J.K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1e recensie)

Harry Potter is an ordinary boy who lives in a cupboard under the stairs at his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon’s house, which he thinks is normal for someone like him who’s parents have been killed in a ‘car crash’. He is bullied by them and his fat, spoilt cousin Dudley, and lives a very unremarkable life with only the odd hiccup (like his hair growing back overnight!) to cause him much to think about. That is until an owl turns up with a letter addressed to Harry and all hell breaks loose! He is literally rescued by a world where nothing is as it seems and magic lessons are the order of the day. Read and find out how Harry discovers his true heritage at Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, the reason behind his parents mysterious death, who is out to kill him, and how he uncovers the most amazing secret of all time, the fabled Philosopher’s Stone! All this and muggles too. Now, what are they?

Over het verhaal

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.
Mr Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.
The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn’t think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. Mrs Potter was Mrs Dursley’s sister, but they hadn’t met for several years; in fact, Mrs Dursley pretended she didn’t have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn’t want Dudley mixing with a child like that. (blz. 4)

De Dursleys zullen al snel weer te maken krijgen met de familie Potter. Die avond, als ze slapen, is er activiteit op straat.

A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky – and a huge motorbike fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.
If the motorbike was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild – long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of dustbin lids and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.
‘Hagrid,’ said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. ‘At last. And where did you get that motorbike?’
‘Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir,’ said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorbike as he spoke. ‘Young Sirius Black lent it me. I’ve got him, sir.’ (blz. 15)

De kleine Harry Potter wordt te vondeling gelegd op de stoep bij de Dursleys. Als zij de baby de volgende ochtend ontdekken zijn ze daar niet blij mee. De komende jaren zullen zij hem zoveel mogelijk negeren. Dan komt Harry’s 11e verjaardag er aan…

They heard the click of the letter-box and flop of letters on the doormat.
‘Get the post, Dudley,’ said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.
‘Make Harry get it.’
‘Get the post, Harry.’
‘Make Dudley get it.’
‘Poke him with your Smeltings stick, Dudley.’
Harry dodged the Smeltings stick and went to get the post. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon’s sister Marge, who was holidaying on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill and – a letter for Harry.
Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives – he didn’t belong to the library so he’d never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:
Mr H. Potter
The Cupboard under the Stairs
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. (blz. 30)

De brief wordt uit zijn handen gegrist door oom Vernon. Hij verscheurt de brief. Maar de dagen erna komen er steeds meer brieven. Oom Vernon wordt er gek van. Hij timmert het hele huis dicht en op een dag is hij het zo zat dat hij de hele familie meeneemt en gaat rijden. Ze rijden net zo lang tot ze bij het strand komen. Daar huurt oom Vernon een bootje en ze gaan naar een hutje op een heel klein eilandje. Hier zullen de brieven vast niet komen. Maar ‘s avonds, in het midden van de storm, wordt er op de deur geklopt. Er staat een gigantische man voor de deur. Hij heet Hagrid en feliciteert Harry met zijn verjaardag. Hij heeft een brief voor Harry bij zich van Hogwarts, een school voor tovenaars. Hij verwacht dat Harry blij zal zijn, maar Harry heeft geen idee waar dit over gaat.

‘Do you mean ter tell me,’ he growled at the Dursleys, ‘that this boy – this boy! – knows nothin’ abou’ – about ANYTHING?’
Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren’t bad.
‘I know some things,’ he said. ‘I can, you know, do maths and stuff.’
But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, ‘About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents’ world.’
‘What world?’
Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.
‘DURSLEY!’ he boomed.
Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like ‘Mimblewimble’.
Hagrid stared wildly at Harry.
‘But yeh must know about yer mum and dad,’ he said. ‘I mean, they’re famous. You’re famous.’
‘What? My – my mum and dad weren’t famous, were they?’
‘Yeh don’ know … yeh don’ know …’
Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.
‘Yeh don’ know what yeh are?’ he said finally.
Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.
‘Stop!’ he commanded. ‘Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!’
A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.
‘You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An’ you’ve kept it from him all these years?’ (blz. 45)

De volgende ochtend neemt Hagrid Harry mee naar Londen. Ze gaan inkopen doen voor school. Een paar weken later komt Harry aan op zijn nieuwe school.

‘Welcome to Hogwarts,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.
‘The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
‘The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.’
Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville’s cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron’s smudged nose. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair.
‘I shall return when we are ready for you,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘Please wait quietly.’ (blz. 100)

Hoe zal Harry het vinden op school? Zal hij moeite hebben om te leren toveren nu hij pas sinds kort weet dat er een magische wereld is? Zal hij eindelijk vrienden maken?

Mening over het boek

Recensie van Ikvindlezenleuk (Mathilde) (ouder dan 18 jaar)
Hoe kom je aan het boek?
Zelf gekocht
Wat vind je van het boek?
★★★★★
Waarom heb je dit boek uitgekozen om te lezen?
Het boek heeft een mooie voorkant, Ik vond de tekst op de achterkant leuk, Ik heb al andere boeken van deze schrijver gelezen, Ik heb al andere boeken uit dezelfde serie gelezen, ik heb het boek al vaker gelezen, maar wilde het graag weer eens herlezen
Welke steekwoorden passen bij het boek?
geheimzinnig, grappig, romantisch, spannend, verrassend, zielig
Staan er illustraties in het boek? Wie heeft ze gemaakt?
Nee
Wat vind je van de illustraties? Passen ze bij het verhaal?
xx
Is het boek moeilijk of gemakkelijk te lezen?
Gemiddeld
Waar gaat het verhaal over?
Zie hierboven
Wie is de hoofdpersoon?
De hoofdpersoon is Harry Potter
Zou je iemand uit het verhaal willen ontmoeten? Waarom? En wat zou je dan gaan doen?
Ik wil naar Hogwarts en Hagrid ontmoeten
In welke tijd speelt het verhaal zich af?
Weet ik niet
Waar speelt het verhaal zich af?
Het verhaal speelt zich voornamelijk af op Hogwarts
Waarom moeten anderen dit boek lezen?
Ik heb dit boek al meerdere keren gelezen (en de film gezien), maar het blijft een geweldig verhaal.
Wil je nog iets anders vertellen over het boek?
Dit is het eerste deel van een serie van 7 boeken
Wil je het boek nog een keer lezen?
Ja, ik wil het boek nog een keer lezen, Ik wil andere boeken van deze schrijver lezen, Ik wil het volgende boek uit deze serie lezen