Ron Weasley and meets Hermione for the first time.  When they get to the school they are met by Hagrid and all of the first years students are taken across the lake by boat to the school.  Inside the school Professor McGonagall tells them about the school and then they are sorted into houses (either Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw) by the Sorting Hat.  Then they are welcomed by the headmaster Dumbledore and they have a feast.  They are shown to their rooms by the house prefects for their first night at Hogwarts.  The first day of school Harry finds that he is a bit of a public figure with the students.  He learns also that Gringotts was broken into just after he and Hagrid were there.
       Gryffindor and Slytherin have flying lessons together under Madam Hooch.  Neville Longbottom gets injured when his broom takes off with him on it.  Draco finds his Remembrall and Harry and Draco have an argument about it.  Draco throws it and Harry chases after it.  McGonnogal sees him and suggests that he be made the new Seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.  Draco later challenges Harry to a wizard's duel.  Draco then weasels out of it and tells Filch hoping that Harry will be caught and expelled from school.  Harry, Ron and Hermione get away from Filch but in the process meet a three-headed dog.  Escaping him, they make it back to their rooms.
      Harry get a gift and when he opens it it is a Nimbus 2000 broom, top of the line.  He goes to Quidditch practice and learns the rules of game from .  Hermione overhears Ron talking bad about her after she does well in charms class.  She goes to the girl's restroom.  Professor Quirrell runs into the dining hall and announces that a troll is loose in the school.  Harry and Ron go to get Hermione when the troll attacks her.  They are able to save her from the troll and Hermione tells the professorsshe's to blame in order to keep them from getting into trouble.  Harry sees that Professor Snape's leg in bleeding and this causes him to think that he had ulterior motives when the troll was loose.
      Harry plays in his first Quidditch match against Slytherin when someone jinxes his broom.  Hermione sees Professor Snape mouthing some words.  She goes and sets fire to his robes and the jinx is lifted.  Harry catches the snitch and wins the game for Gryffindor.
      Harry, Ron and Hermione start searching the library for facts on Flamel after Hagrid accidentally lets him name out during a conversation.  School gets out for the Christmas Break when Ron teaches Harry wizard chess.  Harry gets an invisibility cloak for Christmas.  He tries uses it one night and winds up finding the Mirror of Erised in which he sees his mother and father with him in the mirror.  Professor Dumbledore finds out and warns him about it.
      Gryffindor beats Hufflepuff even with Professor Snape refereeing when Harry grabs the snitch after only five minutes.  Harry, Ron and Hermione visit Hagrid and find out that he has a dragon egg.  Since the dragon is illegal in England, Charlie Weasley, Ron's brother, agrees to have it sent to him in Romania.  Norbert, the dragon, is shipped off from the tallest tower but Harry and Hermione are caught by Filch on their way back to their rooms.
      Harry, in letting loose the dragon, loses Gryffindor 150 points after Draco Malfoy informed on them.  Ron, Hermione, Draco and Harry serve detention with Hagrid who takes them into the Forbidden Forest.  They are looking for a wounded unicorn.  Harry finds it dead with a dark shape drinking its silvery blood.  Harry is rescued from this dark shape by a centaur.
      Hagrid accidentally tells Ron, Hermione and Harry how to calm Fluffy, the three-headed dog that is guarding the Sorcerer's Stone.  They try to warn Professor Dumbledore who is not on the grounds any more.  Taking matters into their own hands they decide to go after the stone themselves.  They use the invisibility cloak to put Fluffy to sleep but he is already asleep to a self playing harp.  They go into the trapdoor and have to get past strangling plants which they overcome with a charm, a flying key puzzle which Harry solves, a wizard chess game which Ron is able to win and potions which Hermione finds the answer.  Harry has to leave Ron and Hermione after the chess game.  He then discovers that Quirrell is after the Sorcerer's Stone.  He has been serving Voldemort and Professor Snape is actually innocent of everything.  Professor Quirrell attempts to use the Mirror of Erised to get the stone but the stone appears in Harry's pocket instead.  Voldemort discovers this and reveals himself to Harry.  He has attached himself to the back of Professor Quirrell's head.  He then tells the professor to kill Harry but when he touches Harry he turns to ashes.  Harry passes out and comes to in a hospital bed.  Dumbledore explains some things about how he was able to overcome Quirrell.
      It looks as though Slytherin is about to win the house cup but due to last minute awards Gryffindor wins.

Extract not on file
Dramatis Personae
Character
Affiliation
Harry Potter
Hermione Granger
Ronald Weasley
Albus Dumbledore
Minerva McGonagall
Rubeus Hagrid
Professor Quirrell
Draco Malfoy
Severus Snape
Petunia Dursley
Vernon Dursley
Dudley Dursley

 

Added: 27-Dec-2002
Last Updated: 26-Apr-2022

Publications

 01-Sep-1999
Scholastic, Inc.
In my libraryI read this editionOrder from amazon.comHas a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
Cir 01-Sep-1999
Cover Price:
$5.99
Pages*:
309
Read:
Once
Internal ID:
141
Publisher:
ISBN:
0-590-35342-X
ISBN-13:
978-0-439-70818-0
Printing:
1
Country:
United States
Language:
English
Credits:
Mary GrandPre  - Cover Artist
Mary GrandPre - Illustrator
HARRY POTTER has never played a sport while flying on a broomstick.  He's never worn a cloak of invisibility, befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon.  All Harry knows  is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley.  Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years.

But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to a wonderful place he never dreamed existed.  There he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him... if Harry can survive the encounter.

A New York Times Bestseller • A USA Today Bestseller • A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998 • Booklist Editor's Choice • Winner of the 1997 National Book Award (UK) • An ALA Notable Book • Winner of the 1997 Gold Medal Smarties Prize • A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year 1998 • Parenting Book of the Year Award 1998
Cover:
Book Cover
Notes and Comments:

Related

Author(s)

J K Rowling  
Birth: 31 Jul 1965 Yate, South Gloucestershire, England, UK
Notes:
J.K. Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England. Her full name is Joanne Kathleen Rowling.

J.K. Rowling was divorced and living on public assistance in Edinburgh, Scotland with her infant daughter when she wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.  The Scottish Arts Council gave her a grant to finish the book which she sold to Bloomsbury and Scholastic Books.  Harry Potter won The British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year and the Smarties Prize and also received great reviews in England and in America.  She graduated from Exeter University.  She was 26 years old when she moved to Portugal to become an English teacher.  She married a journalist in Portugal and they had a daughter named Jessica who was born in 1993.  Rowling moved back to Edinburgh and she was unemployed when she wrote the first Harry Potter book.  Rowling sold the novel, Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, to Bloomsbury in England for about $4,000.  In 1997 the book won The British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year and the Smarties Prize.  The Harry Potter books have been printed in 35 languages and have sold over 30 million copies.

Awards

1999Locus MagazineBest First Novel Nominee
*
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