Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (original 1997; edition 2018)

one of my favorite series ( )

All of J. K. Rowling's series are fabulous. Not just for children! ( )

Reading age ‏ : ‎ 9 - 12 years
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 880L
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 4 - 7

Best Seller Ranks:
#6 in Children's Books on Orphans & Foster Homes
#27 in Children's School Issues
#57 in Children's Friendship Books

Stone used to be my least favourite book in the series largely because there aren't many exciting things going on compared to the other books. I used to think the series of obstacles (the dog to the mirror) Rowling crafted for the path they had to go through to reach the stone was rather random, and didn't really shine very favourably on Harry as a hero as Harry couldnt do any of them except the flying key stage. It also didn't really make sense to me then that the obstacles put up by expert wizards like Hogwarts professors and Dumbledore were easily overcome by Quirrell and a bunch of first years. Reading it again recently, I was able to appreciate a lot more of these obstacles crafted from the perspective of understanding Harry's character development.

Reading it again this time made me realise perhaps the obstacles crafted in Stone by Rowling were key for Harry's development of key heroic traits needed to save this wizarding world.

For one, the intention of putting up obstacles he mostly couldn't have done it himself was more realistic ( for harry being a first year student) and did make him understand that he couldn't do things alone, which is a penchant he has shown throughout the entire series because he didn't want to endanger others. Savings the wizarding world would require a huge af range of skills which one person alone cannot possess all. Harry needs to learn that he can't do most of the shit himself.

Harry was also pretty initially submissive and accepted the usual child-adult power dynamics, like most kids his age, often submitting to the Dursleys and easily trusting when the dursleys told him that his parents died in a car crash. The turning point was when he found out he has been lied to his entire life, and he seems to start disregarding establised truths/adults since then. The obstacles which I used to thought were pretty lame seeing as a fact that those adults of power and authority made them and their defenses got totally owned by Quirrell and a bunch of first years, I now can kinda see them as cleverly crafted for Harry's developed instinct to disregard rules/challenging established authority. The fact that the authorities/adults failed so epicly to protect the stone/school teaches Harry that he often has to take matters into his own hands rather than sit around and wait to be protected by the adults. So Rowling's choice of putting up such weak obstacles that could be so easily overcome by Quirrell and kids kinda makes more sense from the perspective of understanding Harry's character development. The key trait of undermining the ability of the supposed protectors/governance/those in power and questioning unchecked power was ultimately instrumental in saving the wizarding world later on. ( )

Independent Reading Level: Grades 4-6
Awards: Notable Children's Books (1999)