Harry Potter Prt.1

J.K. Rowling

Scholastic 1997

Appropriate for all ages based on reading ability.

First of all this is absolutely one of my favorite series!  I am astounded every time I read this book or any of the others, every time I read them there is always something that I missed the first time I read it!  I loved going back and rereading The Sorcerer's Stone because I can remember the first time I read this in 7th, grade I believe, so it was amazing to think about to that time and reflect on it now!  I think the content of this book is appropriate for any age of reader as long as they are capable of reading this level.  When I was tutoring last year with a group third graders on of the students was already reading the 3rd Harry Potter!  The rest of his classmates were no where near his reading level but they all were interested in Harry Potter and most had seen the movies and would ask him classmate about it!

With regards to Rowling's vivid imagery in her stories I would have to totally and completely 100% agree with that statement!  I think this is one reason that I love reading these books, still to this day, you can so easily see what she is talking about.  I feel that I am right there with the students at Hogwarts!  Especially I feel that I am inside of Harry's head a lot of the time.  The way she writes makes you have empathy of the characters and their "lives" in the book.  I feel that if I saw Harry and Ron and Hermione I would know exactly who they were and I would know all about their lives.  You know the characters and you know their personalities.  This book does struggle with the power of good and evil, just as a lot of fantasy books do.  Every fantasy has their own evil and in this series it is Voldermort, a dark wizard.  Despite the fact that this is a fantasy it is very easy to see how there are still practical life lessons embedded with in the exhilarating tale!  Some of the struggles that the characters in the book go through could pertain to a student who is having similar problems in their lives.  Especially with Harry people can identify with him because he is just trying to fit in.  He has lived in a totally different world where he knew nothing of who he really was, this could be taken apart and have the magic removed and this could be any kid.  People are always trying to fit in and be accepted, Harry is no acceptation.  Within this book it shows how Harry is trying to find his own place in the world and trying to find friends and people to identify with, some people try to make the decisions for him but he realizes that it shouldn't matter about the outside but the inside is what counts.  Malfoy meets Harry when they are getting fitted for their robes and he is talking about how only Pure Bloods should be allowed into Howgarts, but after Harry starts to meet some of the other students he begins to realize the Malfoy is not who you want as a close friend.  That is just one of the many different examples of Harry befriending people he believes in and not just based on what others say.  Also in the same scene Malfoy also makes jokes about Hagrid but Harry stands up for him despite there just meeting.

The book opens talking about the Dursley's and how "normal" they are.  It is fantastic because this is something that almost every kids wants to be, every person for the most part at that.  Especially for children it is very important to fit in and be "normal" and that is what the Dursley's were.  They were so consumed with being "normal" that they would not even talking about Mrs. Dursley's sister, Lily.  One day Mr. Dursely starts his day off normally, or so he thinks.  Well all sorts of weird things happen to him that day that completely freak him out and at one point he even hears someone mention the name "Potter".  Well this is the last name of Lily, Mrs. Dursely's sister, and Mr. D is to scared to say anything to his wife about this.  Well eventually they find out that yes indeed they were talking about the very Potters that they are related to.  The last thing they wanted was to be associated with the Potters and their lifestyle.  Well despite the fact that they had not talked to the Potters in years one day their son, Harry, showed up on their doorstep.  

After the tragic death of Harry's parents, killed by the Dark Wizard Voldermort, Albus Dumbledore decides that Harry needs to come to the Dursley's to live until he has come of age.  One of the main reasons that Dumbledore decided to have Harry stay with the Dursely's is because he will be so famous for something that he will not even remember and Dumbledore says "Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it in?"(p 13).  How would it feel to be famous of something that is such a personal tragedy?  One thing you could ask children when reading this book is what they would think if they were famous for something they didn't really do or something they do not remember doing.  You could also ask if they would have done the same thing Dumbledore did, taking Harry to his aunt and uncles. I think that Dumbledore knew what the Dursely's were like but he did not want Harry to grow up with everyone making a big fuss about him to his face, he wanted him to be like his parents in that they were humble and grateful people.

Harry's life is something that would be very humbling to anyone!  He lived under a staircase in a cupboard where there are lots of spiders.  How would it feel to live under a staircase.  Make a small space, a cupboard of sorts, and have the children lay in it for a period of time and get them to imagine having to live in a space like that everyday.  Harry only had hand-me-downs from his cousin who was 4 times bigger than Harry was, so he always looked a bit silly in those clothes.  His glasses were always broken because Dudley would always punch him and they would not buy him new ones.  I love how ironic it is that Harry's favorite apart about himself, up until this point, is his scar.  A scar is something that most people don't fancy and is definitely not a favorite part of most people's bodies.  But it is the only thing that is his, Harry's, no one can take it away from him. His whole life nothing was given to him but still things were taken from him.  Other children never wanted to play with Harry because Dudley would beat them up so Harry was always along until one day...

