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H arry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling. The first novel in the series and Rowling's debut novel, it follows Harry Potter, a young wizard who discovers his magical heritage on his eleventh birthday, when he receives a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry makes close friends and a few enemies during his first year at the school and with the help of his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, he faces an attempted comeback by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents, but failed to kill Harry when he was just 15 months old.

The book was first published in the United Kingdom on 26 June 1997 by Bloomsbury. It was published in the United States the following year by Scholastic Corporation under the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It won most of the British book awards that were judged by children and other awards in the US. The book reached the top of the New York Times list of best-selling fiction in August 1999, and stayed near the top of that list for much of 1999 and 2000. It has been translated into at least 73 other languages, and has been made into a feature-length film of the same name, as have all six of its sequels. The novel has sold in excess of 120 million copies, making it the fourth best-selling book of all time.

Most reviews were very favourable, commenting on Rowling's imagination, humour, simple, direct style and clever plot construction, although a few complained that the final chapters seemed rushed. The writing has been compared to that of Jane Austen, one of Rowling's favourite authors; Roald Dahl, whose works dominated children's stories before the appearance of Harry Potter; and the ancient Greek story-teller Homer. While some commentators thought the book looked backwards to Victorian and Edwardian boarding school stories, others thought it placed the genre firmly in the modern world by featuring contemporary ethical and social issues, as well as overcoming obstacles like bullying.

The Harry Potter series has been used as a source of object lessons in educational techniques, sociological analysis and marketing.

Harry Potter lives with his neglectful uncle and aunt, Vernon and Petunia Dursley, and their bullying son, Dudley. On Harry's eleventh birthday, Rubeus Hagrid, a half-giant, delivers an acceptance letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, revealing that Harry's parents, James and Lily Potter, were wizards. When Harry was just a year old, a powerful but malevolent dark wizard named Lord Voldemort murdered his parents; Harry survived Voldemort's killing curse that rebounded and seemingly destroyed the Dark Lord, leaving a lightning bolt-shaped scar on Harry's forehead. Unknown to Harry, this act made him famous in the wizarding world.

Hagrid escorts Harry to Diagon Alley, the hidden wizard commerce and retail section in London. Harry's parents have left him a fortune kept in Gringotts Wizarding Bank, which he uses to buy school supplies and a wand from Ollivander's. The cores of Harry and Lord Voldemort's wands have feathers from the same phoenix bird, making them "brothers". Hagrid gifts Harry an owl, whom he names as Hedwig, as a birthday present. A month later, Harry boards the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross railway station's secret . En route to Hogwarts, Harry befriends fellow first year Ron Weasley and meets Hermione Granger, whom the two boys initially dislike.

Harry runs afoul of Draco Malfoy, the spoiled son of a prominent wizard. At Hogwarts, a magical Sorting Hat sorts the first years among four school Houses ( Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin) that best suit their personalities and talents. Draco joins Slytherin, known for producing dark wizards, while Harry, Ron, and Hermione are sorted into Gryffindor.

Harry's broomstick flying ability earns him a place on the Gryffindor Quidditch team as the Seeker. Harry comes to dislike Potions master Severus Snape, who favours Slytherin while seeking to fail Harry. Malfoy tricks Harry and Ron into risking expulsion by leaving their common room after curfew. Hermione, unable to stop them, tags along. Realising Malfoy's ruse, they hide in a forbidden corridor and discover a gigantic three-headed dog guarding a trapdoor. Harry and Ron later save Hermione from a troll during a Halloween celebration and the three become best friends. Coupled with Snape's recent leg injury and suspicious behaviour, Harry, Ron, and Hermione believe he is attempting to enter the trapdoor.

During Harry's first Quidditch match, his broomstick attempts to buck him off. Snape's strange behaviour during the match convinces Hermione he jinxed Harry's broom. Harry receives an anonymous Christmas gift - his father's invisibility cloak. Using it to explore the school, he discovers the Mirror of Erised, which shows what the viewer most desires. Harry sees his parents.

A newspaper report later describes an attempted robbery at the same vault in Gringotts from which Hagrid retrieved an item for Hogwarts' headmaster Albus Dumbledore on the same day. The object beneath the trapdoor is the philosopher's stone, which grants its user immortality and the ability to turn any metal into pure gold. Firenze, a forest centaur, warns Harry that Voldemort is plotting to steal the stone to restore his body. When Dumbledore is lured from Hogwarts under false pretences, Harry, Hermione, and Ron fear the theft is imminent and descend through the trapdoor.

Various obstacles force Ron and Hermione to remain behind while Harry proceeds. Harry encounters Professor Quirrell, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. He jinxed Harry's broom and let the troll into the school; Snape was protecting Harry. Voldemort, whose face has regrown on the back of Quirrell's head, is revealed to be the professor's secret master. Harry is forced to stand before the Mirror of Erised. It recognises Harry's lack of greed for the stone and deposits it into his pocket. Quirrell attempts to seize the stone, but his flesh burns upon contact with Harry. Harry's scar begins hurting, and he passes out.

Harry awakens in the school's infirmary. He survived Voldemort because his mother sacrificing her life for him left a magical protective charm. Quirrell's hatred and greed caused him to burn upon contact with Harry; Voldemort abandoned him to die. Dumbledore reveals he sent Harry the invisibility cloak, while the philosopher's stone, that had been keeping the long-lived Nicolas Flamel alive, has been destroyed with Flamel's consent to prevent its being stolen. During the school's year-end feast, Gryffindor is awarded the House Cup. Harry returns to the Dursleys at Privet Drive until the next school year.

