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Adults may find themselves frustrated at the contrived nature of the book. The puzzle pieces fit into place too easily with Harry always being in the right place at the right time. For instance, Harry forgets his invisibility cloak in the astronomy tower after sneaking around the school to help out a friend. Filch, the caretaker, discovers Harry and Hermione wandering the halls when the two friends thought they were invisible.

It is hardly believable that Harry would forget the cloak, but this plot device is necessary to send Harry to the Forbidden Forest where he first faces true peril.

Despite this flaw, adults and children will enjoy the underlying messages embedded within the story. Harry learns that there is more to life than fame by discovering the pleasures and responsibilities that come with friendship, bravery, love, hope, and life. Harry becomes a hero through his own actions of being a good friend, persevering through adversity, and choosing what is right. No longer just a famous name, Harry now knows himself to be brave and capable.

Children and adults can easily relate to the ordinary side of Harry and dream of the extraordinary circumstances in which he finds himself. The book's author, J.K. Rowling remains true to how an eleven-year-old thinks and acts. Harry loves candy and doesn't hesitate to spend his money on it, he dreads exams, and he loves sports. By the end of the book, the reader knows Harry and his friends so well that the fictional characters have become the reader's friends as well.

Another piece that makes this book easily relatable is the parallel structure of the magical world to the muggle (non-magical) world. These two worlds correspond to Harry�s own sense of ordinary and extraordinary. Where technology is ordinary, magic is extraordinary, but the opposite is true when one enters the wizarding world. For instance, the magic of Harry Potter�s world can be used to do dishes, but a dishwasher would puzzle wizards. Where the muggle world sees Harry as ordinary, the magical world sees him as extraordinary. For Harry, both come to be true. This parallel nature makes the reader ask how extraordinary can an ordinary world be and how extraordinary can one person be?

As the first book in a series of seven, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone begins an epic tale. Readers that go back and read this book will notice that characters and plots from later books have already been introduced. For instance, one of Book Three's main characters, Sirius Black, is mentioned in the first chapter of this first book. The book may be short and the mystery a bit contrived, but the clues are there for those who love to play detective. The promise of a great future will keep the reader's coming back for more. Book One is enjoyable and a quick read. It's well worth the read and the rest of the epic gets exponentially better from here.