First Mary GrandPre 'Harry Potter' exhibit report online

The first look at Mary GrandPre's new Harry Potter exhibit in Cedar Rapids, Iowa is now online. The report contains numerous images, and a brief discription of the experience of being at the exhibit.

I spent my time circling the room looking at piece after piece. All but one piece, the chess scene, were pencil sketches. Some were familiar because they were used in the books or prints have been available for purchase, but some where completely new. I laughed a little inside at the "School of Magic" covers, thinking to myself what an awful title that would have been. I loved each drawing as my eyes searched each piece for every little detail.

You can see many of the drawings here, via Leaky.

Source: The Leaky Cauldron

Categories: Books, Scholastic, Mary GrandPre



0 Comments
Posted on 19 Nov 2008 by Harsh
Peter Pettigrew: a top-ten best fake death

The infamous return and escape of Peter Pettigrew in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has made The Guardian's list of top-ten best fake deaths in literature.

In the third part of the Potter roman-fleuve, Peter Pettigrew pretends that Sirius Black has killed him, cutting off one of his own fingers to make it seem that the rest of him has been blasted to atoms. For 12 years he adopts the guise of Ron Weasley’s pet rat, Scabbers. But the severed digit gives him away.

To read the full list, click here.

Categories: Movies, Books



0 Comments
Posted on 06 Nov 2008 by Harsh
'Deathly Hallows' nominated for 'Independent Bookseller Award'

The Times is reporting that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has been nominated for an Independent Bookseller Award, in the UK.

The novel has been nominated in the Best Children's Book category. The winner, voted on by the general public, will be announced on Friday, October 31.

Click here to vote for the book yourself.

Categories: Books, Book 7



0 Comments
Posted on 30 Oct 2008 by Harsh
JKR updates site with 'Beedle the Bard' launch news

J.K. Rowling, author of the the Harry Potter series updated her site earlier today with news of the launch of The Tales of Beedle the Bard in Edinburgh, Scotland on December 4th. Ms. Rowling states that a random ballot run by the local newspaper, and contests from Scholastic, Bloomsbury and Amazon are the only way to win tickets to attend the event.

You can go to Scholastic to enter their essay competition. You can go to Bloomsbury (British publisher of the book) and Amazon for additional information on the book.

Proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit the Children's High Level Group, of which Rowling is a founding member.

Categories: Books, JK Rowling



0 Comments
Posted on 28 Oct 2008 by Harsh
New interviews with Scholastic "Harry Potter" staff

Scholastic has updated its official Harry Potter website with a brand new feature, "Quick Quotes Quill," which features serveral extensive Q&A's with key members of Scholastic's Harry Potter team.

One of those interviewed was David Saylor, creative director of the Harry Potter series.

Did you get to read "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" before it came out? Was it hard not being able to talk about Harry Potter secrets with friends and family?

I was one of the few people that was allowed to read the book before it came out, because I was working closely with Mary GrandPre and Arthur Levine on concepts for the cover and chapter opening illustrations, so I had to read the book. It was hard not being able to talk about it, but I was really glad I could share thoughts with Arthur and Mary. It was like a little club. One thing I did learn from my years of working on Harry is that I'm great at keeping secrets!

Each book has a different dominant color. How did you decide which color would be good for each book

For most of the books I had a color scheme in mind, based on something that came through in the story. For example, on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, there were specific scenes in the book that dictated the color palette that Mary and I wanted to use. Because J. K. Rowling's descriptions are so clear and easily imagined, it wasn't hard to come up with a color scheme. And from the beginning, the palette of the books was based on the “jewel tones” of Mary's artwork: ruby reds, deep amethyst purple, dark sapphires and emeralds.

To read the full interview with Mr. Saylor, click here. And to see all the interviews, click here.

Categories: Books, Scholastic



0 Comments
Posted on 19 Oct 2008 by Harsh
J.K. Rowling talks 'Hallows' ending in interview for 'Harry, A History'

Melissa Anelli has posted yet another part of one of the many interviews she conducted with J.K. Rowling in preparations for her new book, Harry, A History, this one concerns Harry's fate in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

JKR: In many ways it would have been a neater ending to kill him. For sure, I knew that all along. felt that the books' overriding message was that love is the most powerful force in this world. My model with Harry really was war veterans, who have seen horrors and are asked to go home and rebuild, and go back to ordinary life and care for a family, be a father - particularly be a father - [it is] a difficult job, in troubled times. I felt it would be a betrayal of my character if I did anything other than show him doing that. And I think it's an absolutely heroic thing to do, to go home after that, not to become a mercenary, not to live forever frozen in a time of excitement and danger, but to be mentally strong enough, to an extent physically strong enough, to return from war and to raise a new generation with values that you hope will not lead to another war. That's massive.

Of course you can say, yes, to an extent, as ever in life, that's the eternal paradox. What's is most worthwhile may well be seen as slightly dull, but God knows without those people who were prepared to come home and raise the family and rebuild, help rebuild... rebuilding is much more difficult than destroying. So, I felt it was almost a cop-out, morally, to kill him. I wanted to show a man who, yeah, he went back and got his hands dirty and tried to rebuild. I liked that. And again, it made a lot of people were livid, but God knows by that time I was used to that by then!

To check out the website for the book, click here, and look for it when it hits bookstores Nov. 4 in the U.S. In the meantime, you can also feel free to preorder it via Amazon at a 40% discount.

Categories: Books, JK Rowling, Cast and Crew



0 Comments
Posted on 11 Oct 2008 by Harsh
JK Rowling tops Forbes' highest paid authors list

J.K. Rowling has topped Forbes list of highest paid authors, making an astounding $300 million in the last year, and a whole $250 million more than the second place author, James Patterson. This marking another milestone in the life of J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter.

