In some places it's too simple for the thoughtful adult reader, but as an entry point for a children's series, it needs to lay everything out in a simple manner for all the young'uns to understand and get on board. As we all know, the books build in complexity as the characters and those first young readers grow older.

(Tangent: I once wondered how that would work once all the books were out. If a child at the proper age for Philosopher's Stone started with the story and then had all six further books immediately available to him or her, would the child grow bored with the series as the complexity outgrew his/her current reading level? Would a child at the reading and maturity level of PS and CoS care at all about the behemoth that is Order of the Phoenix?

One little girl actually answered that question for me. I was running a summer reading club at a library when Order of the Phoenix was released. The day after the release, a small bespectacled girl of about eight or nine chatted me up about Harry Potter, and about how she had lined up at the bookstore the previous morning to get it, and how now, a day and a half later, she had already finished the whole thing and loved it. So I guess that answers that. Impressive little girl.)

Anyway, back to where I was. Though simple (sometimes deceptively so, which I love), the book is packed full of charm. Its wide appeal, I believe, can at least partly be attributed to the school framework -- the young readers are already there, and the adult readers were once there, and we all know what it's like to the point where we immediately sympathize with Ron, Harry, and Hermione, we immediately understand the broad brush strokes of characterization for the teachers, for Malfoy and his gang, for Dumbledore, for Fred and George, for Filch, for everything. However simple some things in this book are, it's still a fantastic starting point for the series.

When I say simple, I don't mean the writing style; that was on the simple side, but it wasn't off-puttingly so. I mean the fact that these young children, all of 11 years old, are able to do the things they do. They have to, because the book is about them, but it's hard to believe that with all the incredible magic that's out there, the traps guarding the Philosopher's Stone are all things that first-year students with very little magical knowledge can get past.

Yes, you can argue that they only got past Fluffy because of their friendship with Hagrid; the chess was beaten because Ron is good at chess; the logic and plants because Hermione is very smart; the keys because Harry is a great Seeker. But the point is, these things are set up for the children to succeed. They are supposed to be able to keep powerful dark wizards out. So that necessary simplicity is what I see as one of the book's few downsides for the adult reader.

All in all, however, it's a lovely little book, and lays the groundwork for a lot of what's to come.