"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J. K. Rowling

I have not read the Harry Potter books since 2007, when I reread the first six books to prepare for the seventh book's release.  So, I've decided it's high time to reread the whole series, and I'm calling 2021 My Year with Harry Potter.  

I've read Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone three times before, which is once more than books 2 through 6 and twice more than book 7, which I've only read once.  The reason I've read this one an extra time is that, when I was a senior in college, I did an internship working for one of my college's literature professors.  I helped her teach classes, write tests, grade tests and papers, and so on.  It was great experience that has helped me a lot in teaching my own kids, my nieces and nephews, and the kids in our homeschool co-op.  I helped primarily with two classes: Poetry and Drama, and Creative Writing.  And for Creative Writing, this was one of the books the students studied.  I hadn't read this before, so I had to quick read it so I could help teach it.

That first time through, I thought it was reasonably clever and enjoyable, but I didn't love it.  I didn't feel any desire to read more of the series, so that was that.  But in 2004, I started seeing trailers for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in the theater, and I just loved how they set Shakespeare's "Double, double, toil and trouble" to music.  Really loved it.  And, well, I quite like Gary Oldman.  So that made two reasons why I wanted to see the movie in the theater.  However, I didn't want to see the third movie in a series in the theater without having read the books first.  And possibly seen the first two movies too, so I'd know what they were doing with the stories.  

So I got the first three books and first two movies out of the library.  I reread the first one and still thought it was okay.  Read the second one and thought, hmm, this is getting pretty interesting.  Read the third one and fell madly in love with Sirius Black and the series as a whole.  Even had time to watch the first two movies before going to see the third.  Then read books four and five.  Told myself I wasn't going to buy book six when it came out, but would wait for the library to get it, and then promptly bought a copy the first night it was available because I worked at Walmart on third shift, and there it was, and I could not resist it.  And put in a preorder for the last one, which is another story for another time.

Well, this is the first time I've reread any of these since the last one came out, so it's the first time reading them with full knowledge of how everything turns out.  I have to say, that makes it really poignant to read all about Harry's beginning, and his faith in Dumbledore, and the way he gets treated by Snape, and so on.  I really liked this first book better this time through than any of the previous ones.  It made me laugh aloud so often, and chortle with glee at how cleverly Rowling was setting things up for even the very last book, already here.  Wow.

I think one of the things I love most about these books is the theme of standing by your friends even when you don't agree with them.  That's an idea we need more of right now -- that you can disagree with someone, but not discard or dismiss them.  That it's okay for friends to have different views and ideas and even beliefs, and that friendship is what lets people be comfortable with those differences.

Anyway, I'm eager to dive into book two, but I have to finish a couple other things first before I can.  Soon!

Oh, and if you don't know, in this book, an orphaned boy named Harry Potter learns that he is a wizard when he turns eleven and gets invited to leave his repressive and abusive aunt and uncle to go attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  

Although it has the word 'witchcraft' in the school title, this has nothing to do with actual witchcraft, black magic, the occult, or Satanism.  All the spells are humorous variations of Latin words, all the potions require pretend things like dragon teeth, and you can't do any magic at all if you aren't born a magical person.  I see no danger of this book teaching children -- or adults -- how to do magic. It is entirely, obviously imaginary.

I do see, however, that there could be a danger of people thinking that because the magic in this series is imaginary and harmless, all magic in the real world is also imaginary and harmless.  The Bible teaches us that there is such a thing as black magic, sorcery, and Satan-worship, and that we are to have nothing at all to do with them.  So I make sure my kids and I discuss the difference between fake magic like this and the stuff practiced by the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, which is harmless make-believe, and the kind of real-life magic that draws its power from Satan and which we must never get anywhere near.

Particularly Good Bits:

Harry felt a great leap of excitement.  He didn't know what he was going to -- but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind (p. 98).

"Always the innocent are the first victims," [Ronan] said.  "So it has been for ages past, so it is now" (p. 253). (In an amazing bit of coincidence, I read this part on the day of the annual March for Life.)

"Me!" said Hermione.  "Books!  And cleverness! There are more important things -- friendship and bravery and -- oh Harry -- be careful!" (p. 287).

"Always use the proper name for things.  Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself" (p. 298).

"There are all kinds of courage," said Dumbledore, smiling.  "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.  I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom" (p. 306).  (This part makes me cry.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for a couple minor cusswords, some rude humor (looking at you, Peeves), and children in peril.