Harry Potter is an orphan whom Rowling imagined as a "scrawny, black-haired, green eyed and bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard." She developed the series' story and characters to explain how Harry came to be in this situation and how his life unfolded from there. Apart from the first chapter, the events of this book take place just before and in the year following Harry's eleventh birthday. Voldemort's attack left a lightning bolt-shaped scar on Harry's forehead, which produces stabbing pains whenever Voldemort is present. Harry has a natural talent for Quidditch and became the first person in a century to get on their team in their first year.

Ron Weasley is Harry's age, and Rowling describes him as the ultimate best friend "always there when you need him". He is freckled, red-haired, and quite tall. He grew up in a fairly large pure-blood family as the sixth born of seven children. Although his family is quite poor, they still live comfortably and happily. His loyalty and bravery in the face of a game of Wizards Chess plays a vital part in finding the Philosopher's Stone.

Hermione Granger, the daughter of an all-Muggle family, is a bossy girl who has apparently memorised most of the textbooks before the start of term. Rowling described Hermione as a "very logical, upright and good" character with "a lot of insecurity and a great fear of failure beneath her swottiness". Despite her nagging efforts to keep Harry and Ron out of trouble, she becomes a close friend of the two boys after they save her from a troll and her magical and analytical skills play an important role in finding the Philosopher's Stone. She has bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.

Neville Longbottom is a plump, diffident boy, so forgetful that his grandmother gives him a Remembrall, to remind him if he forgets something. Neville's magical abilities are weak and appeared just in time to save his life when he was eight. Despite his timidity, Neville will fight anyone after some encouragement or if he thinks it is right and important.

Rubeus Hagrid, a half-giant nearly 12 feet (3.7 m) tall, with tangled black hair and beard, was expelled from Hogwarts and his wand was snapped in half (resulting in him never to use a wand again), however Professor Dumbledore let him stay on as the school's gamekeeper, a job which enables him to give lavish affection, care and even pet names (such as Norbert the dragon) on even the most dangerous of magical creatures. Hagrid is fiercely loyal to Dumbledore and quickly becomes a close friend of Harry, Ron and, later, Hermione, but his carelessness makes him unreliable.

Professor Albus Dumbledore, a tall, thin man who wears half-moon spectacles and has silver hair and a beard that tucks into his belt, is the headmaster of Hogwarts, and thought to be the only wizard Voldemort fears. Dumbledore, while renowned for his achievements in magic, shrugs off praise, though he is aware of his own brilliance. Rowling described him as the "epitome of goodness".

Professor Minerva McGonagall, a tall, severe-looking woman with black hair tied in a tight bun, teaches Transfiguration and is able to transform herself into a cat. She is Deputy Headmistress and Head of Gryffindor House.

Petunia Dursley, the sister of Harry's mother Lily, is a thin woman with a long neck that she uses for spying on the neighbours. As a Muggle, she regards her magical sister as a freak and tries to pretend that she never existed.

Vernon Dursley, the husband of Petunia Dursley, is a heavily built man whose irascible bluster covers a narrow mind and a fear of anything unusual.

Dudley Dursley is an overweight, spoilt bully and Harry's cousin.

Draco Malfoy is a slim, pale boy who speaks in a bored drawl. He is arrogant about his skill in Quidditch, and despises anyone who is not a pure-blood wizard and wizards who do not share his views. His parents had supported Voldemort, but changed sides after the dark wizard's disappearance, claiming they had been bewitched. Draco avoids direct confrontations and tries to get Harry and his friends into trouble.

Oliver Wood is Harry's Quidditch captain and keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Professor Quirrell is a twitching, stammering, and nervous man who teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts. Reputedly he was a brilliant scholar, but his nerve was shattered by an encounter with vampires. Quirrell wears a turban to conceal the fact that he is voluntarily possessed by Voldemort, whose face appears on the back of Quirrell's head.

Professor Severus Snape, who has a hooked nose, sallow complexion, and greasy black hair, teaches Potions, but would prefer to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. Snape favours pupils in Slytherin, his own House and seizes every opportunity to humiliate others, especially Harry. Several incidents, beginning with the shooting pain in Harry's scar during the start-of-term feast, lead Harry and his friends to think Snape is aiding Voldemort.

Argus Filch, the school caretaker who knows the school's secret passages better than anyone else except, perhaps, the Weasley twins. His cat, Mrs. Norris, aids his constant hunt for misbehaving pupils.

Other members of staff include: the dumpy Herbology teacher and Head of Hufflepuff House Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, the tiny and excitable Charms teacher and Head of Ravenclaw House, the soporific History of magic teacher, Professor Binns, a ghost who does not seem to have noticed his own death, and Madam Hooch, the Quidditch coach, who is strict, but a considerate and methodical teacher. The poltergeist Peeves wanders around the castle causing trouble wherever he can.

In the book, Rowling introduces an eclectic cast of characters. The first character to be introduced is Vernon Dursley, Harry's uncle. Most of the actions centre on the eponymous hero [Harry Potter, an orphan who escapes his miserable childhood with the Dursley family. Rowling imagined him as a "scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard" and says she transferred part of her pain about losing her mother to him. During the book, Harry makes two close friends, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. Ron is described by Rowling as the ultimate best friend, "always there when you need him". Rowling has described Hermione as a "very logical, upright and good" character with "a lot of insecurity and a great fear of failure beneath her swottiness".

Rowling also imagined a supporting cast of adults. The headmaster of Hogwarts is the powerful, but kind wizard Albus Dumbledore, who becomes Harry's confidant. Rowling described him as "the epitome of goodness". His right hand is severe Minerva McGonagall, the friendly half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, who saved Harry from the Dursley family and the sinister Severus Snape. Professor Quirrell is also featured in the novel.

