Harris Bin Potter and the Stoned Philosopher by Suffian Hakim is a hilarious, Singaporean parody of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling, that has both unexpected plot twists (even when it follows the plot of the original book) and satirizes both the original book and the lengths racist people go to to be racist.
Harris Bin Potter, like Harry Potter, lives with his aunt, uncle, and cousin and sleeps in a cupboard (under a sink instead of stairs here), and is famous as the Boy who Tak Mati, Siol!, translated as the boy who’s not dead, yay!
One day, Harris is visited by Hamid who reveals that Harris is actually a wizard, and Harris enrolls in Singapore’s, Ministry of Education approved, Hog-Tak-Halal-What School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However, That-Evil-Bastard-Lah-You-Should-Know-Who-I’m-Talking-About is still out there, and he has created the evilest spell of all, Chan Mali Chan, in an attempt to take away the magic of all he thinks does not deserve magic (i.e. Malay people). The plot culminates in an intense match of void deck football (here, meaning soccer) where Harris has to defeat Oldermat or die trying.
This book was filled with nostalgic and funny references to everyday Singapore culture, while teaching me some Malay. It has quips scattered throughout, some that take a jab at the original Harry Potter, that made me laugh out loud multiple times (It does have a few inappropriate jokes though, so be warned).
Beloved characters from the original series have fun twists on their name, like Padma and Parvati Patil being named iPadma and iPodma in this book. The book also showed that it’s ridiculous to be prejudiced against someone based on their race, as one character says, “race does not determine your culture” (Hakim 62). It was a really insightful theme hidden under humor and an almost silly plot, and definitely relates to the world today, no matter where you live.
All in all, this was an amazing read and worth my time to read. It is a fresh, new take on the original Harry Potter series that does not take itself too seriously to be stifling. However, I would only recommend this book to Harry Potter fans living in Singapore or who know some Malay, because knowledge of the original book and Singaporean culture is needed to fully appreciate the fun of this book.
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