Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Author: Rowling, J.K.
Illustrator: Grandpré, Mary
Publisher and Date: Scholastic, Inc., 1997
Genre: Fantasy, Novel
Age Range: 4th-6th

Summary: Harry Potter is a young boy who lives with his Aunt, Uncle, and cousin Dudley Dursley on Privet Lane. His parents were killed by the infamous you-know-who (Voldemort) when Harry was just a baby, and the Dursley's were the only family he had left so he was left to live with them in the muggle (human) world. Harry is overshadowed by his cousin Dudley all through their youth, up until Harry's 11th birthday when he receives numerous letters from Hogwarts, despite his Uncle's attempts to destroy them, inviting him to come to school for the next term. Hagrid comes to rescue harry from the hut on the rock at midnight on his 11th birthday and they stop by Gringots to get Harry's money (and something from a secret safe for Hagrid) before they go shopping for Harry's school supplies in Diagon Alley.

On the way to Hogwarts, Harry meets Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger who become two of his best friends at Hogwarts, and they are all sorted into the House of Gryffindor. Draco Malfoy, on the other hand, is someone Harry learns to hate rather quickly. Draco thinks he is better than Harry, or anyone at all for that matter, and constantly teases and taunts Potter and his friends. Harry and his friends befriend Hagrid and have many adventures while they are at Hogwarts, despite Malfoy's attempts to ruin it for them. While getting caught flying on his broom when he wasn't supposed to, Harry lands a spot on Gryffindor's Quidditch team as the new Seeker and the youngest player in centuries. When challenged by Malfoy to a wizard's duel, Harry, Ron, and Hermione find Fluffy in the forbidden corridor on the third floor. On Halloween when a troll was wandering the halls of Hogwarts, Harry and Ron go to warn Hermione who has been in the girls' room crying, and end up saving her life. One night, while using his invisibility cloak, Harry finds the Mirror of Erised which shows him his family. Harry and his friends find out about the sorcerer's stone and that Nicolas Flamel is the only one who has one, which is guarded at Hogwart's by Fluffy and other spells from Professors at the school. Hagrid brings a dragon egg home from a bar one night which Harry and Hermione sneak up on top of Hogwarts for Ron's brother's friends to take with them since dragons are illegal at Hogwarts. Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Malfoy get detention for being out the night they got rid of the dragon and have to go into the forbidden forest to find a unicorn that has been hurt. There the group meets who they later find out to be Professor Quirrell, drinking the unicorn's blood in order to keep his other 'face' alive for just a while longer. At the end, Harry, Ron, and Hermione save the school from Professor Quirrell, and ultimately from Voldemort taking over. From the spells they learn, they are able to work together to get past Fluffy, Devil's Snare, the flying Keys, a life-size game of chess, a knocked-out troll, a line of bottles, and to the sorcerer's stone itself which the Mirror of Erised showed to Harry. Dumbledor comes to Harry's rescue in time, not allowing Voldemort to do enough damage to Harry to kill him, and Harry becomes the hero of the school and even more famous. The book ends with all of the students going back home, some to the muggle world, for the summer where Harry is looking forward to the fact that Dudley doesn't know he isn't supposed to use his magic away from Hogwarts.

Response: I had always heard how much better the books were than the movies and wasn't sure if I'd really ever think the same. After reading the first book I want to read entire series, which I'll probably get started on this summer. The description in the book is incredible and I loved every minute of it!

I think the power of love is such a strong theme in Harry Potter. The reader knows all throughout the book that Harry's parents had cared for him and did love him because they didn't just send him to live with the Dursleys, they were killed by Voldemort and that was the last option for the time being. His parents were well off and had money for Harry when he did get to Hogwarts, so their love for him is shown in this way as well. However, it isn't until the end of the book when you see the true power of the love Harry's mother had for him. When Voldemort knew Harry had the stone and tried to escape with it, he screamed at Quirrell to 'SEIZE HIM' and 'KILL HIM' but the moment Quirrell touched Harry's skin, his began to blister in pain. Dumbledore explains why this happened on page 299. He says to Harry, "Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didnt' realize that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign...to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to tocuh a person makred by something so good."

There are all sorts of rule-breaking and rebellious characters in this book. The first that come to mind are the Weasley twins, two of Ron's older brothers. They loved to find secret passageways at Hogwarts and joked with their mother about sending her a toilet seat from school (which they actually did send to Harry at the end). Harry had numerous times when he was breaking the rules. He flew on the broom his first time without Professor McGonagall there, was a first year who played on the Quidditch team, had his own broom, snuck out many times with the use of his invisibility cloak, went to save Hermione with Ron while the troll was loose, and even went to the forbidden chamber on the third floor in order to save the school from who he thought to be Voldemort. Hagrid and got his own dragon, fully aware of the fact that they were illegal and used his magic when he came to get Harry in the muggle world.

Teaching Ideas: This book could be used in a language arts lesson in a couple of ways. Since the characters use different spells to open doors, make things float, change something into something else, etc. students could create their own spell. Have them write down what hte spell is and write a story about what situation they would use it and what it would do. They could also draw a picture to go along with it.
In using the Mirror of Erised, Harry saw his family because that was the deepest desire of his heart. Give students a "mirror" printout and have them draw what they would see in their Mirror of Erised. In addititon to the picture, students will also write a short story explaining why they would see what they drew.