The main antagonists are Draco Malfoy, an elitist, bullying classmate, and Lord Voldemort, the most powerful evil wizard who becomes disembodied when he tries to kill baby Harry. According to a 1999 interview with Rowling, the character of Voldemort was created as a literary foil for Harry and his backstory was intentionally not fleshed-out at first:

The basic idea... Harry, I saw Harry very very very clearly. Very vividly. And I knew he didn't know he was a wizard. ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry-he tried to curse him. ... And-so-but for some mysterious reason, the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since.

Development, publication and reception

The book, which was Rowling's debut novel, was written between approximately June 1990 and some time in 1995. In 1990, Jo Rowling, as she preferred to be known, wanted to move with her boyfriend to a flat in Manchester and in her words, "One weekend after flat hunting, I took the train back to London on my own and the idea for Harry Potter fell into my head... A scrawny, little, black-haired, bespectacled boy became more and more of a wizard to me... I began to write Philosopher's Stone that very evening. Although, the first couple of pages look nothing like the finished product." Then, Rowling's mother died and, to cope with her pain, Rowling transferred her own anguish to the orphan Harry. Rowling spent six years working on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and after it was accepted by Bloomsbury, she obtained a grant of £8,000 from the Scottish Arts Council, which enabled her to plan the sequels. She sent the book to a literary agent and a publisher and then the second agent she approached spent a year trying to sell the book to publishers, most of whom thought it was too long at about 90,000 words. Barry Cunningham, who was building a portfolio of distinctive fantasies by new authors for Bloomsbury Children's Books, recommended accepting the book and the eight-year-old daughter of Bloomsbury's chief executive said it was "so much better than anything else".

Imitation of the fictional Platform 9+ 3⁄4 at the real King's Cross railway station, with a luggage trolley apparently halfway through the magical wall

Bloomsbury accepted the book, paying Rowling a £2,500 advance and Cunningham sent proof copies to carefully chosen authors, critics and booksellers in order to obtain comments that could be quoted when the book was launched. He was less concerned about the book's length than about its author's name, since the title sounded like a boys' book to him and he believed boys preferred books by male authors. Rowling therefore adopted the pen name J. K. Rowling just before publication.

In June 1997, Bloomsbury published Philosopher's Stone with an initial print run of 500 copies in hardback, three hundred of which were distributed to libraries. Her original name, "Joanne Rowling", can be found on the copyright page of all British editions until September 1999. (The 1998 first American edition would remove reference to "Joanne" completely.) The short initial print run was standard for first novels and Cunningham hoped booksellers would read the book and recommend it to customers. Examples from this initial print run have sold for as much as US$471,000 in a 2021 Heritage auction. Thomas Taylor created the cover for the first edition.

Lindsey Fraser, who had previously supplied one of the blurb comments, wrote what is thought to be the first published review, in The Scotsman on 28 June 1997. She described Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as "a hugely entertaining thriller" and Rowling as "a first-rate writer for children". Another early review, in , said: "I have yet to find a child who can put it down." Newspapers outside Scotland started to notice the book, with glowing reviews in The Guardian and The Sunday Times and in September 1997 Books for Keeps, a magazine that specialised in children's books, gave the novel four stars out of five. Sunday Times said: "comparisons to Dahl are, this time, justified", while The Guardian called it "a richly textured novel given lift-off by an inventive wit" and The Scotsman said it had "all the makings of a classic".

In 1997 the UK edition won a National Book Award and a gold medal in the 9- to 11-year-olds category of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. The Smarties award, which is voted for by children, made the book well known within six months of publication, while most children's books have to wait for years. The following year, Philosopher's Stone won almost all the other major British awards that were decided by children. It was also shortlisted for children's books awards adjudicated by adults, but did not win. Sandra Beckett commented that books that were popular with children were regarded as undemanding and as not of the highest literary standards - for example, the literary establishment disdained the works of Dahl, an overwhelming favourite of children before the appearance of Rowling's books. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 22 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone won two publishing industry awards given for sales rather than literary merit, the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year and the Booksellers' Association / Bookseller Author of the Year. By March 1999 UK editions had sold just over 300,000 copies and the story was still the UK's best-selling title in December 2001. A Braille edition was published in May 1998 by the Scottish Braille Press.

Platform , from which the Hogwarts Express left London, was commemorated in the real-life King's Cross railway station with a sign and a trolley apparently passing through the wall.

Scholastic Corporation bought the US rights at the Bologna Book Fair in April 1997 for US$105,000, an unusually high sum for a children's book. Scholastic's Arthur Levine thought that "philosopher" sounded too archaic for readers and after some discussion (including the proposed title "Harry Potter and the School of Magic"), the American edition was published in September 1998 under the title Rowling suggested, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Rowling later said that she regretted this change and would have fought it if she had been in a stronger position at the time. Philip Nel has pointed out that the change lost the connection with alchemy and the meaning of some other terms changed in translation, for example from " crumpet" to "muffin". While Rowling accepted the change from both the British English "mum" and Seamus Finnigan's Irish variant "mam" to the American variant "mom" in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, she vetoed this change in the later books, which was then reversed in later editions of Philosopher's Stone. However, Nel considered that Scholastic's translations were considerably more sensitive than most of those imposed on British English books of the time and that some other changes could be regarded as useful copyedits. Since the UK editions of early titles in the series were published months prior to the American versions, some American readers became familiar with the British English versions owing to having bought them from online retailers.

