'the sorcerer's stone'

Imagine discovering that someone loved you so much they gave up their own life to save you. Now imagine that in so doing, they also broke the power of the most evil entity ever known and left that being a shattered remnant of his former self. This is of course, the basis for this, the first Harry Potter novel, but it is also a very direct reference to the Christian faith and its foundational beliefs in Jesus Christ.

The parallels continue with stunning force that it's amazing public schools actually encourage children to read this and other books by J.K. Rowling, especially given the absence of other blatantly religious literature by men like John Bunyan and Daniel Defoe. As Harry becomes aware of his mother's sacrifice and what it meant, he also becomes aware of a much deeper reality that he has existed in all his life even though he has never known of it until now.

Following this "conversion" experience, Harry is whisked off to Hogwart's, where he learns more about the deeper reality he now is aware of, particularly the power of love to drive out evil and to redeem. This is religious allegory on a level not seen since the days of C.S. Lewis and his "Chronicles of Narnia."

Still, if you can put aside the overt religious themes of the book, you're in for a very pleasant experience. Although "Sorcerer's Stone" is by no means the strongest of the four Harry Potter books published so far -- it spends a long time on setup, and develops neither plot nor characters as well as Rowling's later novels -- it's no slouch either.

While at Hogwart's Harry encounters pretty much every variety of menace and friend known to early adolescence: there's the teacher who doesn't like you, the know-it-all girl, the bully, the best friend, the class clown, and of course the stern and loving teachers like Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore.

Although the menace Harry ultimately must face is worse than any bogeyman I can recall from my middle school days, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is a magical fantasyland romp through the world of a teenager, told through the eyes of a teenager. Read it with your teen or preteen, and you'll have plenty of chances to talk with them about their own problems and the people they have to contend with at school each day.

And if you want to talk with them about matters of eternal nature, this book presents the chance to do that as well.