Every Harry Potter Book Ranked From Worst To Best

5. The Philosopher's Stone

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Cover
Bloomsbury

The book that started it all. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone immersed millions of people - and in particular children - in a world of magic, leaving them desperate to one-day receive their own Hogwarts letter (still waiting...).

As introductions go, this is genius. There's just enough tantalising hints of magic in those opening chapters to make you want to see more, while the treatment of Harry makes him a protagonist instantly worth rooting for. But it's when the series introduces Hagrid - "yer a wizard Harry" - and whisks us off to Diagon Alley that the real fun begins.

Reading the book for the first time (or, let's be honest, the 20th) gives the audience a sense of wide-eyed wonder, with oddball characters, magical locations, and an engrossing mystery. J.K. Rowling has said that Harry arrived fully-formed in her head; with this book, he's perfectly transferred to our own.

The major drawback to this one is that it is a children's book, and you can really tell. Rowling's style hadn't fully developed, and we're left with a book that - like Chamber of Secrets - is really quite thin, lacking the depth some of the later novels would have.

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Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.