On BookBrowse, a site that aggregates book reviews such as media reviews, the book received a from "Critics' Opinion".[35] At first the most prestigious reviewers ignored the book, leaving it to book trade and library publications such as Kirkus Reviews and Booklist, which examined it only by the entertainment-oriented criteria of children's fiction. However, more penetrating specialist reviews (such as one by Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, which noted complexity, depth and consistency in the world that Rowling had built) attracted the attention of reviewers in major newspapers.[36] Although The Boston Globe and Michael Winerip in The New York Times complained that the final chapters were the weakest part of the book,[20][37] they and most other American reviewers gave glowing praise.[20] A year later, the US edition was selected as an American Library Association Notable Book, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998 and a New York Public Library 1998 Best Book of the Year and won Parenting Magazine's Book of the Year Award for 1998,[21] the School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and the American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults. In 2012 it was ranked number 3 on a list of the top 100 children's novels published by School Library Journal.[38]

In August 1999, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone topped the New York Times list of best-selling fiction and stayed near the top of the list for much of 1999 and 2000, until the New York Times split its list into children's and adult sections under pressure from other publishers who were eager to see their books given higher placings. Publishers Weekly's report in December 2001 on cumulative sales of children's fiction placed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 19th among hardbacks (over 5 million copies) and 7th among paperbacks (over 6.6 million copies).

In May 2008, Scholastic announced the creation of a 10th Anniversary Edition of the book that was released on 1 October 2008 to mark the tenth anniversary of the original American release. For the fifteenth anniversary of the books, Scholastic re-released Sorcerer's Stone, along with the other six novels in the series, with new cover art by Kazu Kibuishi in 2013.

By mid-2008, official translations of the book had been published in 67 languages. By November 2017, the book had been translated into 80 languages, the 80th being Lowland Scots. Bloomsbury have published translations in Latin and in Ancient Greek, with the latter being described as "one of the most important pieces of Ancient Greek prose written in many centuries".

Philip Nel highlighted the influence of Jane Austen, whom Rowling has greatly admired since the age of twelve. Both novelists greatly encourage re-reading, because details that look insignificant foreshadow important events or characters much later in the story-line - for example Sirius Black is briefly mentioned near the beginning of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and then becomes a major character in the third to fifth books. Like Austen's heroines, Harry often has to re-examine his ideas near the ends of books. Some social behaviour in the Harry Potter books is reminiscent of Austen, for example the excited communal reading of letters. Both authors satirise social behaviour and give characters names that express their personalities. However, in Nel's opinion Rowling's humour is more based on caricature and the names she invents are more like those found in Charles Dickens's stories, and Amanda Cockrell noted that many of these express their owners' traits through allusions that run from ancient Roman mythology to eighteenth-century German literature. Rowling, like the Narnia series' author C. S. Lewis, thinks there is no rigid distinction between stories for children and for adults. Nel also noted that, like many good writers for children, Rowling combines literary genres‍-‌ fantasy, young adult fiction, boarding school stories, Bildungsroman and many others.

Some reviewers compared Philosopher's Stone to the stories of Roald Dahl, who died in 1990. Many writers since the 1970s had been hailed as his successor, but none had attained anything near his popularity with children and, in a poll conducted shortly after the launch of Philosopher's Stone, seven of the ten most popular children's books were by Dahl, including the one in top place. The only other really popular children's author of the late 1990s was an American, R. L. Stine. Some of the story elements in Philosopher's Stone resembled parts of Dahl's stories. For example, the hero of James and the Giant Peach lost his parents and had to live with a pair of unpleasant aunts‍-‌one fat and one thin rather like Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, who treated Harry as a servant. However Harry Potter was a distinctive creation, able to take on the responsibilities of an adult while remaining a child inside.

Librarian Nancy Knapp and marketing professor Stephen Brown noted the liveliness and detail of descriptions, especially of shop scenes such as Diagon Alley. Tad Brennan commented that Rowling's writing resembles that of Homer: "rapid, plain, and direct in expression". Stephen King admired "the sort of playful details of which only British fantasists seem capable" and concluded that they worked because Rowling enjoys a quick giggle and then moves briskly forward.

Nicholas Tucker described the early Harry Potter books as looking back to Victorian and Edwardian children's stories: Hogwarts was an old-style boarding school in which the teachers addressed pupils formally by their surnames and were most concerned with the reputations of the houses with which they were associated; characters' personalities were plainly shown by their appearances, starting with the Dursleys; evil or malicious characters were to be crushed rather than reformed, including Argus Filch's cat Mrs Norris; and the hero, a mistreated orphan who found his true place in life, was charismatic and good at sports, but considerate and protective towards the weak. Several other commentators have stated that the books present a highly stratified society including many social stereotypes. However Karin Westerman drew parallels with 1990s Britain: a class system that was breaking down but defended by those whose power and status it upheld; the multi-ethnic composition of Hogwarts' students; the racial tensions between the various intelligent species; and school bullying.

Susan Hall wrote that there is no rule of law in the books, as the actions of Ministry of Magic officials are unconstrained by laws, accountability or any kind of legal challenge. This provides an opportunity for Voldemort to offer his own horrific version of order. As a side-effect Harry and Hermione, who were brought up in the highly regulated Muggle world, find solutions by thinking in ways unfamiliar to wizards. For example, Hermione notes that one obstacle to finding the Philosopher's Stone is a test of logic rather than magical power, and that most wizards have no chance of solving it.

Nel suggested that the unflattering characterisation of the extremely conventional, status-conscious, materialistic Dursleys was Rowling's reaction to the family policies of the British government in the early 1990s, which treated the married heterosexual couple as the "preferred norm", while the author was a single mother. Harry's relationships with adult and juvenile wizards are based on affection and loyalty. This is reflected in his happiness whenever he is a temporary member of the Weasley family throughout the series, and in his treatment of first Rubeus Hagrid and later Remus Lupin and Sirius Black as father-figures.: 13-15, 47-48

The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and later, in the US on 2 June 1999. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was then published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury and Scholastic. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the longest book in the series at 766 pages in the UK version and 870 pages in the US version. It was published worldwide in English on 21 June 2003. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published on 16 July 2005 and sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release. The seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published on 21 July 2007. The book sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release: 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.

An illustrated version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released on 6 October 2015, with illustrations by Jim Kay. The book carries over 100 illustrations and will be followed by illustrated versions of all seven books from the series by the same artist.

