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

author study

classroom connections

list of related books

web activities 

links

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.  1997
British Book Award: Children's book of the Year

The Smarties Prize

New York Times Best Seller List

American Bestsellers Book Award

 
Book talk

Limited people who live limited lives
Limit others
Who already live in a limited world.

J.K. Rowlings sets no limitations in her first attempt with the outstanding modern fantasy book Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone. In this book, the main character, Harry, struggles with the many outside forces in his life.  In his new journey of finding himself, J.K. Rowlings touches on many issues that young adolescents face in their every day lives such as making friends, adjusting to a new school, etc.  This easy to read book lends itself to being a very quick read. Along with being a quick read, it is a very enjoyable read as well.

Harry is a young, frail boy who has been orphaned by his parents.  He has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle.   At the beginning, it seems very grim for Harry as his life holds little spark.  However, the plot quickly changes as Harry learns his real purpose in life: Harry was born into a very powerful line of magicians. Harry, with his new found secret, has a constant internal and external struggle.  His internal struggle is the fact that Harry has no idea of his origin.  He knows that his parents were killed and he knows that there was foul play involved.  However, the details end there. It seems to be Harry's new purpose in life to find find out more about his own magical abilities and to find out what happened to his parents.

Harry battles with an external force as well.  His new adopted parents, his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, as well as Dudley, his menacing cousin, are strongly against Harry and his magical powers. Harry gets temporary relief from his new family during the school year but ends up having to always face them in the end.  Harry meets many new friends at his new school, Hogwarts, and finds himself drawn deep inside a mystical world he never knew existed and closer to his own noble destiny.

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone is a great book for readers of all levels.  A definite thumbs up in the realm of children's literature.

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Author study

J. K. Rowling:
    As she started writing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, she was on welfare and sitting at a table at a local cafe in England.  While her infant daughter slept, she wrote the book on scraps of paper.   She could have never imagined her success .  Before writing the Sorcerer's Stone, she wrote two other books that she abandoned (after she realized how bad they really were).  It took a year after she finished the book until it was picked up by a British Publisher.  The book became a literary sensation almost overnight.  It won British Book Awards for Children's Book of the Year.  It also won the Smarties Prize and the American Bestsellers Book Award.  Three sequels have already been published: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  One more book is set to be released: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  They all have been New York Times Best Seller's here in America.  In all, J.K. Rowlings wants to write a total of seven books in the Harry Potter series.  She presently lives in Edinsburgh, Scotland with her daughter.

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Classroom connections

These ideas are general and would have to be refined to suit the grade level and the particular students:

Art -- Students using various mediums can illustrate one of the characters or scenes using details from the story.  Students could also create a mystical character wheel.  In this activity, the students will receive a wheel with three independently moving circles.  In each circle will be the names of different animals.  The students will spin the wheels and the animal selected in the outer circle will be what the legs of the mystical creature should be, the middle circle should be what the abdomen of the creature should be and the inner most circle will be what the head of the creature should be.

Writing -- Students can write a journal response as if they were Harry Potter, including adjectives to describe how they would feel if they were him. Students could also pick a specific event in the story to guide in writing in the form of a friendly letter. In addition, this book would be a good example to use in discussing the various parts of a book: plot, climax, etc.  In addition to this activity, the students could write a story about the mystical creature that they created in their art project.  The students would write a scene introducing this character into the story.

Compared to other books -- Students can create a "T-chart" comparing/contrasting Star Wars to Harry Potter: Sorcerer's Stone. They can find the common themes discussed in each and the different styles of each author.

Discussion -- Students can discuss the multitude of themes throughout. Also, students can discuss a time in their lives were they felt left out like Harry and how they overcame these feelings or how they would help someone who felt left out like Harry did. As a class, they could develop ways in which to make students feel important in a class.

Creative Dramatics -- Students can pick a favorite scene from the book and re-write as a play. The students could then reenact the scene in front of the class (this is a good option for those who like to perform).

Social Studies -- Students can construct a time line of the main events of Harry's first year at Hogwart School. Then they could depict a time line of their first year in school or a specific grade. Then, the student can compare the events of each.  The students could also predict what is going to happen to Harry in his years ahead at Hogwarts.  Students could also draw a map of where Hogwarts might actually be or just create a map of school grounds.

Science -- Students can conduct an experiment on what type of propulsion would be needed to project a broom so that it would hold a human. Also, the class could conduct an experiment in which they combine compounds to make the solution change in color (must consider safety).  Students could create their own "potion" using items that could be found around the house or classroom.  One example could be to give students water, cornstarch, and food coloring and have them create "oobleck", which is a substance that is solid when held and then mysteriously turns to liquid.  The students could then talk about how this could happen.

Math -- Students can use this book as an introduction to sequence of events. They could then depict the sequence of the story events in a map.  Students could also be given a certain amount of money and a list of school supplies that they must buy.  They must determine how much they need to spend on their supplies and how much they will have leftover to spend on themselves.

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List of related books
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Web activity

Since the Harry Potter series has caused a lot of controversy because of some of the
superstitions and magical elements that it contains, it would be a good idea to have
students that are reading Harry Potter to look up some information about superstitions.
Alternately, you could do a websearch of magic or witchcraft.

Tentative Objectives
    Students will be able to:

Procedures
1.  Ask the students, "what do you associate with magic?"  (lead the students' responses
in the direction of some common superstitions about magic like black cats, owls, brooms,
wands, potions, robes)
2.  Instruct the students to search for some other superstitions on the internet.  If the
students need help you can direct them to www.cam.org/~jennyb/combi.html.
3.  Tell the students to choose three superstitions that interest them and to write them
down along with the origin of the superstition.
4.  Encourage (or require) each of the students to present one of their superstitions to the
class.
5.  Ask the students where they think superstitions usually come from.  After their
responses, point out that a lot of superstitions have truth behind them and some of them
do
not.  Use examples that the students presented if possible.
Assessment
    The superstitions that the children give orally or the superstitions that they wrote down
could be used if you feel you need an assessment.
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Related Websites
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