Harry Potter has lived in a cupboard under the stairs for as long as he can remember, told his parents died in a car crash and that his strange abilities are nothing to be ashamed of. On his eleventh birthday, a letter arrives - then dozens more - inviting him to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The magical world he enters is ancient, dangerous, and already aware of who he is. Rowling's debut novel establishes the full landscape of the series with remarkable confidence: Diagon Alley, the Hogwarts Express, the house system, Quidditch, and the long shadow of a dark wizard whose name most people are afraid to speak. It is a book about discovering that the world is larger and stranger than you were led to believe.
