The Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the first book of the series.  This is when Harry discovers that he is a wizard, and is able to abandon the Dursleys for most of the year--and instead go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which soon becomes his home away from home.  He finds the most important friends he will get at Hogwarts: Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.  He also meets the headmaster of Hogwarts-Albus Dumbledore.  Some highlights in his first year are receiving his invisibility cloak, and playing on the Gryffindor Quidditch team as seeker.  He faces many conflicts in his first year such as battling a full grown mountain troll, dealing with potions master Severus Snape and the initial conflict with Draco Malfoy, trying to find the secret of the sorcerer’s stone (which he finds produces the Elixir of Life and its current owner is Nicholas Flammel), and finding out exactly what the Mirror of Erised is.  Harry has a battle with Voldemort (who is so weak he must live off of the back of Professor Quirrel’s head) for the first time since his attempted murder.  It turns out that the love that lives inside of Harry is stronger than the power of Voldemort and Quirrel combined, which allows Harry to turn the body into tiny bits of stone, therefore making Voldemort a spirit once more.  Unfortunately, Dumbledore says that there are ways that Voldemort can return, and the Sorcerer’s stone will be destroyed because of the trouble it caused.   Even though he must return back to the Dursley’s at the end of the year, Harry decides that he’s “not going home…not really”.