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Write or illustrate a Potter scene

HEY, HARRY POTTER fans! Enter our Harry Potter Contest. Write or illustrate a scene you'd like to see in the first chapter of Book Six, "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince," being released at midnight July 16. We'll publish the best entries in the newspaper and award the authors passes to Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo. To refresh your memory, Book 5, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," published two years ago, ends with Harry bidding friends Ron and Hermione farewell as they promise to help him escape his awful relatives. What do you think will happen next? Written submissions MUST be typewritten and no longer than 250 words. Put your name, age, hometown and daytime phone number at the bottom. Entries will be judged in two age groups: 8 to 12 and 13 to 17. Illustrations should be submitted on 81/2-by-11 paper with the artist's contact information mentioned above on the back. Drawings accompanied by a self-addressed envelope will be returned. Written entries will not be returned. (Relatives of employees of ANG Newspapers are not eligible.) Entries must be received in our office by 5 p.m. July 12. E-mail entries to living@angnewspapers.com or mail them to: Harry Potter Contest/Bay Area Living, 4770 Willow Road, Pleasanton, CA 94566. Questions? Call (925) 416-4856.

Retailers punt new Harry Potter as 'biggest book ever'

Deborah Haynes | London
26 June 2005 10:21
<>ad_script('MGnBrN','dmg','MGnBrN.Bus','10','220x240'); < =1.1 src="http://a.coza.com/js.ng/site=MGnBrN&affiliate=dmg&target=MGnBrN.Bus&=10&adsize=220x240&number=-5DDS1119792726592-0.12223238886297788"> Harry Potter fever is gripping book stores across the world in the countdown to next month's launch of the sixth volume in the boy wizard series, which looks set to become the biggest-selling novel ever. Multimillionaire author Joanne "JK" Rowling is due to unveil Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at a special ceremony in Edinburgh Castle, Scotland, at midnight (11pm GMT) on the morning of July 16. In preparation, millions of copies of Potter's latest adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry are rolling off the printers ready to hit bookstands from London to New York, Tokyo to New Delhi. "It is just going to be fantastic," said Lucy Holden, head of children's publicity at British firm Bloomsbury, the original publisher of the collection, noting that at least 1 000 book stores in Britain alone were expected to open their doors at midnight to sell the first copies to fans. Bloomsbury will also release the spell-binding edition in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore, while United States publisher Scholastic will serve up the book to a hungry audience in the United States. English-language versions will also be available on the day in other countries, with translated manuscripts due out a few months later, said Holden, adding that Harry Potter and his battle against the evil powers of Voldemort was particularly popular in India, China and Japan. Book shops and online retailers are preparing for record-breaking sales from the instalment and a price war has erupted in Britain as they compete to pull in as many Potter addicts -- both young and old -- as possible. Most are also promising free gifts and special entertainment on the big day. "We are expecting it to be the biggest book ever," said a spokesperson for Waterstones, Britain's main independent book chain, which has already taken a huge number of pre-orders for the sixth chapter in Harry Potter's life. "It is the biggest event this year. Looking at other big literary launches there is not anything that comes close to it," she said, requesting anonymity. At midnight, Waterstones plans to open two-thirds of its outlets -- 140 stores -- across Britain and throw a string of Harry Potter parties, with many fans expected to turn up dressed as their favourite characters from the series such as the bespeckled star himself or his two best friends, the red-haired Ron Weasley and brainy Hermione Granger. WH Smith, Britain's biggest book seller, is counting on a magical boost from the Harry Potter craze as well, and will open 390 stores at witching hour, said a company spokesperson. "It's huge. This is probably the biggest book of the year," she said, adding that the company had also received a high number of pre-orders for the book, while declining to disclose an actual figure. Similar spells have been cast over supermarket giant Asda and family entertainment retailer Woolworths, which both slashed the average 9,99-pound (€15, $18) price of the book to 8,9 and 8,99 respectively. Dan Brown's conspiracy thriller The Da Vinci Code was Asda's best-selling novel last year and company spokesperson Nick Agarwal predicted Harry Potter would beat that figure three-fold on the opening day alone. The talented young wizard's adventures "are the biggest game in town as far as books are concerned," said Agarwal. "This year, in terms of book sales, is all about Harry Potter there is nothing else that touches it." The series -- which has already spawned three blockbuster movies, with a fourth due out in November -- has also enchanted sales at online retailers such as market leader, Amazon.co.uk, which guarantees all pre-ordered copies will be delivered on July 16. Amazon spokesperson Damian Peachey said the firm had received more than 200 000 orders in Britain, while US parent, Amazon.com, had bypassed the half-million mark, and he predicted that volume would grow as the launch date approached. "It is all to play for in the next three weeks," Peachey said. - Sapa-AFP

thansk a lot......... that is such a kool news.........

