HP 2011 Book Challenge: Part 2: Experience It Again For the First Time

Here’s my first review for the Harry Potter Book Challenge. If you’re just now tuning in, here are the details.

I wish I could go back and read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone again for the very first time — to relive that first glimpse of Rowling’s magical world, experience again the thrill of discovery and the birth of a whole new state of imagination.

Sure, we’ve all read books about magic before — some with dragons, some with evil sorcerers and fairy princesses, hobbits and dwarves — and those are amazing. But, even though simpler — and maybe that’s the key — something about Harry Potter seems so within reach, like witchcraft and wizardry is something we all could do, if someone would just show us how. He’s just this normal kid that finds out he’s so much more. Who hasn’t daydreamed about just that?

J. K. Rowling is nothing less than a sorceress herself, conjuring up Bertie-Bott’s Every-Flavor Beans, Cauldron Cakes, wingardium leviosa (the spell to make objects levitate), and a million other magical details — from the miniscule piskies to the giant mountain trolls — all of which combine to make one of the most entertaining children’s books of all time.

And then you have the anti-heros. It’s almost tangible how much we hate Harry’s relatives, the Dursleys — Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and cousin Dudley — each of them with their own set of infuriating idiosyncrasies — they couldn’t have been better designed for ultimate detestation. And Snape. What a marvelously, wonderfully hateable guy.

We all know how the story goes; I won’t bore you with a rundown of the actual plot-line, but before I wrap up, I will tell you about my favorite part. After pretty much kicking the Dursley’s butts, Hagrid takes Harry to Diagon Alley for the first time. Even before the movie came out, it wasn’t hard, from Rowling’s skilled descriptions, to imagine the awe with which Harry watched Hagrid, with his magic (!!) wand, tap the brick wall in the alley behind The Leaky Cauldron. Close your eyes and think, just think, about how amazing it would be, rather than driving with your mom down to Target to buy pens, pencils, and boring three ring binders in preparation for school, if you were to walk down a cobblestone road, window-shopping at magical stores that were hidden to the rest of your city, buying cauldrons, spell ingredients, and a magic wand that chooses you. And then, instead of Algebra, United States History, and English Composition, you picked out The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk, Magical Draughts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger, and A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch. It’s just shivery-good-happy.

One of the best things about this series, looking at it in it’s entirety, is how it builds to the denouement. Beginning the series at any age is fine, but when these books first came out, the target audience was around Harry’s own age, 11 or 12. The readers actually grew up along with Harry, as subsequent books came out a year or so later than the previous one, Harry was a year older, a year further in school, and the boys and girls reading the books were a year or so older themselves. The books become darker as they progress, covering some pretty tough subject matter, but sticking with the target audience, introducing situations, characters and dialogue that continue to keep interest rapt, and the reader turning pages like they’re on fire.

Honestly, I could go on, but I won’t. If you haven’t read the book yet, pick it up. It’ll take you a couple hours and will begin a journey that you won’t soon forget.