In May 2020, a reading podcast by Spotify was created and entitled Harry Potter at Home: Readings. Each chapter is narrated by a celebrity guest from the Harry Potter and Wizarding World franchises.

6
The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters
20 May 2020

41 mins, 47 secs

Jamie Parker and cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

17
The Man with the Two Faces
16 July 2020

41 mins, 29 secs

Three families of Harry Potter fans, with a surprise appearance from J. K. Rowling

In 1999, Rowling sold the film rights of the first two Harry Potter books to Warner Bros. for a reported £1 million. Rowling demanded that the principal cast be kept strictly British, but allowed for the casting of Irish actors such as Richard Harris as Dumbledore and of foreign actors as characters of the same nationalities in later books. After extensive casting, filming began in September 2000 at Leavesden Film Studios and in London, with production ending in July 2001. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released in London on 14 November 2001. Reviewers' comments were positive, as reflected by an 81% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and by a score of 65% at Metacritic, representing "generally favourable reviews".

Five unique video games by different developers were released between 2001 and 2003 by Electronic Arts, that were loosely based on the film and book:

Writers on education and business subjects have used the book as an object lesson. Writing about clinical teaching in medical schools, Jennifer Conn contrasted Snape's technical expertise with his intimidating behaviour towards students. Quidditch coach Madam Hooch on the other hand, illustrated useful techniques in the teaching of physical skills, including breaking down complex actions into sequences of simple ones and helping students to avoid common errors. Joyce Fields wrote that the books illustrate four of the five main topics in a typical first-year sociology class: "sociological concepts including culture, society, and socialisation; stratification and social inequality; social institutions; and social theory".

Stephen Brown noted that the early Harry Potter books, especially Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, were a runaway success despite inadequate and poorly organised marketing. Brown advised marketing executives to be less preoccupied with rigorous statistical analyses and the "analysis, planning, implementation, and control" model of management. Instead he recommended that they should treat the stories as "a marketing masterclass", full of enticing products and brand names. For example, a real-world analogue of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans was introduced under licence in 2000 by toymaker Hasbro.

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - Wikipedia

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling. The first novel in the series and Rowling's debut novel, it follows Harry Potter, a young wizard who discovers his magical heritage on his eleventh birthday, when he receives a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

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Noam Chomsky

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Beacons of Peace | Life and Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa

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Beacons of Peace | Life and Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa

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School strike for climate - save the world by changing the rules

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School strike for climate - save the world by changing the rules | Greta Thunberg | TEDxStockholm

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How to educate leaders? Liberal arts

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Patrick Awuah: How to educate leaders? Liberal arts

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A liberal arts education is critical to forming true leaders, says university head Patrick Awuah -- because it builds decision-making skills, an ethical framework and a broad vision. Awuah himself left a career at Microsoft in the US to found a liberal arts school in Africa: Ashesi University, in his home nation of Ghana.

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3 reasons why we can win the fight against poverty

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Andrew Youn: 3 reasons why we can win the fight against poverty

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Half of the world's poorest people have something in common: they're small farmers. In this eye-opening talk, social entrepreneur Andrew Youn shows how his group, One Acre Fund, is helping these farmers lift themselves out of poverty by delivering to them life-sustaining farm services that are already in use all over the world.

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Nurturing Youth Leadership Skills At Home

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Developing youth leadership skills during middle and high school most often makes us think of after-school group activities and special programs designed to train emerging young leaders. But parents can also foster leadership in their children at home by using a simple tool-the family meeting.

The concept of the family meeting has been popular for several decades and is often recommended by psychologists and family therapists to build positive relationships. Regular weekly meetings are a formal opportunity for families to discuss important issues, plan, problem solve, and have fun together.

Much has been written about the benefits of family meetings, how to develop a family meeting agenda, and habits that make family meetings successful. If you have never held family meetings or would like to learn more about them, read " Family Meetings Can Be Fun, Productive, and Meaningful. "

This article looks at family meeting through a new lens-with a focus on youth leadership development. It's a topic not often associated with family meetings. But there is good evidence that children can learn core leadership skills in their home environments by taking a lead role in family meetings.

Youth Leadership Begins with Practice

As children transition into and through adolescence, they need to practice skills that will teach them how to exercise positive influence over themselves and others. These skills do not come naturally to many children because they have not been in situations where leadership skills are easily developed. In fact, to become comfortable as a leader, it is helpful to learn and practice new skills in a safe, nurturing environment.

What are youth leadership skills? How can they be nurtured by families?

You will find many listings of youth leadership skills. Here, we'll focus on the skills that parents can best nurture at home within the structure of family meetings. These meetings provide a formal opportunity for kids to learn and practice.
Youth leadership skills include:
How Family Meetings Can Inspire Youth Leadership

Family meetings are built around agendas, much like after-school clubs, organizations, or business meetings. When parents decide to start regular meetings with children, there is a certain amount of ongoing preparation required, like learning what agenda topics work best, experimenting with new ideas, adapting to change, facilitating problem-solving, etc. Like most groups that seek consensus and strive to work together, family meetings can be messy.

At first, parents are the role models. They show children a way of learning together that is not always perfect. They learn from mistakes. They make sure everyone has a voice in problem-solving and decision-making. They are the major cheerleaders for making family meetings work!

Once family meetings because a mainstay in your household, leadership should shift.

Elementary-school-age children can contribute to leading different parts of the agenda, like creating a meeting opening, picking a topic for discovery time, or planning the fun family activity. As children mature into middle and high school, giving them more responsibility in leading family meetings continues to build youth leadership skills.

Youth Leadership Requires the Ability to Set and Achieve Goals

Planning and goal-setting are important aspects of family meetings. They are opportunities for families to plan trips and outings together, organize family service projects, manage chores, learn to budget, etc.