For a science lesson, students could learn about owls and dissect owl pellets. If actual owl pellets are not available for the students to use, take them to www.kidwings.com where they can virtually dissect an owl pellet. This might be a little easier on some students anyway! On the site it has different bone parts labeled and will say the name of them when you click on it. As you pick bones out and drag them up to the matching picture, it builds the animal the owl has eaten.

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Mirror of Erised

The Mirror of Erised in Harry Potter shows the one who looks in ‘the deepest, most desperate desire of their heart. Harry was able to see his family, whom he had never met and at the end it showed him finding the Sorcerer’s Stone. If I were to look into the Mirror of Erised, I would see myself in Venezuela, like in the picture below. The deepest, most desperate desire of my heart is to serve the Lord in missions. I love the children and being able to play with them and talk with them the most. I can’t wait to travel all over to do this, but especially to more remote and poor areas like the communities I have been to in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

Tuesday

Author/Illustrator: Wiesner, David
Publisher and Date: Houghton Mifflin Company 1991
Genre: Wordless Picture Book, Fantasy
Age Level: K-3
Awards: The Caldecott Medal

Summary: Tuesday is a story of a large number of frogs who are set free one Tuesday evening, soaring around town on their lily pads. They leave their home at the swamp, and fly through a nearby neighborhood. The frogs stir up a lot of commotion and leave the town scratching their heads. In the morning they return safely to their home at the swamp. The next Tuesday, some pigs have their chance to fly.

Response: I LOVED this book! I was a little skeptical of wordless picture books, but I gave this one a chance since it had won a Caldecott Medal. I enjoy the fact that the narration, which is left up to the reader, is simply guided by the illustrations. This leaves all the creativity in the story up to the reader. There are so many different things younger children could come up with, from reasons why the frogs are flying where they are to what they are even thinking. I would like to be able to challenge my students to think creatively by 'reading' through this story.

My favorite page in the book is where the man is sitting in his kitchen having a sandwich and a glass of milk. The expression on his face just makes me laugh. What adds to it is one of the frogs flying by his window, which appears to be smiling and waving at him like nothing is out of the ordinary.

On Wiesner's website it shows how he created Tuesday. I wouldn't think that a picture book would being with a story board sketch, but that is exactly what he did with it. It looked like a small comic strip at first and then he put it into its chronological order. After he had the story line he created a rough sketch in pencil of each page. In order to get an idea of the correct lighting, he used clay models and photographs of frogs, homes and other key elements to the drawings. The finished drawing was done on tracing paper, transferred to watercolor paper, then painted with all watercolor.

All of the illustrations in this book were created using watercolor and watercolor alone. Wiesner did not use any ink lines or any other type of opaque paint. I really admire that. I was never an artist, but I had a few art classes in high school and we used watercolor for one of our projects. It is not easy to work with and you can't really hide your mistakes. Once the color is down, it is there. In the project I did it turned out perfectly except for a little smudge in the white space. I had to create a dove holding an olive branch in its mouth to cover it up and had to use an ink pen to do it. I'm sure the more skilled you are the easier it is to execute a painting with only watercolor. Wiesner did a wonderful job with it.

Teaching Ideas: This book would be great to use as a creative writing activity. Students could write down what they think is going on and write down the thoughts of the characters illustrated throughout the book. They could also be encouraged to write or draw out what they think will happen when the pigs fly around the next Tuesday night. Have them show where the pigs go, what they do, and who they might encounter. Another way to get the students more involved is to have them draw out their own story, following the guidelines of a wordless picture book, like Tuesday.

Carnival at Candlelight

At first I was not sure whether or not I would enjoy reading Carnival at Candlelight. I was convinced that it would just be some corny story of a make believe adventure of two children. I am happy to say that I was proved wrong and I can understand why it is so popular among children today.

I specifically like the fact that it encourages children to use their imaginations even when they might think it won't work. There was a theme of being patient that I also noticed throughout the book. With the way our society is now, everything is so fast paced and hectic. We live in a 'fast food' society where our wonderful technology advancements, as helpful as they may be, have us trained to expect gratification in an minutes time... or less! The children in the book got ahead of themselves a couple of times, but then had to re-trace their steps. Patience is a big thing and children would benefit greatly from learning this practice early on.

When I was trying to figure out how to incorporate this Magic Tree House series into the classroom, I visited the Magic Tree House Web site. There is a link for the Merlin Missions books within the series and on that page is a link to print out your own passport. I am a big traveler myself, so when I found this it really caught my attention. Children can print out their own 'Official Magic Tree House Passport' and collect stamps to put in it after they complete a book in the series. If you click on any of the books listed on the site it will take you to a page that tells a little about the book itself with a short quiz underneath. After answering the questions on the quiz correctly it will give you a link to a stamp you can print out for your passport. This would be a great way to motivate the children to read more of the books.

Throughout the book it gave little definitions and facts about people and places in the story. It helped the two children in getting through their adventure and also allowed the reader to have more insight as to where they were and what it might be like. I enjoyed reading through them and learning a little bit about Venice myself. Overall this book was very enjoyable and I hope to read more of them in the future!