Harry Potter Book 1 Summary and Review Part 1

For the past few months, I have been caught up in the book series "Harry Potter." Since it took me FOREVER to finish book 1, I am still only on book 4. I still thought it would be good to summarize the other 3 books before I forget their story. 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone or the Philosopher's Stone is the first book of the Harry Potter series and is written by the one and only J.K. Rowling. 

The first few chapters were a little history of Harry's past life since Voldemort (Also known as you-know-how and he-who-must-not-be-named) tried killing Harry but ends up killing Harry's parents Lily and James Potter. Since Harry defeated at that time the most powerful dark wizard, his powers got "taken away" and Harry was left with nothing but a scar on his forehead shaped like a lightning bolt. 

Harry then gets by Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper. He delivers Harry on a flying motorbike to Dumbledore, Headmaster at Hogwarts. Dumbledore then places Harry on the doorstep of house 4 on Privet Drive. The Dursleys, Harry's closest family are then forced to take Harry but are not very pleased. Both Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon are upset about this since Aunt Petunia and Lily (Harry's Mother) were sisters, but not very friendly toward each other. 

A few years later The Dursleys plan to visit the zoo for their son, Dudley's birthday. He doesn't want Harry coming along but their neighbor, Mrs. Figg who watches Harry when the Dursleys go on trips, broke her leg. They have no other choice but to bring Harry along to the zoo as well. At the zoo, Harry discovers that he is able to talk to snakes. The whole family was looking at a snake who was sleeping and Harry is able to wake him up by talking. His words are hisses to other people and he helps the snake break out of the glass, trapping Dudley in the snake's habitat. 

A few months later, Harry receives a letter from Hogwarts - School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He unfortunately does not get to open it since his uncle and aunt ripped it before he got his hands on it. Harry then is forced to move into Dudley's second bedroom to try and prevent the letters from coming again. But it doesn't work... The letters still come and Harry's uncle is getting furious... so furious that he decides to go "live" on a deserted "house" surrounded by the ocean. But instead of letters, Hagrid a big giant looking human with a massive beard "breaks" into the house they are in. He tells Harry the truth of what happened and takes Harry to buy his supplies for his first year at Hogwarts. They go to Gringotts bank to get wizarding money and then  are off to Diagon Alley for his supplies. For a birthday gift, Hagrid buys Harry an owl who he decides to name, Hedwig.

After everything is bought, Hagrid tells Harry about platform 9 and 3/4. After he leaves, he is still clueless on what to do so he asks some other people who are also going to Hogwarts. These people end up being the Weasleys and the youngest boy, Ron ends up becoming Harry's best friend. After getting onto the train, they get into an empty compartment talking about Harry's scar. They then buy loads of candy from a cart thing a lady pushes around the train. They talk about all the mysterious candy and sweets Harry bought. They then meet another person, a girl this time. Her name is Hermione Granger and they all introduce themselves to each other. when the train finally comes to a stop all the students hurry out of the train and different ways depending on how many years they have been there. Harry, Ron, and Hermione go along with all the first years and meet Hagrid.

In my opinion, the first book has a really good introduction to Hogwarts and shows a lot of the teachers and Harry's fellow classmate's personalities.