Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

A. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

B. Rowling, J.K.

C. Grandpré, Mary

D. Scholastic Inc. 1997.

E. Science Fiction/Fantasy/Novel

F. Grades 4- all:)

G. Harry Potter is all about a young boy who grows up in the shadows of his cousin Dudley, as his parents died when he was an infant and taken in by his aunt and uncle. He soon learns that he is meant for a whole other world and is brought to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy where he makes life long friends and enemies. He realizes that this is the place that is meant for him and through a period of tests that challenge him as he is at Hogwarts he learns alot about his past and how his parents really died by an evil part of their world, Voldemort. Harry goes through this book searching for alot about his past and finds alot more than I think he was ever expecting. He is faced with different challenges that weigh out over others and in the end I think he truly learns what matters the most. By the very end he is faced with the dilemma of either being kicked out of school for breaking dozens of school rules vs. saving the wizarding world from the dark Lord Voldemort, who in fact killed Harry’s parents. He becomes the true hero he is meant to be and at the end (or for now) all things are set right for Harry and his friends Hermione and Ron.

H. This book is such an amazing book and there is so much that I can write about it that I don’t think this blog will do it enough justice, however I’ll do my best. I noticed alot of different things than the last time I read it, and this is probably because the first time I read this book was about 11 years ago when it first came out. I forgot how much more there is in the book compared to movie because the movie is the most recent thing I’ve seen about the first Harry Potter since I read the first book. This book makes me have so many emotions that its hard to pinpoint just one but some of the main ones are courage, love, empowered, trust, morals, and determination. There are ofcourse alot of other connections to other books I’ve read because I’ve read most of the other books that continue out Harry’s saga but as I’ve said it was really interesting reading this book for the first time in so many years, because so many people have the shorter version that skips alot of the little important things by just watching the movie. There are so many different themes in this fun book and I think it would be good to explore most if not all of them. Love is shown deeply throughout this entire book because Harry goes from not really knowing what love is, what by growing up in the Dursley household, to being surrounded by friends who truly appreciate his friendship, to figuring out that the love of his parents is what kept him alive to the very end of this book. Bravery is an obvious theme because if Harry, Ron, and Hermione weren’t brave in the first place, and even Neville they probably wouldn’t even be in this book. It takes very brave youngsters like themselves in order to not only confront, yet take down a mortal enemy. Along with this, bravery is shown by Neville who stands up to all of Harry, Ron, and Hermione by trying to stop them for what he thought was right so they wouldn’t get into any more trouble. Bravery is an understatement, none the less because there are not any 11-year olds I know that would go on the search for the one that pretty much wants to kill them (us). Predjudice is not as obvious as many of the other themese, however it is still there and being predjudiced is something I’m very against. It’s in here where there are those certain wizards that don’t think muggle-born wizards should even be allowed to practice magic (most if not all Slytherins) and also where Malfoy continued to criticize Harry for not having parents and Ron for getting everything by the way of hand-me downs. I think the theme of making choices or decisions all goes back on the subject of bravery because you have to be brave enough and be able to think for yourself, to be able to make the right decisions for your own morals and ultimately in the end its having the ability to be able to choose between right and wrong. One can definitely learn that the them of names or identities is just a phase in the sense that just by someone’s name you can’t judge them for anything until you have experienced it yourself. I mean this because everyone judged Harry Potter to be this great celebrity once he got to school but then they all changed their minds immediately when he brought Gryffindor points down to the ultimate low. They then changed their minds back again when he and his friends saved their skins from his bravery versus Voldemort and thought he was a great person all over again, so in the end you can’t just judge a book by its cover, you have to go through all the pages, or all the layers of the person before you can get a true feeling about that person. It takes a really strong person to have dreams or desires they are so passionate about because they are determined to get what they to get done completed. Fear and truth play an obvious role in this book because it takes alot of fear some of the character’s parts in order to find out what is true to their hearts in the end and also to see what they are really made of. Like his dad, Harry has a knack(sp.?)  for rule-breaking and  getting into mischief and luckily enough for him he always makes that transform into the theme for success. These are just a few themes I found direct examples from the book but ofcourse there are so many others as well. The websites I thought were very helpful however there were quite a few of them I was unable to open. The ones I could open I found very useful in helping think of ideas of how Harry Potter can be used in the classroom which I will be writing about in Teaching Connections. The main site with J.K. Rowling is filled with different information about all of her books and I think it would also be a great resource to bring into the classroom.

I. Harry Potter brings a variety of different things to the table of lesson plans for the classroom. However first thing’s first in the sense that I have a couple of confused/mixed ideas in the sense that while I love Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling’s brilliant whole series I know there are many others out there that don’t approve. I would love to be able to bring the life of Harry and Hogwarts in my own classroom but isn’t is somewhat objectable because there are many people who would have conflicting interests between this book and their own religion. One of my friends found out I was reading this book for this class and told me that she doesn’t read books “like that” because they have to do with witches which I guess relate to the devil and or Satan. I find this an interesting topic I think should be discussed because what happens when a child’s parents refuse for their son/daughter to read this? Yes, there can be alternate plans for that particular child but that goes down the path of singling them out on their own which I would find that unwise to make them feel even more different.

On a regular basis though, in the classroom I really like Dr. Frye’s idea about having each of us make our own Mirror of Erised. Each kid should bring their own version in and present it to the entire class. This can cover what the true desires or dreams are of each student rather than inanimate objects they just want. An idea that I became reminded of while looking at the sites suggested was doing the owl pellet activity in a regular science classroom. I remember doing that myself in even my freshman year of highschool, where you pick apart different owl pellets to find bones of other animals that an owl has consumed over the course of many different years. The students can then put together the bones they found to try to create the mysterious animal that the owl consumed in the first place. Harry Potter can also be brought into the classroom by addressing situations and asking the students what would they do if this or if that happened…There are so many essay or story ideas that can come from what if Harry decided to do this instead or what if you were in Harry’s shoes? To get different PE activities brought into the classroom for the recommended 30 min. of physical activity a day each student should get the kids can make up their own version of Quidditch and have imaginary broomsticks etc. Regular book reports can be brought up by creating mobiles, diarammas, or other visual aids that can help represent the different themes the kids discover in this book. This book is so extraordinary because of the fantastic use of imagination, real life themes, imagery and great literature that I can’t wait to hopefully be able to use this in my future classroom!