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince - 19 Days To Go

Amazon claim that they have more than one million pre-orders of Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince.There are 19 days until Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince is published. That's 19 days until millions of children and under-developed adults can rush out to bookshops and find out if Harry's got a new badge for his blazer, or something.

Just kidding, although people are getting worked up into a frenzy by the new book. Amazon claim that they have more than one million pre-orders of Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince.

Harry Potter's exploits have sold more copies than any other book, after the Bible and the thoughts of Chairman Mao. Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix made J.K Rowling an estimated 30 million. She's holding a special Willy Wonka-esque reading and press conference especially for children the minute the book goes on sale. The event will be globally broadcast. But why all the fuss?

There are all kinds of rumours floating round about the new book. hecklerspray will now list some of these rumours and give a Truth Score - a high score means the rumour is more likely to be true.

Bear in mind though, we've only read the first chapter of the second book and - although we've seen all the movies - we've fallen asleep through ever single one of them. So we're not really experts.

Rumour 1 - Harry and Malfoy will team up. Malfoy's the boy that looks like Zak Morris from Saved By The Bell. They'll probably team up. And kill someone bad. An anagram of 'Malfoy' is 'My Loaf'. Maybe they'll kill a big bread monster. Truth Score - 8.

Rumour 2 - Harry will try to kill Voldemort. Voldemort - we're guessing - is Harry's Dad. And you can't kill your Dad. Unless you're that screaming fat girl from Coronation Street. And Harry's not. So this will not happen. At all. Truth Score - 0.

Rumour 3 - Hedwig turns evil. Hedwig's the owl, right? Owls don't need to turn evil, they're evil already. All that turning their heads round and pooing mouse bones and stuff freaks us out, frankly. Evil, evil birds. Truth Score - 9.

Rumour 4 - Ron and Hermione will become a couple. Not a chance. Ron is ginger. Ginger people are ridiculous. Truth Score - 2.

Rumour 5 - J.K Rowling will become so rich from this book that she'll build a million metre-tall solid gold statue of herself that rotates so that it always faces the sun. Truth Score - 10.

We hope we haven't spoilt the book too much for you.

Man Denies Harry Potter Theft Plot

By Andrew Barrow, PA

A 38-year-old man appeared in court today and denied being part of a plot to sell two stolen copies of the latest book in the Harry Potter saga.

Christopher Brown pleaded not guilty at Kettering Magistrates' Court, Northants, to charges of helping in the theft of two copies of the book and of brandishing an extendable cosh in front of a newspaper reporter who was allegedly in negotiations to take the books.

Wearing a blue shirt and navy tie, Brown, of Tresham Street, Kettering, spoke only to confirm his name and address and enter the not guilty pleas to the two charges – one of "assisting in the detention or removal" of the stolen books and one of possession of an offensive weapon.

Magistrate Sheila Fairweather ruled that the court did not have sufficient powers to handle the case and ordered Brown be tried at Northampton Crown Court.

He was released on unconditional bail until August 8.

Brown and co-accused Aaron Lambert are alleged to have offered two stolen copies of the JK Rowling book to Sun newspaper reporter John Askill on June 3 this year.

Lambert, 19, also from Tresham Street, is due before Northampton Crown Court on October 10 accused of possessing an imitation firearm, a replica handgun, with intent to cause Mr Askill to fear unlawful violence.

He is also charged with stealing two copies of the book, Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince, from a distribution centre in nearby Corby.

The two men were charged on June 3 after an armed police operation to recover the books from Tresham Street.

Potter author JK Rowling has since won a High Court injunction to stop details of her eagerly-awaited latest book emerging.

The novel, due to be published on July 16, has already caused controversy after heavy betting on the identity of a major character supposedly killed off in it.

Bookmakers suspended betting last month amid fears that the manuscript had been leaked after thousands of pounds were laid on the Hogwarts headteacher, Professor Dumbledore.

JUNE 26, 2005 at 9:36 P

Yates having a 'fantastic time' with 'Harry Potter'

Posted by GERI
Source: The Herald

Harry Potter, here I come!