We know from research, that goal setters often become peak performers. Goal setting is a skill that is highly associated with those who excel in school, work, and life. Research has uncovered many key aspects of goal setting theory and its link to success (Kleingeld, et al, 2011). Setting goals is linked with self-confidence, motivation, and autonomy (Locke & Lathan, 2006). One study showed when people wrote down their goals, they were 33% more successful in achieving them than those who formulated outcomes in their heads.

Family meetings not only give children a voice in goal-setting but also the ability to play an active role with keeping minutes and tracking goals. These are tasks that are easily shared with children as they mature into their teen years.

Children who learn to set and achieve goals with their families become intimately familiar with the process. They understand that achievement takes perseverance and determination. They learn that problems and challenges arise along the path to success that must be overcome. They acquire the ability to work with others and communicate clearly. Instead of expecting parents to have the answers or make all of the decisions, they begin to see themselves as part of creating solutions that work for everyone.

Problem-Solving and Consensus-Building: A Vital Skill for Youth Leaders

Youth leadership outside of the home requires children to solve problems by building consensus among groups of people. These are some of the most important skills required to successfully lead community engagement and service efforts as well as after-school clubs and organizations.

Not surprisingly, problem-solving within families is challenging, just as it is in the world beyond families. Since problem-solving is almost always part of the agenda of family meetings, it presents a unique opportunity to give your teenager some experience in facilitating this process with other family members. Of course, before they jump in, they'll need some guidance, role modeling, and your assurance that failure is an acceptable option because that's how we learn. Parents must be there to support their teens, ready to show understanding and love.

Teens who learn to handle various parts of the family meeting agenda become confident in their abilities to perform similar tasks outside of home. In the process, they learn other valuable skills, like how to listen to others, build consensus, put themselves in other people's shoes.

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Nurturing Youth Leadership Skills At Home

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Developing youth leadership skills during middle and high school most often makes us think of after-school group activities and special programs designed to train emerging young leaders. But parents can also foster leadership in their children at home by using a simple tool-the family meeting.

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Why Leaders Should Think Like Teenagers

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Mattie J.T. Stepanek wasn't exactly a typical leader. A poet, peacemaker, five-time New York Times bestselling author, hailed by Oprah, Mattie was only 13 years old when he -- like his three younger siblings -- died from a rare form of muscular dystrophy. Few entrepreneurs achieve the impact Mattie did in his short life.

And yet Mattie's story is not entirely uncommon. I recently worked with Mattie's mom, Dr. Jeni Stepanek, at a summit for Global Teen Leaders -- 30 young change-makers from around the world. As one of the facilitators, I expected to impart all kinds of worldly wisdom to these teenagers. Instead, I left with a handful of important leadership lessons for entrepreneurs.

For many, the very idea of teenage leaders is oxymoronic. Life experience is what makes a great leader, we tell ourselves. But here are seven stories that turn that conventional wisdom on its head.
Related: Were You Born to Lead?
When Justin was 13, he was disqualified from a middle school cross-country meet because officials were ignorant about the symptoms of his illness: Tourette Syndrome. Justin created an organization called Honor Good Deeds that aims to combat ignorance and intolerance by talking about and embracing differences. He coined the phrase "Live Loud," which means accepting and being proud of oneself and sharing that attitude with others. It doubles as the title of a speech he's given in 10 states to more than 50,000 students.

Leaders shouldn't try to mask what makes them different either. Your personality, quirks, idiosyncrasies, and sense of humor are all essential elements of what make you you. If you don't bring those things to the workplace, you'll never fulfil your true potential or fully enjoy success.

Put away the professional mask and give yourself permission to "lead out loud" just like Justin.

2. Make Your Company a "Power Cave'

Kajmere, 15, was diagnosed in 2005 with neuroblastoma and told that she would not live past her sixth birthday. She fought and survived, only to be diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2008. Because of the effects that cancer treatment had on her physical appearance and how two lesbian moms were raising her, Kajmere became the subject of endless taunting by her classmates. In response, she formed The Power Cave, an organization that teaches teens, to speak up and take a stand against bullying in their communities.

The workplace might seem like a safe haven from incivility, but it's not. Whether it is shouting or swearing, humiliating jokes or harassment, such behavior strangles productivity and innovation, and increases stress and staff turnover.

Leaders must therefore turn their groups and organizations into Power Caves -- safe spaces, where everyone feels empowered to call out incivility for the benefit of the victim and the business.

3. Be a Crisis Leader, Not a Crisis Manager

When Sanah was in the seventh grade, she woke up one morning to discover that her hair was falling out. Soon, alopecia had left her completely bald. Initially, she managed the crisis. She wore uncomfortable wigs and battled insecurity.

Then she decided to take a different approach. She abandoned the fake hair, donned fashion-forward headbands instead, and launched International Natural Day, which takes place annually on February 13th, the day before Valentine's Day, and promotes the idea that we need to love ourselves before we can love others. This year, #NaturalDay had more than 3,000 mentions from 28 different countries.

This was crisis leadership. Instead of minimizing the risk to herself, Sanah understood that should could use a difficult situation to empower others. Whether a crisis is personal or professional, individual or organizational, leaders can respond by designing a strategy focused on serving all those who are affected.

This not only helps you, your team or organization weather the storm; it also builds a community of people who will be there to protect you in the future.

4. Be First

Siddhi, 16, lives in India -- a country where conversations about sexuality are still taboo in many communities. Yet, she has become a passionate advocate for LGBT rights, setting up Breaking Barriers, an organization that encourages gay and straight students in Indian schools to use artwork, videos, protests, presentations and workshops to spread awareness of LGBT issues. Now in five schools, it plans to establish a presence across India, including on college campuses.

