Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy - until he is rescued by a beetle eyed giant of a manenrols at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardrylearns to play Quidditch and does battle in a deadly duel. All because Harry Potter is a wizard!
Follow the adventures of Harry Potter as he discovers the magicalthe dangerousthe unpredictable world of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Shortlisted for the 1997 Carnegie Medal Award
Winner of the 1997 Smarties Book Prize Gold Award for 9-11 years

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potteralong with his friendsRon and Hermioneis about to start his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry can't wait to get back to school after the summer holidays. (Who wouldn't if they lived with the Dursley's?) But when Harry gets to Hogwartsthe atmosphere is tense. There's an escaped mass murderer on the looseand the sinister prison guards of Azkaban have been called in to guard the school.
'The Harry Potter books are that rare thinga series pf stories adored by parents and children alike.' The Daily Telegraph
Winner of the 1999 Whitbread Children's Book of the Year

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter is a wizard. He is in his second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Little does he know that this year will be just as eventful as the last...

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Many of the first 75 of this tome’s 700-plus pages are spent rehashing the first three booksso about the only new thing readers discover is that Voldemort is on the move again. MeanwhileHarry escapes his summer “imprisonment” at the Dursleys’ to attend the Quidditch World Cup with the Weasley family and Hermione. Thousands of international witches and wizards are gathered at the Cupand chaos erupts when the “Dark Mark” (Voldemort’s sign) suddenly appears in the sky.

Back at Hogwarts for the fourth yearonly a few remain concerned about the Dark Mark. Everyone’s attention has been diverted by the news of the Triwizard Tournament—a magical contest between the wizarding Champions of the three largest magical schools: HogwartsDurmstrang and Beauxbaton. Harry is too young to be chosen as Hogwarts’ official school championbut someone finds a way to enter him in the contest anyhow. Once chosenHarry must participateand it is soon clear that whoever entered him did so intending him harm.

Through the year-long competitionchampions complete three magical taskshoping to win honor for their school and a monetary prize for themselves. Along the wayreaders discover that the Dark Mark and the Triwizard Tournament are not unrelated after all. Alsosomething is fishy (again) about the new professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts (Does he want to help Harry or harm him?). Hermione goes on a campaign to free the house elves from slaveryand everyone gets fed up with muckraking journalist Rita Skeeterwho seems determined to ruin Harry’s life.

The Triwizard tournament ends with a twistand the victory celebration has hardly begun before Harry is sucked into another battle with Voldemort. Rowling delivers on her promise that a well-liked character will die. Once againHarry escapes with his lifebut the end of this story spells more-than-usual concern for the futurebecause Voldemort has regained his body (which he had lost when he tried to kill infant Harry) and his followers. As the book closeswe find Professor Dumbledore calling the international wizarding community to stand together against the dark side. A large-scale battle is sure to come.

harry Potter is the name of a popular series of fantasy novels by British writer J. K. Rowling. Six of seven planned books have been published to datenot including the two school booksQuidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. These two are supposed to be two of the school books in the seven original books. The books depict a world of witches and wizardsthe main character being a young wizard named Harry Potter. The first novelHarry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States)was released in 1997. The first four books have been made into filmsand the fifth movie has begun filming (February 2006)with an expected release in 2007.

As of 2005Rowling has written the last chapter of the seventh book. Rowling has also mentioned that the last word of the book would be "scar," which remains to be seen. Howevershe is unsure whether that will be in the final draft in the bookas she was asked about it in an interview conducted by fan sites Mugglenet and The Leaky Cauldron.

The Harry Potter books have achieved a profile unparalleled by any other series of bookswith worldwide sales exceeding 300 million copies. They have been praised for encouraging children and indeed even adults to readwhile also drawing criticism from some quarters. The books are published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (original; distributed in the UK and other Commonwealth countries except Canada)Scholastic Press (US edition; distributed in the United States) and Raincoast Books (original; distributed in Canada).

Publishing history
The books have fans of all ages. J. K. Rowling says she did not have any particular age group in mind when she started to write the Harry Potter books; her publishershoweverinitially targeted them at young readers aged 8 to 15. The books have more recently been released in two editionsone with the original "children's" cover artworkand one with artwork more consciously aimed at adult readers. Additionallyas the series has developedRowling's writing has become more sophisticated and the content of the books has matured as the lead characterHarry Potterhas grown older. For instancerelationships are discussed as an issue for the teenage characters in later books. Accordinglythe reading age for the booksboth in terms of content and is rising as the series goes on.

