Rereading the Book That Turned a Lot of Us Into Readers

my little cousin made me reread this over the holidays because she’d just finished it for the third time, and honestly, honestly it holds up better than i expected going in as an adult. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is doing a lot of very simple, very effective work, orphan kid discovers he’s actually special, gets whisked into a magic school, makes two best friends in about a week, and the whole cupboard-under-the-stairs setup does a ton of heavy lifting in like ten pages.

is it the best book in the series? no, not even close, it’s honestly one of the weaker entries once you know where the whole thing goes, more of an intro than a full meal. but it establishes the tone in a way very few series openers manage, and Rowling is clearly having fun with names and details even this early, Ollivander picking out the wand that “chooses the wizard” is such a small scene and it’s still the one people quote back at me most.

one review i found stuck with me: somebody said the book “felt derivative of The Cat in the Hat,” which made me laugh out loud, because yeah, okay, i see it, the boy discovers a hidden magical world thing isn’t exactly a new trick, even if this one did it bigger than anyone. another person pointed out something i hadn’t thought about, that rowling talks a big game in interviews about inclusivity but the actual cast of this first book is pretty narrow, which, fair, that’s a real gap and not just internet noise.

still though, it’s a fun, funny, quick read, and i get why it launched an empire. four stars, mostly nostalgia, partly just good storytelling craft.