Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling is the first book of the Harry Potter series.

Harry Potter's life is miserable. His parents are dead and he's stuck with his heartless relatives, who force him to live in a tiny closet under the stairs. But his fortune changes when he receives a letter that tells him the truth about himself: he's a wizard. A mysterious visitor rescues him from his relatives and takes him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

After a lifetime of bottling up his magical powers, Harry finally feels like a normal kid. But even within the Wizarding community, he is special. He is the boy who lived: the only person to have ever survived a killing curse inflicted by the evil Lord Voldemort, who launched a brutal takeover of the Wizarding world, only to vanish after failing to kill Harry.

Though Harry's first year at Hogwarts is the best of his life, not everything is perfect. There is a dangerous secret object hidden within the castle walls, and Harry believes it's his responsibility to prevent it from falling into evil hands. But doing so will bring him into contact with forces more terrifying than he ever could have imagined.

The Breakdown:
I am going to do this breakdown a little different than normal.  I figure if you read this blog, you have probably read Harry Potter, so I am instead going to talk about my love of the story and things I forgot since I last read  it and questions I still have.   Oh, and there maybe spoilers, so if you haven't read don't read this.

I was inspired to do this re-read of the series because I have been listening to the Witch Please podcast, which you can check out here: http://ohwitchplease.ca/ or on your favorite podcast listening app.  They host Marcelle and Hannah do a feminist reading to the series and re-watch of the movies.  In short, it is fantastic and at times hilarious.

So yes, you did read right, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, even though I am American.  My friend and college roommate picked up this copy for me in London several years ago.  It is actually the first time I have read this copy.  All my other readings have been Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. There are just subtle differences that make it more British, such as the Weasley family's Christmas jumpers instead of the American sweaters.

It has been several years since I have last read the series.  I had forgotten how much I love these books, especially the little details of them, like Hagrid's pink umbrella and Lee Jordan's commentary at the Quidditch matches.   Plus, the other students named in the sorting ceremony that do end up being minor characters in later books. Oh, and how exciting the race at the end to get to the Philosopher's stone is, and how much smarts and cunning it took Harry, Ron, and Hermione  to get through each challenge and defeat Voldemort/Quirrell.

While reading this book, one question started to plague me.  What happened to Harry's grandparents, especially Lily's parents?  I assumed since James was from a wizarding family, especially since in later books Sirius mentions spending holidays with the Potters, that they were killed by Voldemort in some capacity.  But Lily's family are muggles, and her sister is obviously still alive, but never is there any mention of the Evans's parents except with Petunia talks about how proud her parents were of Lily being a witch.  Were they killed by Voldemort too, or just die in some other fashion because surely if they were alive they would have been a much better choice for Harry to live with than the Dursleys.

To Read or Not to Read:
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