Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I heard that reading the British version of the HP series gives American readers a slightly different experience, so I decided to give it a try. It’s been at least three years since I read the first book and probably twice that since I read the later ones. What I can say is the there is definitely a much more “British” feel for the beginning of this book than I remember from reading my American version. I still haven’t decided if that’s good or bad. Obviously this is set in Britain. By reading the British edition, I’m constantly reminded of that fact with some of the grammar and terms that are unique to British English.
Another standout that happened during this read was the pedagogy of the teachers at Hogwarts. I picked up on some things that surprised me about Snape. That by being hard on him the first day of class he’s actually helping Harry by lowering the students’ expectations of him. Is he still hard on him? Yes. This is Snape after all. The other one, and this one I didn’t understand, is the detention in the Forbidden Forest at 11 pm earned by the students for being out of bed at 1 am. I don’t see the ethics of this punishment at all but it does make a good story.