| Product Summary | | Format: Paperback | | ISBN: 9780590353427 | | Publisher: Scholastic Inc | | Publish Date: 9/1/1999 | | Buy.com Sku: 30500281 | | Item#: R3CXVH | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 8664 | | Dimensions (in Inches) 7.75H x 5.25L x 0.75T | | Pages: 320 | | Edition Number: 1 | | Age Range: 12 to 16 |
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| | | | "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense..." (from the first line) Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Wizards and Witches.
What did Harry Potter know about magic? He was stuck with the decidedly un-magical Dursleys, who hated him. He slept in a closet and ate their leftovers. But an owl messenger changes all that, with an invitation to attend the Hogwarts School for Wizards and Witches, where it turns out Harry is already famous.
Harry Potter has never been the star of the Quidditch team, scoring points while riding a broom high above the ground. He knows no spells, has never helped to hatch a dragon, and has never worn the cloak of invisibility.
All he knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley-a great big swollen spoiled bully. Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years.
But all that is about to change whena mysterious letter arrives by an owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to an incredible place that Harry- and anyone who reads about him-will find unforgettable.
For it's there that he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic in everything from classes to meals, but a great destiny awaiting him...if Harry can survive the encounter.
From the Publisher
This story is filled with dark comedy and crafted with a quality of writing that has garnered J.K. Rowling top awards in her country and ours. Harry Potter spent ten long years living with his aunt and uncle and stupid cousin, Dudley. Fortunately, Harry has a destiny that he was born to fulfill. One that will rocket him out of his dull life and into a unique experience at the Hogworts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Annotation:
Eleven-year-old Harry Potter was a baby when his parents died, and since that time he has been living with his horrible Uncle Vernon, dislikable Aunt Petunia, and truly disgusting cousin Dudley. Miserable and lonely, Harry is shocked when he receives a letter inviting him to attend the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. At this special school, which is kept a secret from all those not involved in the worlds of magic, Harry begins to learn the truth about the death of his parents and discovers his truly amazing family history. This book is the first entry in the phenomenally popular Harry Potter series of books. Enjoyed by both children and adults, these books literally changed the face of children's publishing when, as a result of their stunning popularity, the New York Times began compiling and publishing a list of best-selling children's books--for the first time in that newspaper's history.
| PraiseKirkus
"This hugely enjoyable fantasy is filled with imaginative details, from oddly flavored jelly beans to dragons' eggs hatched on the hearth. It's slanted toward action-oriented readers, who will find that Briticisms meld with all the other wonders of magic school." 09/01/1998Book
"Readers may think at first that they have stumbled into a new Roald Dahl book....This amusing adventure will have fantasy lovers waiting impatiently for the promised sequel." - Kathleen Odean October/November 1998 New York Times
"On the whole, 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' is as funny, moving and impressive as the story behind it. J.K. Rowling, a teacher by training, was a 30-year-old single mother living on welfare in a cold one-bedroom flat in Edinburgh when she began writing it in longhand during her baby daughter's nap times. But like Harry Potter, she had wizardry inside, and has soared beyond her modest Muggle surroundings to achieve something quite special." - Michael Winerip 2/14/99 |
| Author Bio| J. K. Rowling | | One night, as a young J. K. (Joanne Kathleen) Rowling traveled from Manchester to London by train, an idea for a book about a boy wizard named Harry Potter formed in her mind. It would change the course of her life forever. As a young girl growing up in Chepstow, Gwent, a historic town near the Lower Wye Valley in Southern England, Rowling loved to tell stories, and started to write them down when she was 6-years-old. Throughout her schooling, she entertained her friends during lunchtime with fantastic made-up stories. After studying French at the University of Exeter, Rowling went on to work in London, until at age 26, she moved to Portugal to teach English as a second language. There, she married, became pregnant, and worked on her Harry Potter manuscript whenever she had a spare second. The death of her own mother made his orphaned state much more real to her. Rowling's marriage ended in divorce, and she moved to Edinburgh with her newborn daughter, Jessica. ||After five years of writing, and a year's worth of publisher rejections, HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE was bought by Bloomsbury (U.K.) and published in June 1997. Shortly after Bloomsbury bought the manuscript, the rights were sold in America, where it was published in September 1998 as HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE. Her book not only received lavish praise, winning the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year and the Smarties Prize, but earned Rowling enough money to quit teaching and write full time. Her six subsequent Harry Potter books, all spectacular bestsellers, have continued to receive British and American awards, and are all being made into films. Having reached her lifelong dream of becoming a professional writer, Rowling encourages children who want to write to read as much as they can. |
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