Kwong Ming Wai 6A (10)
Title: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Author: J.K.Rowling
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Many readers in the world are fascinated by the story of Harry Potter. Lots of related products are sold well too because of the story, such as stationery, cookies, candies etc. the movie is attractive as well. The term ‘Potter Mania’ is created to describe this atmosphere.
Although a series of chapters have been published already, I still want to introduce the first chapter of the story. The first chapter really impressed me. To my mind, the story of Harry Potter is absolutely different from other stories of similar types. The plot in the story is amazing. The readers often cannot guess what is going to happen next.
Many of my friends prefer reading Chinese version of the story to English version but I hold the opposite view of that. English version is the original version of the story. I think the vivid phrases used in the story are attractive too. Miss J.K.Rowling can use so many different words to portray and describe the same action in the story. It is not easy for me to do so and it is a good example for me to follow.
Harry Potter is the major character in the whole story. He has got a cute face and wears a pair of big round glasses. He has a scar on his forehead and the scar is just in a lightening shape. A powerful and mysterious wizard killed his parents. He got a poor childhood.
He then lived with his uncle and aunt and their little son. They hated Harry so much as they thought he was a huge burden of their family. They thought he came from a strange family and Harry was an odd child. Later, Harry was enrolled at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
The school was situated in a city full of magic and normal people cannot enter. If the students wanted to enter this city, they needed to pass through a wall in a train station. Students must get a ticket to get on the train to the city. The most interesting point in this part was students must go to the ‘Platform Nine and Three-Quarters’ in the train station. During the school term, he met two friends; they were Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger.
The whole school is divided into four houses just like some campuses in universities in Hong Kong. All students live in the campus but students are not allowed to select which house or campus on their own. They must go through a distribution process which is done by the Sorting Hat. It is so funny that the hat talks like a human and he can always distribute students to the right house. Students must attend the Sorting Ceremony before starting anything and the ceremony is held in the Entrance Hall.
Every student must put on the Sorting Hat and let the hat decide which house they can go to. Harry is assigned to Gryffindor which is known as the best of the four houses because some famous wizards had once lived in Gryffindor. Hermione and Ronald were distributed to the same house as Harry’s. Draco Malfoy, who is just like a competitor to Harry and his friends all the time, comes from a rich family. He often looks down on people including Harry and his friends and he sometimes bullies them but Harry and his two friends are always the winners. Malfoy cannot get any advantages from them. Malfoy is distributed to Slytherins which is known as the worst house in Hogwarts as once several bad wizards lived in the house.
Professor Dumbledore is the principal of the school. Professor Dumbledore is a very gentle and nice old man in the school. He always wears a long cloak and he has a very large and long moustache on his face. I think he is a very mysterious character and it seems that he is the key of the whole story he is always willing to help Harry when he meets any difficulties. Hagrid, another senior staff in the school, is a fat and a nice man and he is so kind to Harry that he teaches many new things to him. He is just like Harry’s father.
There is a sports game called Quidditch. It is just similar to the game of football or basketball. But students need to play this game in the sky by sitting on their broomsticks. It seems that they are riding motorbikes. It really requires excellent skills of students. Harry is a good player in the game. I want to try it too.
The first edition of Harry Potter in fact has the shortest content compared with other editions published. To my mind, the first edition is the most important one when a story is invented. It is the key whether the story will be a success or not.
Another interesting point is that some characters are based on real people. Rowling thinks that she is a little bit like Hermione Granger when she was at her age. Rowling joked that she is not as clever or as annoying as she was in the story. I like this character very much as she is intelligent. I sometimes think Hermione is even much cleverer than Harry. She is just like a professor or may be an assistant of Harry.
Besides, I am eager to know where the names of the characters came from. They are special and beautiful names. Their pronunciations are interesting. They do not like the names we see in the movie or in other storybooks. Rowling collected unusual names from different places and she even used street names for the surnames of the characters! She has a little notebook to keep the unusual names collected and later she can choose the most appropriate one to fit a new character.
I believe many of you may be curious about how the ideas of Harry Potter begin invented. The author thinks it is just like magic and come suddenly. Actually, Rowling invented the story when she was traveling on a train between Manchester and London in 1990 and the idea just popped onto her head. However, she still needed to spend another four hours to think about what Hogwarts would be like. At the same time, she got many characters, which are going to be in the story, in her mind.
Sometimes, it is really difficult for us to write an amazing story with so many ideas, especially when writing composition in the examination. We often rack our brains to create fresh ideas. The story of Harry Potter is a miracle. It seems that Rowling has unlimited ideas in her mind though there are rumours that she does not get many ideas now and the story will reach the end soon.
The novel does give much imagination to both adults and children in the world. Rowling said writing could be a lot of fun but much effort has to be put in but remember not let that put you off. She suggested people try to read as much as they can and enlarge the vocabulary and understand what is good to their writing.
On the whole, there are so many adventurous parts in the story. Although some of the teenagers think that the story of Harry Potter is childish, I hold the opposite view of that. There are still many mysteries, which are not revealed in the story. It really arouses my curiosity. The plot is so amazing that I will keep going to read other chapters of the story.