The lesson here: Forget being a fast follower. The best leaders strive to be first -- pioneering new products, technologies and business models, making their marks and setting unique foundations for their organization's strategies and communications. As French author and Nobel Prize winner Andre Gide said, "Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."

If you can't quickly complete the sentence "My company or team is the first...", are you really leading?

5. Focus on a Single Customer

At the age of 13, Ruchita traveled from the U.S. to India, where she met Asha, a 27 year-old widow, who was struggling to support her family. Asha's young children had left school so they could work and earn money. Back at her own school, Ruchita determined to raise enough money for Asha to buy a sewing machine. She did and, within a year, Asha had a steady source of income, which allowed her kids to return to their studies.

Buoyed by this success story, Ruchita founded Sew A Future, an organization that has now helped 182 widows with young children to become self-sufficient.
Related: The 15 Practices of Outstanding Leaders
True leadership flows from a desire to have meaningful impact in any way you can. Start not with lofty goals, but with a single ideal customer, like Asha, or a group of customers. Understand their needs, find a way to serve them, share that story to inspire others and only then start to scale.

Mother Teresa said, "Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love." And so it is with leadership. Focus on small things with great love and see how much easier it is to engage staff and customers around your mission.

6. Pre-empt the Problem

Horrified by stories of teens driven to suicide by cyber-bullying, Trisha was 13 when she decided to put her technology skills to work solving the problem. She developed ReThink, an online software program that gives young people a chance to reconsider posting offensive messages on social media. Across 1,500 trials, ReThink reduced incidents of cyber-bullying by about 93 percent. Trisha has a patent for the program and is now in the process of making it compatible with all social-media sites.

Leaders must take an equally preemptive approach to mitigating risks and understanding the causes of conflicts in their organizations. When you target the source of a problem, you can prevent crises from happening in the first place, avoiding all the financial, emotional and business burden. Like so many things in life, prevention is better than cure.

7. Remember to Play

Elijah, 17, endured horrible physical abuse during his three years in foster care, coming away with third-degree burns on almost half of his body and no toes on his right foot. After finding his way to a good home and loving family, he set about bringing hope and happiness to kids like him.

At age 12, he organized what would be the first of many Christmas parties for children in foster care. A year later, he created No Use For Abuse, an advocacy group, which now also hosts back-to school events that are similarly festive.

As a leader you will face adversity. It is inevitable. Effective management during those dark moments is one thing; attitude is another. Rallying co-workers together for a party after a big setback might seem strange, but it sends out an important message. There is always something or someone to be grateful for, to honor and celebrate. Such shared experiences build a culture of resilience, empathy and positivity.

Mattie J.T. Stepanek was in and out of hospital since birth. And yet he continued to play practical jokes, planting whoopie cushions for the nurses to sit on, teasing and sharing jokes with his mom. Mattie had many beautiful messages, but the one that binds all of these teen leadership stories, and which entrepreneurs of all ages might benefit from the most is "remember to play after every storm."
Related: Who Wants to Be CEO? Not Millennial Women.

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Why Leaders Should Think Like Teenagers | Entrepreneur

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Mattie J.T. Stepanek wasn't exactly a typical leader. A poet, peacemaker, five-time New York Times bestselling author, hailed by Oprah, Mattie was only 13 years old when he -- like his three younger siblings -- died from a rare form of muscular dystrophy.

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Why Leaders Should Learn Geography

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Kirk Goldsberry mentioned in " The Importance of Spatial Thinking " that "Harvard eradicated its Geography Department in the 1940's, and many universities followed suit". Indeed, not only has geography never been part of business programs, it gradually vanished from education fields that matter in prestigious schools, with no major revival since the 1940's.

Today, it is still suffering from an inaccurate split between a "physical" and a "human" branch, themselves sub-divided into multiple precarious sub-fields that makes everybody, including geographers themselves, feel embarrassed and confused about their own disciplinary. Having so much trouble defining what geography is played a big role in its disappearance from the business and management programs.

That lack of interest for geography as a field of study has also to do with the fact that it is still perceived as the "art" of exploring and mapping the world with a telescope from an old sailboat, counting rocks and drawing exotic landscapes with a nib while sipping some exotic cocktails. Not only geography is (still) seen as some sort of poetic leisure by the business world, it is now reduced to location devices and mapping gadgets since technology progress put GPS and Google Earth on every smartphones.

Well, we got it wrong. Geography is not the science that tries to naïvely explain the world by describing its very surface anymore, and it has nothing to do with naming all the capital cities of central America, nor with the ability to use the location feature on Pinterest.

Today's geography is an angle to look at the world, embrace its complexity, a way to get a sense of human flows, behaviour trends, cultural influences, market evolutions, balance of powers between institutions, companies, governments, from a global to a very local perspective. It is a way of thinking that crosses time and space at any possible scale to see and understand what is happening. It connects the dimensions of the world - societies, environment, economy, politics, finance, psychology... - by offering unique key concepts and theoretical tools.

As big data is becoming one of the biggest economic challenge of our time, being able to connect several layers of thematic information, to cross it with multiple time & space scales, to process complexity to end up with several prioritized solutions is not an optional skill for leaders. Decision makers need to know about wide general process such as globalisation, cultural preferences and religious beliefs in the world, demographic trends, but also about regional consumption habits, local specificities, small groups social psychology and behaviour.

Having a good knowledge of regional culture and place-related specificities is also definitely an asset, with employees as well as partners and customers. Being aware of the importance of place and people uniqueness, admitting other ways of thinking and other people-territory relationships will definitely make a difference in the way one will inspire others, no matter what the product is.

Geography provides an essential basic knowledge of global mechanisms that matter in the world every people making decisions on a daily basis should know about, from how nationalism shape consumer habits to why beach vacation became the biggest sector of the tourism industry since being tanned became a sign of wealth sixty years ago.

