Books are made up of paper, ink, 26 letters. However, books *exist* as life, air, food; books become our friends, our confidants, and our souls. I had no idea that when I brought home "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", I was giving my daughter a lifelong friend.
The cover of this book makes me smile as it reminds me of when I helped my daughter stumble through her first novel. She's 30 now, but at the time she was only in 2nd grade and we would take turns reading the book aloud each night before bed. She would stumble through 1 page after every 5 pages I read. We walked alongside Harry as he learned that not quite fitting in wasn't a bad thing, but instead just meant that he had not found his special place, his home.
Through Harry, my daughter learned of pain and sacrifice, but also of how to get back up. She also learned that being smart is something to celebrate (Hermione), as well as being enthusiastic (Ron) or creative (Fred/George) or cunning (Draco) were also qualities deserving celebration.
Years ago I read a story of a mother & son reading the book aloud, and the boy used voices for all the characters except for Harry. We all are Harry. We've all felt like that little boy in the cupboard under the stairs at some point in our life, waiting for the magic letter to whisk us away on an incredible adventure. JKR reminds us, though, that even in the magical world there are hardships that we have to overcome. But with "friendship and bravery" we can accomplish anything.
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is a very simple story with a lot of heart and written in such a perfect way to introduce children to the magical world of reading. 💫✨
Originally posted on Instagram.