When a letter arrives for unhappy but ordinary Harry Potter, a decade-old secret is revealed to him. His parents were wizards, killed by a Dark Lord's curse when Harry was just a baby, and which he somehow survived. Escaping from his unbearable Muggle guardians to Hogwarts, a wizarding school brimming with ghosts and enchantments, Harry stumbles into a sinister adventure when he finds a three-headed dog guarding a room on the third floor. Then he hears of a missing stone with astonishing powers which could be valuable, dangerous, or both."The saga of Harry Potter and his creator has almost reached the status of myth ... The books strike as deeply as the most timeless fairy tales. Harry and his friends seem intensely real-parents report a frequent refrain of 'they're just like us.'" -Maclean's"A richly imagined world to which young readers will surrender themselves, and one of the most attractive heroes to come around in a long while." -Globe and Mail"Harry Potter is the biggest phenomenon in kids' publishing for decades ... Rowling has taken a classic formula and given it a contemporary (but not too contemporary) twist, where the hero crosses the boundary from the day-to-day mundanity to a world of magic and wonder." -Vancouver Sun