Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the first volume in an ongoing series of (eventually) at least seven books for children written by British author J. K. Rowling, and starring Harry Potter, a young wizard. The book has also been made into a film of the same name.
Both the motion picture and book were released in the United States under the name Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, as the publishers were concerned that most Americans were not familiar enough with the term "philosopher's stone" to gain the correct impression from the title. (The renaming of books for international distribution is a common practice, even for highly known and internationally recognised authors.)
Whatever the reasons for the change, it had no effect on the sales figures, and the Harry Potter series rapidly became one of the most-in-demand among young readers, who seemed to be undaunted by the ever-increasing length and complexity of the volumes.
Plot of the book
For a more extended synopsis, see here. Template:Spoiler At the age of 11, Harry Potter discovers that he is in fact a wizard. He also discovers that the relatives with whom he has been living since the age of 15 months have been systematically lying to him: his parents were not killed in a car crash, but murdered by the evil Lord Voldemort who tried to kill Harry as well. Harry survived, for reasons as yet incompletely understood, but a scar remained on his forehead.
Harry is invited to come and study at Hogwarts, a School of Witchcraft and Wizardry run by Albus Dumbledore. The school can only be reached by travelling on the Hogwarts Express, a magical train which leaves from Platform 9¾ at London's King Cross Station.
He quickly befriends Ron Weasley, the youngest son of a poor wizarding family, and Hermione Granger, a highly-intelligent but deeply-annoying muggle-born girl; he just as quickly develops a rivalry with the snide Draco Malfoy. During the first-year initiation, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are "sorted" into the house of Gryffindor, traditionally the house of heros; Malfoy is sorted into Slytherin, which has spawned many dark wizards.
The main plot revolves around the philosopher's stone which has been hidden at the school and guarded carefully by the teachers of Hogwarts. Harry and friends uncover a plot to steal the stone, and their Potions teacher, Severus Snape, becomes their prime suspect.
Pooling their individual strengths, the three manage to get past the various defences which guard the stone, until Harry has to go forward alone to face not Snape, as expected, but the hitherto ineffectual Professor Quirrell, who has been acting as host for Lord Voldemort. Voldemort attempts to use Harry to find the stone but fails. Voldemort is vanquished, and Quirrell killed, because of a remnant of Harry's mother's sacrifice.
The film
See Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (movie) for details.
Other languages
The book has been translated into approximately 60 languages: see here for more details.
Controversy
Many fundamentalist Christian groups have called for bans and boycotts of the book, and indeed the entire series, because they deal with, and even endorse, witchcraft, and the books are a common target of book burnings. They cite many (unverified) reports of youth turning to Satanism. The Vatican has commented that the books are not evil and teach the difference between good and evil.
