Harry Potter
So I finally finished the book that I took with me to NY last time: The Philosopher’s Stone. I have to say, it was much better than I anticipated, having seen both movies already. The thing that impressed right off the bad was the level of the writing. The sentences are actually put together with care. It was fun just going from one to the next looking for that odd turn of phrase that describes the scene perfectly. That could have come in part just from the fact that I was reading the UK version rather than the US one, but I have a feeling that is part of what makes her popular with more than just kids.
And speaking of popularity with kids, it is certainly a kids book, breaking rules, getting detentions, dealing with bullies, even too high expectations from your parents (in a very meta way in Harry’s case). Just with all of the reality taken away. Very real problems that kids can relate to in an unreal situation. With of course a little extra precociousness on the part of the kids.
And of course the entire time I was reading it I was looking for differences in the movie. There were shockingly few, though there were a couple notable ones. For one thing, the only way in which Harry is the “hero” in the book is his quiddich skill. Pretty much everything else is done by Hermione. Especially at the end, no flocks of keys trying to kill Harry, he was much more of a military leader, telling the other kids what to do, in order to round the key up. Much more interesting IMHO. The other difference that jumped out at me was the general derision that the rest of the school felt for harry for most of the book. Them losing that 150 points for being out was a major event. And they were out to save Hagrid, which IIRC was resolved in the movie by Norbert being banished, not the kids convincing Hagrid that he can’t have a dragon as happened in the book. It really seemed like if anyone found out about it he would have been fired. Also the centaurs were more interesting, but a movie only lasts two hours. The differences must get more pronounced at the books get longer.