Like other sciences, geography provides analytical skills, precision, the ability to collect and process important amounts of quantitative and qualitative data, to synthesize and communicate results, both verbally and visually. More than other sciences, geography also provides spatial data visualisation skills (mapping and sketching), emphasis the capacity to read and communicate multiple dimensions of a problem to a range of partners, develops design and creativity skills as well as decision-making and good understanding of group and individual psychologies.

On top of that, leaders can gain a unique ability from geography by developing the three following skills:

The sense of scale: having good abilities to assess distances (physical distances, but also symbolic ones between cultures, people, products, times), to estimate accurately market size and accessibility, the feasibility of one project, its scalability, the capacity to discern what falls under global trends (long-term) versus what is a specific localized (short-term) phenomena make a great difference in the success of one enterprise.

Spatial thinking: not to confuse with "making all big decisions looking at a map instead of charts". Spatial thinking simply means: not to forget that data are always coming from somewhere, which basically means they have to be considered in a cultural, political and economical place-related context, relatively to other surrounding contexts (what happened in the past, what happened elsewhere, what happened in other dimensions than the financial or industrial one).

The sense of place: you always sell more than a product. You sell a story, a dream, a hope, a discourse. What makes the difference between a fair success and an exceptional product people will wait for is the deep and unwavering belief that they need this product to be the person they want to be. You sell meaning, you sell identity and image. Well, places (from the country to the house) are not just interchangeable empty containers for people. They are deeply associated with affective memories, life stories, key moments of people lives. Just like things.

If "power is information", knowing what is where in the world, and why, how it used to be and how it is likely to be in the future is essential for anyone aspiring to open a path for the others to get inspired and follow it.

Oh, also, learning geography will help not to look like a fool by confusing Irak with Afghanistan or ignoring what the capital city of Canada is.

Anne-Laure is a passionate geographer who has been working and traveling in France, New Zealand and Canada. After exploring the business school world, the academic universe and experimenting what it's like to work in a travel start-up, she now works on her geography blog: geo-pickmeup.com and contributes to the geoawesome project

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Why Leaders Should Learn Geography - Geoawesomeness

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Email Tweet Share Share on Facebook Pin Pocket WhatsApp Telegram Kirk Goldsberry mentioned in "The Importance of Spatial Thinking" that "Harvard eradicated its Geography Department in the 1940's, and many universities followed suit". Indeed, not only has geography never been part of business programs, it gradually vanished from education fields that matter in prestigious schools, ...

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Leadership Styles and Examples

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The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.
―Henry Kissinger

A leader is a person who motivates and guides his subordinates, so that they perform to the best of their abilities, to achieve a given set of goals. All leaders have their own way of getting things done by the people working under them. These ways are referred to as the different leadership styles, in business language. Some leaders prefer that their team members merely follow and do what they have planned for them, while others believe in the theory 'Two brains are better than one', and seek inputs from their entire team before taking important decisions. To make the different styles clearer, here is each of them explained, along with examples.

An autocratic leader is the one who believes in taking all the important decisions himself. It is the leader who decides how the work has to be done and by whom. Once the decision has been made, there is no scope of any change. The subordinates simply carry on with the work assigned to them. They are not allowed to give any input regarding how they should do their work or conduct daily activities. Every detail is pre-decided by the leader himself. In case some changes in the work schedule have to be made, they are made by the leader without consulting anyone else.

The autocratic leadership style works well if the leader is competent and knowledgeable enough to decide about each and everything. Authoritative is considered one of the most effective leadership styles in case there is some emergency and quick decisions need to be taken. If there is no time left for discussion or weighing various options, then this type of leadership gives the best results.

Such examples can be found in the real world in people like Bill Gates and John F. Kennedy. Bill Gates followed the authoritarian style and steered Microsoft towards unbelievable success. According to him, he had a vision when he took the reins of the company, and then used all the resources available to make that vision a reality. His success can be judged from the way the personal computer industry has advanced today.

The participative leadership style involves the leader taking into consideration the opinions of some of his employees before arriving at a final decision. This style earns the leader immense respect and loyalty among his subordinates, as they feel that their opinions matter too. This leadership style is useful for the leader, as he gets to see a given situation from all directions, before deciding on the final course of action. It works really well in situations when the leader does not know everything, and he relies on his subordinates' knowledge for taking decisions. The biggest advantage of this style is that, it helps in ascertaining and identifying future leaders among the subordinates. Also, it keeps a team's spirit and morale high, as the team members feel that their opinions are valued by their leader.

Here's an example. An advertising manager approaches his team members on how to promote a particular product of a company. The team members brainstorm over the issue, some suggest print media, while others suggest direct mails to the prospective clients. The participative leader takes all these suggestions, weighs their pros and cons, and then takes the final decision after considering his team members' opinions.

A delegative leadership style is very rarely followed in modern organizations today. This gives full freedom to the subordinates while decision-making or doing the tasks at hand, in any given manner they find suitable. This leadership style is mostly followed when the leader places immense faith in each and every member of his team, and is sure that the team members are capable enough to run things themselves. This style of leadership should however be used very wisely, because, if the team members lack decision-making or analyzing skills, it can backfire very badly.

Example. A manager has newly joined a firm. He is still learning how various things function in the organization. In such a situation, he relies on the suggestions and opinions of his team members, and lets them do the things the way they are used to, till the time he is able to gain sufficient knowledge and can suggest some more feasible changes.

A true, successful leader is the one who makes use of each of these styles, depending upon the demands of the situation.

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3 Kinds of Leadership Styles Explained With Easy Examples

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The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been. ―Henry Kissinger A leader is a person who motivates and guides his subordinates, so that they perform to the best of their abilities, to achieve a given set of goals.