One day letter after letter starts to come for Harry and in some of the most mysterious ways.  Uncle Vernon freaks out and takes them out to a crapy cabin on top of a rock island in hopes that no letters will be able to reach Harry.  Well it's the night before Harry's 11th birthday and as soon as it turns to midnight there come a knocking at the door and in  busts Hagrid!  Well needless to say the Dursely's freak out and are terribly scared of him, I mean he is huge!  Well Hagrid tells Harry for the first time that he is a wizard and that he is getting ready to go to the best school for wizards.  

It seems strange but almost instantly Harry has great trust in Hagrid.  Why does Harry trust Hagrid so much after just meeting him?  "...even though everything Hagrid had told him so far was unbelievable, Harry couldn't help trusting him." (p 68)  I think that Harry had never felt the feeling that you can sense when someone really cares about you and I think that when he met Hagrid and after hearing what he had to say could feel that he cared about him.

Feeling out of place is something that can be a daunting thing for a person.  Harry has to deal with this when he runs into Malfoy for the first time in Diagon Alley.

I love how when Harry has his first encounter with the Weasly's it is a positive one.  Mrs. Weasly tells her children, specifically, George & Fred, not to bother Harry.  It shows compassion, a mothers instincts had to have helped with that decision because it was exactly what Harry needed.

I think it is very interesting to see how Harry reacts when people do not want to say Voldermort but only will call him "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Names".  To me this just shows how fear is something that is instilled in us and something we are not born with, well at least with some things (others are debatable).  On p 107 Harry tells Ron how he would rather just say Voldermort because he was never taught that it is a name that one should not say.  I agree with Dumbledore, if we do not call something by its name we give it more power and prove that we are afraid of it.  You could talk to your class about this idea and see if they believe the same thing.  We have to try and help future generations from being afraid of things and letting the affect them and the world negatively. 

All of the first years are terrified about, well probably everything!  There is a lot of anxiety about being put into the different Houses and everyone has their own desire for which house they want to be in. Having a class discussion about being the "new" person in a social situation and see what that feels like, this could be quite comical or hard for some students to talk about.  Coming to a school can be a very very scary thing.  No one knows what is going to happen and they are afraid especially after they learned that they will be sorted in front of the entire school.  Well everyone finally gets put into their appropriate Houses and it is finally time for dinner!  After dinner everyone goes upstairs and passes out after a long and exhausting day.  Despite all of the excitement Harry still has a bad dream that is very similar to the ones that he has had before when he was still living with the Dursely's, he wakes up after the nightmare but goes back to sleep and does not remember having the nightmare the next morning.  

The first day of school can be horrible for anyone, but Harry has everyone looking at him and whispering things about him as he passes, it makes him even more anxious then he was already.  New school anxiety is something that would be a great topic for the beginning of the year, even if not associated with this story.  Every single student is more than likely very scared on their first day of school, or the first day of school at new school.  This could be a good and uplifting conversation to have with students.  Showing them that they are not the only one that is afraid on the the first day of school could be a great comfort. Harry also gets lost all the time especially at the very beginning of the year, children could also be able to relate with this.

Harry feels that this has been a huge mistake that he is not supposed to be a wizard, a famous on at that.  He feels that he is so far behind compared to everyone else and it was nothing like he expected it to be when he first heard about his destiny from Hagrid.  Finally the day comes that they get to learn to fly on a broom stick, everyone is so excited and very nervous!  Hermione is terrified for what seems like the first time all year!  Well they get outside and ready for the lesson, well Neville, who is quite clumsy, is unable to control his broom and is knocked down and breaks his wrist.  Well Madam Hooch has to take him up to the hospital wing and while she is gone Malfoy takes his Rememberall and is threatening to put it up in a tree or on top of the roof.  This makes Harry really angry so he jumps on his broom and is chasing Malfoy.  Well Malfoy gets nervous and just throws the Rememberall and Harry has to dive after it to catch it, which he is extremely successful at!  Well he thinks that he is in major trouble when Professor McGonagall comes running down screaming at Harry.  He fears that he is going to get expelled after only two weeks but to his surprise he actually makes Seeker on the Quidditch team!  He is the youngest one on the team in a century!  

Harry finally is starting to find his very own place in the new world of his!

If no one has not been to J.K. Rowlings website you have to check it out!