Cover of the original novel in the seriesHarry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.The first book was published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsburya fairly small independent publisherin July 1997. Its initial success was based on some positive reviews and word of mouth. The first three booksHarry Potter and the Philosopher's StoneHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabanall won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for the 9 to 11 age group. By the time the fourth bookHarry Potter and the Goblet of Firewas published in 2000 the series had become very high-profileand the launch received much wider publicity in the general media than was usual for a new book. At around the same time Warner Brothers began work on the series of films based on the books. The involvement of a global media conglomerate led to more concerted efforts to maximise the value of the Harry Potter franchise. The first filmbased on the first bookwas released in 2001and was accompanied by video games and other branded merchandise.

The hype escalated with the publication of the next two books in the seriesHarry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Princewith midnight launch parties at hundreds of bookshops in the UKsimultaneous launch events around the English-speaking worldand intense media interestleading to unprecedented first-day sales in the UKUS and elsewhere. The series is immensely popular around the world in its many translations. Such was the clamour to read the book around the world that the English-language edition of Order of the Phoenix became the first English-language book ever to top the bookseller list in France.

Cover of the United States edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stoneretitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for release in the US.According to the authorthe main character Harry Potter appeared in her head while she was on a train from Manchester to London in 1991. Her favourite place to write the first book was at an Edinburgh café table while drinking endless cups of coffee. Sales from the books as well as royalties from films and merchandise have made Rowling a billionaire and the 620th wealthiest person in the world [1]. Rowling is assumed to be richer than Queen Elizabeth II (see J.K. Rowling for an explanation).

Each book chronicles approximately one year in Harry's life at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardrywhere he learns to use magic and brew potions. Harry also learns to overcome many obstacles — magicalsocial and emotional — as he struggles through his adolescence.

Rowling has announced that seven books are plannedeach a little darker than its predecessor as Harry ages and his nemesisLord Voldemortgains power. As of July 16 2005six books have been published. The latestHarry Potter and the Half-Blood Princewas published in its English-language version on 16 July 2005. Since the publication of book fiveRowling has revealed hints about the plot of future books on her personal website.

Content and writing
The books are written in third person limited omniscient modewith Harry as the central character. The books are generally written from Harry's point of viewwith short exceptions in Philosopher's StoneGoblet of Fire and Half-Blood Prince. The telling of the story through Harry Potter's perspective is perhaps one of the reasons that many readers feel so close with the character.

Rowling's main strengths as a writer include her ability to drive elaborate and largely seamless plots over a very wide canvasthe convincing internal logic of her fantasy world. Howeverwhile there is much moral subtlety in many scenes in the booksthe central clash between good and evil is drawn in largely black-and-white terms. Neverthelessas the series developsseveral characters have faced a choice between doing what is right or what is easy (a central theme)and moral "shades of grey" have been presented. This is especially relevant to characters such as Dolores Umbridgesome Ministry of Magic employees and Severus Snape.

Rowling lets the ideas of racismgenocideanti-establishment and prejudice find their way in; these are the trademark of Voldemort and his Death Eatersbut also occasionally shown in the relationship between wizardsthe non-magical (or "Muggle") populationand magical creatures in the wizarding world who contain some prejudicial baggagesuch as werewolveshouse elvesgiants and centaurs (branded 'half-breeds' by the more bigoted of the wizarding world).

The books have been compared to many well-known worksincluding C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. They also fit into a British genre of novels about boarding school life (such as Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's Schooldays)and sections involving the DursleysHarry's relativesare reminiscent of the works of Roald Dahl. Echoes of Charles Dickensparticularly in the naming of charactersand Douglas Adams have been pointed out by other readers. At rootHarry's origin story is a mythical archetype known around the world: the destined hero sent away as a baby for safekeeping and raised by common folk until he is of an age where he can be told who he really is and what he must do (a motif most famously epitomised in the myth of Oedipus). Readers who are unfamiliar with traditional cultural myths will still recognise the theme; it is the basis for Star Wars and Supermanamong others.

Aspects of the Harry Potter series have even entered the real worldsuch as Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beanswhich inspired an actual product of that name marketed by the Jelly Belly Company. The productnamed "Bertie Bott's Beans"contains an assortment of twenty different kinds of jelly beans that have been developed to mimic flavours found in the assortment of similar name in the book seriesincluding tooty-frootydirtbubblegumsnotgrassand the surprisingly realistic "vomit" flavour. Alsoknitting patterns have been created for the Quidditch Sweater and Elf Socks.