What was the title of J.K. Rowling’s first published children’s novel?

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was J.K. Rowling’s first published children’s novel. Bloomsbury released it in Britain on 26 June 1997, introducing Harry, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the central conflict with Lord Voldemort.

The book follows Harry during his first year at Hogwarts, where he makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and learns about his parents’ history. It combines school-story conventions with fantasy, mystery, and coming-of-age elements. The novel’s success led to six sequels and a worldwide publishing franchise.

American readers know the same book by a different title: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Scholastic changed the wording for the US edition because editors believed “sorcerer” would be more immediately understandable to American children. The plot and characters are otherwise the same, so the British title is the canonical answer when asking for Rowling’s first published novel.