Part 1: Introduction of the book

Title: Harry potter and the philosopher's stone

Author(s): Joanne Kathleen Rowling, pen name of Joanne Rowling

Genre: fantasy literature

Short summary: A boy who learns on his eleventh birthday that he is the orphaned son of two
powerful wizards and possesses unique magical powers of his own. He is summoned from his life as
an unwanted child to become a student at Hogwarts, an English boarding school for wizards. There,
he meets several friends who become his closest allies and help him discover the truth about his
parents' mysterious deaths.

Evaluation :Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (or "Philosopher's Stone" released in the U.S.,
and audiences are considered unfamiliar with the alchemical term) is now re-released 20 years later,
into a completely different world. Sadly, the actors who played the original Dumbledore, Snape,
Uncle Vernon and Mr Ollivander - Richard Harris, Alan Rickman, Richard Griffith and John Hurt - no
longer with us. The Harry Potter series itself is still a huge commercial entity, an IP Shangri-La,
although its creator JK Rowling is now at the center of a heated debate on gender politics --
unthinkable in 2001 -- and children's and teenage fiction The world, which she has revived almost
single-handedly around the world, is heavily regulated on these issues. In the film we see Harry
Potter coming to terms with his messianic purpose: he is released from his Dickensian incarceration
in the Dursley household and sent for his first term at Hogwarts with its public-school/Oxbridge
traditions. Harry learns how to play quidditch (like Tom Brown learning rugby) and he and his three
pals are sorted into their various houses; they encounter the formidable teaching staff, including
Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith), Professor Quirrell (Ian Hart) and Professor Snape (Alan
Rickman) and then meet the challenge of a deadly assault on Harry.

And it’s still a very entertaining and spectacular movie, with a rush of nostalgia to go alongside the
exhilaration of fun, even though some of the “flying” effects during the big quidditch match aren’t
quite what we’re used to in 2021. “Wingardium Leviosa,” says the earnest, wide-eyed Hermione …
and the story is airborne again.

My recommendation: I would definitely recommend this book because it keeps you reading without
ever wanting to put the book down. By the end of the book you come to love the characters and you
want to read more. You won't be disappointed because the second book in the series, Harry Potter
and the Chamber of Secrets is just as great!