Friday, June 01, 2007

Are you a Harry Potter Fan?

With the 5th Harry Potter movie scheduled for release in 6 weeks and rumors buzzing about the 7th and final book in the series, I thought it would be a good time to post 10-year-old Sorcha's review of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the book that started it all. She includes some fun & interesting facts at the end, too!

"Sometimes it’s hard for me to believe that when I was little I hated the Harry Potter books because I thought Harry wore toe socks (he doesn’t, by the way). But a few months ago I became one of the annoying Harry Potter fans who jabbers on about their latest fictional conspiracy theory ('I think Voldemort is really an evil cat who has set out to blow up the world using a concoction of shoelaces and necromancy!')But on to the point. The Harry Potter books are a series about a wizard-in-training and his friends. Together they try to stop the evil wizard Voldemort, who is trying to gain eternal life – and coming pretty close. The main character is a boy, but there are some really strong female characters such as Hermione Granger. One of Harry’s best friends, she always pays more attention in classes than Harry or their other best friend Ronald Weasely. Thus, she retains in her mind more usefull spells than the other two, and therefore they couldn’t do without her – she saves their lives on several occasions. Also, Hermione can stay calm and think about things until they make sense. Most of the time she turns out right, but Harry hardly ever listens to her. In the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry first discovers that he’s a wizard, and that his mother and father didn’t die in a car crash – they were murdered by the evilist wizard of all time, Lord Voldemort. Harry narrowly missed death himself, but for some reason Voldemort’s curse bounced right off him and the evil wizard disappeared. Harry starts lessons at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and meets two new best friends – Hermione Granger and Ron Weasely. Together they discover that something dangerous is being kept at Hogwarts, and Voldemort (and perhaps their least favorite teacher, Severus Snape the potions master, too?) wants to get his hands on it. Together they break through perilous obsticales to save the Philosopher’s Stone from Voldemort.
Interesting Facts:
1) The book is called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the U.S, and words like ‘cellotape’ and ‘jumper’ are changed to ‘Scotch tape’ and ‘sweater’.
2) Nicolas Flamel was a real person, and may have actually created a Philosopher’s Stone.
3) Another author once tried to sue Rowling for copyright violation – she used the word ‘muggle’ (a non-magical person) in her books, but with a completely different Defenition!
4) ‘Muggle’ was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003, with the defenition of ‘a person lacking in skill’.
5) There’s some dispute as to whether J.K. Rowling actually has a middle name or not."
What about you? Have you read all the books 10 times, or could you not care less? Does Harry Potter deserve the hype? Comment with your thoughts!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am... not a Harry Potter Fan. I'm Wiccan, and I love magick, but I do not like Harry Potter strangely. My friend says it's because I'm offended and that I see Harry Potter as making fun of Wicca. This is not the case. For some reason, I just don't like Potter.

Anonymous said...

I love the Harry Potter books! But I thought it was kind of offensive when you said "I became one of those annoying harry potter fans you jabbers on about their latest theory" Also, since you are British (I assume) you are used to hearing the words like "jumper" and "trainers" but Americans are used to hearing words like "sweater" and "sneakers" so it is not "weird" that we use different words for things. Toodles!

Anonymous said...

No, I am not a Harry Potter fan. But the author has great writing style!

Anonymous said...

I'm a Harry Potter fan and proud of it. I thought it was a fad and didn't read it until I saw the first movie. I knew then that I had to read them and since then, I've been hooked. I'm not quite as in love with it as my best friend is but I still love it. It's a great story and the author is a great writer. I'm really excited about the last book and the new movie!

Blankie of Eternal Death said...

Hi! Author speaking. =D
I was so happy when I got the email saying this was posted....
Anyways. Responding to comments....

Anonymous #2: I am not British, I was born in America and have lived here all my life. I didn't mean to offend anyone! I just feel that the original words shouldn't have been changed, as it ruins some jokes such as cello-tape/spello-tape. Sorry!

Anonymous #3: Thank you. =D

Iris said...

She's not actually British (she's my cousin). I don't think she's saying that it's weird to have divergent vocabularies, but it is weird that they felt the need to change the book for U.S. readers.

Anonymous said...

Harry Potter rocks! I'm rererereading the first one to get ready for number 7!!!!! Yea!!!! I'm so excited!!! But then it will be over... :-( I wonder, do you think she'll (JK Rowling) will write another series? Do you think any future books will live up to people's expectations if she does write more?

Anonymous said...

Hi! For many years I was a huge Harry Potter fan but now I don't find the series that I've read to death quite as enjoyable. Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone is my least favorite in the series (I think they got better as J. K. kept writing them. I do however love coming up with conspiracy theories about Deathly Hallows with my friends. Here's mine: Harry Potter was accidently made a Horcrux the night his parents were killed and Voldemort discovered this sometime during book #5. Dumbledore will be revived from the dead in order to tell Harry this and to make him realize the only way to kill the Horcrux within him and thus destroy Voldemort, he has to sacrifice Ginny Weasley. Then Dumbledore will die in one last descisive wizard battle and Harry Potter will defeat his foe. Yay! Happy ending (I hate Ginny). And the Wizarding World lives on.
P.S. Dear Writer, Why did you think Harry wore toe socks???

Anonymous said...

I think Harry Potter stories are not only empowering to women, but J.K. Rowling is as well. She was a
single mom, with little money, and all of a sudden... BAM! She's swept the world with her touching
characters, action packed plot, and an overall great read. I'm trying to publish currently, and when I feel as if all hope is lost, I remember Rowling and her low beginnings, and her current state of power. I don't expect to ever be where she is, but maybe to prove to those who didn't think I could do this that I can. Not
only that, but to prove to myself. Harry Potter books are geniously written and I reccomend to all.

Madeline
The Irish Princess

Anonymous said...

i have been a harry potter fan ever since i first got lost in the first book. the series relates to our modern lives in so many ways, and harry, ron and hermione are very realistic characters who are easy to relate to. personally, i have been greatly inspired by the books and am impatiently awaiting the 7th!

Anonymous said...

I'm a HUGE Harry Potter Fan! I collect the books and dvds and HP toys and stuff like that! I Have read athe books 81 times each and I am trying to break the world record for most read book by one person! When I read a Harry Potter book, I lose all sense of time, I do not exist while I'm reading, nothing around me exists. When I read it, a door opens to the magical world. It feels like the words made out of paper and printer's ink are me, I am the book.

I am a American, but I between Harry Potter, neopets.com, and other books, wich are all written in UK English, I speak UK English pretty much.