27 June 2005
Ten-year-old Ani Morison of Seddon doesn't need a flying car to meet J K Rowling, the author of the phenomenally popular Harry Potter series.

Ani and her mother Charlene will be flying to see Rowling in a jumbo jet instead, after being announced the winner of a newspaper competition.

She will be the only New Zealand child to attend the Edinburgh launch of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the sixth book in the Harry Potter series.

In just over two weeks, together with a group of 70 children from around the world, Ani will be taken to Edinburgh Castle in a horse and carriage, where the children will share a special banquet with Rowling.

The prize comes as a turnaround in fortunes for the family, who moved to Seddon, 25km south-east of Blenheim, after the farm property Mr Morison was managing last was affected by last year's floods.

And while Ani's younger brother is more than a little envious of her once in a lifetime overseas jaunt, he had his own windfall recently when he won tickets to the Lions match against Wellington earlier this month.

Man in Court Over Harry Potter Book Theft

andPOP) - A secret plot, a shoddy tabloid reporter, a thief, a book, a gunshot and a trial. Only Harry Potter mania could produce such amazing real life drama.

A 38-year-old man pleaded not guilty Monday to plotting to sell two stolen copies of J.K. Rowling's much-anticipated new book, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Christopher Brown appeared at Kettering Magistrates' Court in central England to face charges of helping in the theft of two copies of the book and of possessing an offensive weapon.

During the brief hearing, Brown, who lives in Kettering, spoke only to confirm his name, address and plea.

Magistrate Sheila Fairweather said magistrates do not have enough power to try the case and ordered Brown to appear for trial at Northampton Crown Court on Aug. 8. He was released on bail.

Brown and co-accused Aaron Lambert were arrested on June 3 as they allegedly tried to sell a copy of the book to John Askill, a reporter from The Sun newspaper.

Police allege that the men tried to sell stolen copies of the book to two tabloid newspapers and fired a gun next to Askill's head when he came to meet them. Askill was not injured.

Lambert, 19, is due to appear at Northampton Crown Court on Oct. 10 accused of possessing an imitation firearm, a replica handgun, with intent to cause Askill to fear violence.

He is also charged with stealing two copies of the book from a distribution centre in nearby Corby.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince will be released on July 16.

For all of you who don't read the Potter books, continue to forget important Harry Potter character info, or just want some help preparing for either Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince or Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, then these Potter character profiles may be right up your alley.

Harry Potter Character Info

I don't know how information such as this ends up at FindLaw, but they currently offer a great article that features character summaries on Harry Potter characters such as Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Albus Dumbledore, Lord Voldemort, Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape, Rubeus Hagrid, Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, the Dursley's, and the Weasley's.

However, be warned if you have not read all five books leading up to Half-Blood Prince, as some of the character summaries do contain some major spoilers. Besides that, the summaries are great and do a nice, and short, job of summing most of the major characters. My only problem with the list is that it should have included Sirius Black, Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Remus Lupin, plus a couple of other students who really began to shine in Order of the Phoenix.

RON WEASLEY: Ron is one of Harry's two best friends at Hogwarts, and a Gryffindor. Tall, with red hair and freckles, he is sometimes envious of Harry's fame, and is embarrassed by his family's lack of wealth. He and Harry stopped speaking for a while after Harry was entered into a magical competition in Book 4, but they made up after Ron realized that Harry was in danger. Ron is deathly afraid of spiders, ever since his older brother turned his teddy bear into one when Ron was a toddler. He's now a Gryffindor prefect, on the Quidditch team, and as always, right there in the thick of things with Harry. There also seems to be a thing developing between him and Hermione Granger.

HERMIONE GRANGER: This Gryffindor, Harry's other best friend, is by far the smartest student of her year. With bushy hair and formerly large teeth (she had them shrunk in Book 4), Hermione can sometimes be a know-it-all but is always a good friend to Harry. She's despised by some - especially Hogwarts student Draco Malfoy, who dislikes Hermione because her parents are Muggles (nonmagical). She tends toward the rule-abiding, and wishes Harry wouldn't be quite so willing to court trouble, but she's always got her wand out, ready to do her part when the time comes.