Once a single mother on welfare, Rowling can now claim best-selling billionaire status thanks to her Harry Potter franchise. The adventures of the teen magician and his Hogwarts classmates took the publishing world by storm in 1998, when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone became a bona fide hit. In the decade since, it and the six subsequent books in the series have sold 375 million-plus copies worldwide. Over on the big screen, her Potter franchise has already generated $4.5 billion at the worldwide box office--and she still has three more flicks to come.

Other authors on the list included, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, and Danielle Steel.

Congratulations Jo!

Categories: Books, JK Rowling, Cast and Crew



0 Comments
Posted on 03 Oct 2008 by Harsh
Paperback Deathly Hallows Cover Art
The cover artwork of the paperback edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will be published by Scholastic on July 7th, 2009, has been released with the tag line “The Breathtaking Series Finale.”  This version of the book will have 784 pages, an initial print run of 2 million copies and be priced at $14.99.

You can check out the cover art via The Daily Snitcher here!

Categories: Book 2, Book 7



0 Comments
Posted on 30 Sep 2008 by Harsh
College starts 'Battling Against Voldemort' course

MTV has a new article online, focusing on the classes being taught at Swarthmore College. In particular, one course Battling Against Voldemort has become so popular, they have developed a lottery system to assign who can enter the course.

"They analyze each book, looking at themes and metaphors, reading up on scholarly perspectives, going over Jungian archetypes. For a discussion of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, they were guided by a critical essay by Veronica Schanoes, called "Cruel Heroes and Treacherous Texts," to explore the ambiguities in the constructions of good and evil and the unreliable narratives of Harry's world. It made students understand that even Harry himself can be an unreliable narrator."

They also discuss some deeper matters, such as what may have become of Umbridge after she was carried away by the centaurs in Order of the Phoenix:

"Haven't we been led to believe that the difference between Death Eaters and those who are not is the use of the Unforgivable Curses?" Finberg asked the class when the discussion turned to Harry's usage of the torturing Cruciatus curse."He uses it on Bellatrix; he uses it on Carrow," Hannah Edelman observed. "He also uses the [controlling] Imperius curse." "He is just really upset when he uses that curse on Bellatrix," Matlock said. "I don't think that means he's a bad person. It just means he's more human.""Do you think J.K. Rowling is playing with us?" Matt Bowers asked. "Do you think she's telling us, 'Look, you thought Harry was a good guy, but what if this were from the point of view of Draco?' "But Harry would never use [the killing curse] Avada Kedavra," Soares argued. "This is really dorky, but a hero, like Superman would never kill Lex Luther." The class laughed."

To view the video report, click here.

Categories: Other Stuff, Movies, Books



0 Comments
Posted on 27 Sep 2008 by Harsh
Sorcerer's Stone Readathon Live Webcast
The Tenth Anniversary edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is now on sale in the U.S., and of course to mark this day Scholastic is doing a fan readathon from their headquarters in New York.

You can watch the readathon live online here!

Categories: Books, Book 1



0 Comments
Posted on 24 Sep 2008 by Harsh
Scholastic to Release US Paperback Edition of "Deathly Hallows" July, 2009

Scholastic has issued a press release heralding the good news that they will be releasing the paperback edition of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” on July 7, 2009. The US publishers of the Harry Potter series note that this will see an initial print run of 2 million copies, which will “bring the total number of the seven Harry Potter books in print to over 143 million in the U.S. alone.”

“We have another big year planned for Harry,” said Ellie Berger, President of Trade, Scholastic. “As we look toward the tenth anniversary of the U.S. publication of J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel, we are thrilled to continue to bring Harry Potter to fans of all ages in new and exciting ways.”

A reminder that today, the Tenth Anniversary edition of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” will be formally released by Scholastic, and the special Cover to Cover read-a-thon will begin at 8am at www.scholastic.com/readharry. Also, December 4 of this year, the highly anticipated “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” by J.K. Rowling will be published, with proceeds to benefit the Children’s High Level group charity. You can learn more about “Beedle the Bard”via this link at Scholastic. The UK paperback version  from Bloomsbury has already been printed and is availible worldwide.

Categories: Books, Book 7, Scholastic



0 Comments
Posted on 23 Sep 2008 by Harsh
JK Rowling gives £1 million to British Labor Party
Harry Potter author JK Rowling has donated £1 million ($1.83 million) to the Labor Party in the United Kingdom, in a rather personal appeal she hopes will highlight the plight of the poor.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's ruling party is facing strong opposition from the Conservative Party there and Rowling's very public interjection may help sway the public's favor:

"The Labor government has reversed the long-term trend in child poverty, and is one of the leading EU countries in combating child poverty," said the nation's richest author, whose fortune was recently estimated at 560 million pounds.

"David Cameron's promise of tax perks for the married, on the other hand, is reminiscent of the Conservative government I experienced as a lone parent."

"It sends the message that the Conservatives still believe a childless, dual-income, but married couple is more deserving of a financial pat on the head than those struggling, as I once was, to keep their families afloat in difficult times."

The Conservative Party there leads by 20 points in a recent opinion poll.

Brown said that his Labor Party will "stand beside and help" the people of Britain in the difficult times ahead, referring primarily to the unstable world economy. "You can leave people on their own. Or you could choose to stand beside people."

"I believe that poor and vulnerable families will fare much better under the Labor Party than they would under a Cameron-led Conservative Party," said Rowling.

Categories: Books, JK Rowling, Cast and Crew



0 Comments
Posted on 22 Sep 2008 by Harsh