Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone:
1. If Harry is so famous in the wizarding world (people actually bow to him in the streets) why is he forced to live with the evil Dursleys for ten years?
2. Gryffindor looks for loyalty, chivalry and courage. Hufflepuff values friendship, hark work and patience. Ravenclaw picks students with knowledge, intelligence and wit. Slytherin has wizards that are resourceful, cunning and ambitious. Which house would you like to be Sorted into?
3. The Forbidden Forest is off-limits to Hogwarts students but later, it is the place where Harry serves his first detention. Do you think there's been a change in the opinion of Hogwarts officials regarding Harry's ability to handle danger? If so, how did this change come about?
4. How would you spend an afternoon on Diagon Alley? Meeting the goblins at Gringotts? Studying spells at Flourish and Blotts? Testing brooms at Quality Quidditch Supplies?
5. There are some humorous character names at Hogwarts. The three-headed dog is named Fluffy, the Professor of Herbology is Professor Sprout. Can you think of any other examples?
6. While choosing his wand at Ollivanders, Harry finds out that the wand right for him shares a special connection to the wand stold to Voldemort. What do you think this connection symbolizes?
7. The story is told through Harry's view, except for the first chapter which is told through Mr. Dursley's point of view. Why does the author choose to tell us the story with Dursley's thoughts and reactions instead of a third-person story? What does it add to the story?
8. The Mirror of Erised shows the most desperate desire of our hearts. Professor Dumbledore told Harry that if he stood in front of the mirror, he would see himself holding a thair of thick, woolen socks. What would you see?
9. Although he knows he is disobeying an order from a teacher, Harry takes flight on a broomstick during an afternoon class. However, instead of being punished, he is named Gryffindor's Seeker on the Quidditch team. Name other instances when Harry broke the rules but was not punished.
10. Who did you expect Harry to encounter once through the trapdoor? Were you surprised? Recall clues to this identity.
(Questions by Kather O'Connor of LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)