These character summaries for Harry Potter are a nice resource for all the fans and partial-fans out there. To read all the character summaries for Harry Potter, go to FindLaw

For more info on the movie, go to the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Movie Page.

http://www.spiritdaily.comRIMSTING, Germany, June 27, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As the sixth issue of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - is about to be released, the news that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prior to his elevation to the Pontificate, had denounced the wildly popular series has resurfaced. In 2003, a month after the English press throughout the world falsely proclaimed that Pope John Paul II approved of Harry Potter, the man who was to become his successor sent a letter to a Catholic German critic of Harry Potter outlining his agreement with her opposition to Rowling's offerings.

As Amazon books touted over a million pre-orders for the newest in the Potter series, Spiritdaily.com, a Catholic news website with the flair of the DrudgeReport, recalled a German magazine article speaking of a letter from Cardinal Ratzinger to German Potter critic Gabriele Kuby.

That letter came to Kuby on March 7, 2003. A month before papers around the world were littered with false headlines such as "Pope Approves Potter" (Toronto Star), "Pope Sticks Up for Potter Books" (BBC), "Harry Potter Is Ok With The Pontiff" (Chicago Sun Times) and "Vatican: Harry Potter's OK with us" (CNN Asia). The stories were based on an off-hand comment in favour of the Potter books by a Vatican spokesman at a press conference on the release of a Vatican document on the New Age. (See the LifeSiteNews.com coverage: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/feb/03020703.html">http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/feb/03020703.html )

A 1993 German-language interview with Kuby, the author of "Harry Potter - gut oder bse" (Harry Potter- good or evil?), by Zenit news summarizes Kuby's objections to Potter neatly as its theme being "My Will be done' opposed to 'Thy Will be done". In that interview Kuby readily admits that many people, Catholics included, do not see the dangers she sees in the Potter series. "I have no desire to see and depict devils where there are none, but when I see with my own eyes, when my intelligence and heart inform me, that there is a devil painted on a wall even though most everyone else sees on this same wall one flowery wallpaper design, then I feel obliged to give witness to the truth , whether convenient or unwelcome. There is such a thing as public deception - we Germans know about that," she says. (See the German Zenit interview http://www.zenit.org/german/visualizza.phtml?sid=4...">http://www.zenit.org/german/visualizza.phtml?sid=4... )

The main thrust of Kuby's objection to Potter is that the books corrupt the hearts of the young, preventing them from developing a properly ordered sense of good and evil, thus harming their relationship with God while that relationship is still in its infancy.

In the Zenit interview, Kuby quotes from the letter she received from Cardinal Ratzinger. In the letter, then-Cardinal Ratzinger specifically pointed to the fact that the danger in the Potter books is hidden was greatly concerning. "It is good that you shed light and inform us on the Harry Potter matter, for these are subtle seductions that are barely noticeable and precisely because of that deeply affect (children) and corrupt the Christian faith in souls even before it (the Faith) could properly grow and mature," said Cardinal Ratzinger.

Kuby's Potter criticism also received recognition in Germany from the city of Munich's office of Youth affairs, which at the time made headlines for indicating that the Potter books were not fit for children.

Regarding the harm to children from the Potter books, Kuby again quotes Cardinal Ratzinger's letter saying, "That they (children) are being cut off from God, the source of Love and Hope , so that they in sorrowful life conditions are without a foundation that supports them -that they lose the spirit of discernment between good and evil and that they will not have the necessary strength and knowledge to withstand the temptations to evil."

The most prominent Potter critic in North America, Catholic novelist and painter Michael O'Brien commented to LifeSiteNews.com on the comments of now-Pope Benedict saying, "This discernment on the part of Benedict XVI reveals the Holy Father's depth and wide ranging gifts of spiritual discernment." O'Brien, author of a book dealing with fantasy literature for children added, "it's consistent with many of the statements he's been making since his election to the Chair of Peter, indeed for the past 20 years - a probing accurate read of the massing spiritual warfare that is moving to a new level of struggle in western civilization. He is a man in whom a prodigious intellect is integrated with great spiritual gifts. He is the father of the universal church and we would do well to listen to him."

See O'Brien's essay analyzing the Potter series:
http://www.lifesite.net/features/harrypotter/obrie...">http://www.lifesite.net/features/harrypotter/obrie...

See the LifeSiteNews.com Harry Potter controversy page:
http://www.lifesite.net/features/harrypotter">http://www.lifesite.net/features/harrypotter

See Gabriele Kuby's, Michael O'Brien and Spiritdaily's websites:
http://www.gabriele-kuby.de/">http://www.gabriele-kuby.de/
http://www.studiobrien.com/">http://www.studiobrien.com
http://www.spiritdaily.com/">http://www.spiritdaily.com