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Sunday was for Harry Potter Staff Reporter

Strand Book Stall conducts quiz, painting contests on child wizard

POTTER PAINTING: The painting by Aditi Shreedhar, which won the first prize in the drawing competition held at the Strand Book Stall. The theme of the day was Harry Potter. BANGALORE: Riding on a hugely popular wave of spellbinding imagination, the Harry Potter adventure books of J.K. Rowling have had a dream run so far. Selling seven million copies is no mean thing. Children simply loved the emergence of an 11-year-old wizard, who is raised by abusive relatives, but one who eventually learns magic from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and confronts his parents' killers. Whatever be the merits and demerits, the Harry Potter story created a sensation, particularly among youngsters and gave a fillip to their reading habits. Replete with stories of imagination, the Potter books even let the children interpret the developments in their own fashion. Potter's supernatural adventures make him one of the hottest characters ever in children's literature. The books are of course, compelling enough to keep teenagers entertained. Pan to Strand Book Stall. The Sunday crowd is on song. The corridor is full of children, eager to make a mark at the pre-release event of Potter's sixth book, due for a July 16 launch. Hundreds register for the quiz contest on Harry Potter. Many more turn up to just be part of the crowd, showing off their fixation with Potter through T-shirts and more. Children in the age group of eight to 17 were the most visible. Their parents were there too. The team of Nishant and Arijit, which won the first prize in the quiz, had reason to be happy. "We are reading Harry Potter books for the last five years. This type of quiz competition is being held for the first time and it is a very good experience. Harry stories have original ideas," they said in tandem. Runners up Akshata Hegde and Vinay Adiga said Harry Potter had already become a religion. "This is the only book that children love and elders admire. The book takes us to a whole new world. The story twists everywhere and goes on unpredictably. It should not be surprising if Harry Potter books eventually take over the cricket craze as well. I have read the Potter books 17 times to date," said Akshata. For Padmini Sreedhar, a parent, the event was interesting and challenging. "My son always used to tell me the story of Harry Potter. It is a good opportunity to check their memory and to win prize in an intelligent way." The event organiser, Vidya Virkar from Strand said Harry Potter had made inroads into the children's imagination. "This programme is a wonderful success. So we are planning to conduct this type of quiz, drawing and other competitions related with the other authors also." In the competitions for drawing and greeting card making, open for children in the age group of 8 to 11 years, Aditi Sreedhar won the first prize while Angana came second.

In the speech contest, Isha and Eshwari emerged as the winners while Nishant, Meghana and Neal were runners up.

Coldplay and Harry Potter help HMV stem fall in sales

MARTIN FLANAGAN
CITY EDITOR

Some People Want a Sneak Peek at 'Potter'
By Scott Martelle
Los Angeles Times

J.K. Rowling's only U.S. media appearances coinciding with the release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" will be a taped interview on NBC's "Today" show and an interview with Time magazine.

For the midnight July 16 release itself, Rowling will do a reading at Scotland's Edinburgh Castle in front of 70 young fans selected by newspapers in England and several other countries (but not the United States). The fans will be given books and will act as journalists for a kids-only news conference with Rowling.

Tight security over the book's release has led to some attempts to bust the embargo. London tabloid the Sun reported that thieves offered to sell it a purloined copy of the book three weeks ago, and that when its reporter arrived gunfire broke out. Two men were arrested. The Sun said it had planned to turn the book over to authorities, and Rowling has since obtained a legal injunction barring anyone from violating the embargo in England.

Earlier, British bookmakers suspended bets on which character would be killed off in the new book after they noticed a flurry of bets on Professor Dumbledore from gamblers in Bungay in Suffolk, where the book is being printed, suggesting details had leaked out.

Harry Potter enjoys a spell in the dictionary

John Ezard
Friday July 1, 2005
The Guardian

Thanks to their astute reading, Harry Potter fans will at least know what is meant if they get accused of lounging around insolently, haphazardly or malevolently as they wait for the latest title, The Half Blood Prince, to hit bookshops in 16 days.

For anyone else who is baffled, passages throwing light on these words and many others appear today in the first children's dictionary to include citations from the best of children's literature.

"Insolent, adjective - very rude and insulting," says the Oxford Primary Dictionary. Then it quotes from The Prisoner of Azkaban: "Malfoy gave Professor Lupin an insolent stare, which took in the patches on his robes and the dilapidated suitcase."

"Haphazardly" is explained by a quote from The Chamber of Secrets: "Mrs Weasley was clattering around, cooking breakfast a little haphazardly, throwing dirty looks at her sons as she threw sausages into the frying pan." And Professor Snape makes "malevolent" easy: "'A bad idea, Professor Lockhart,' said Snape, gliding over like a large and malevolent bat." Dr Samuel Johnson pioneered the use of citations in adult lexicography in 1755 with his first English dictionary. Citations in the Oxford Primary Dictionary range from the Victorian author Charles Kingsley in Westward Ho! ("A thousand birds burst into jubilant song," 1855) to Philip Pullman's use of "brigand" in his new story The Scarecrow and His Servant: "The chief brigand was a ferocious looking man, with two belts full of bullets crisscross over his shoulders." The Oxford Primary's editors say good authors "provide wonderful citations for dictionary definitions because the language and vocabulary they employ is straightforward, descriptive and helps children to understand meaning and context right away."

They add that their "choice of citations from texts children are intimately familiar with sets a fantastic example for children and helps improve their reading and writing skills".

Bookstore hosting party for latest Harry Potter book

Laurie Rathbun

6/30/2005 5:36:45 PM

One minute past the bewitching hour of midnight on July 16, the latest Harry Potter book will go on sale at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Temecula. More than 2,000 people are expected to attend a Midnight Magic Party at the store the evening of July 15 to celebrate the release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling. It's the sixth book in the Harry Potter series. Anxious Harry Potter fans have already reserved 2,872 books at the store, according to assistant manager Cindy Burchard. She said ages 5 to adult love Harry Potter and even some adults have reserved books for themselves. The book will retail at $29.99, but if you reserve one before July 11, you can get it discounted 40 percent at $17.99. Regina Reese, the store's community relations manager, said the Harry Potter books are the most popular children's books they sell. "It's one of the few books that children and adults can read together," she said. "It promotes literacy and that's what it's all about." Reese said the party's free festivities will begin at 9 p.m. and include photos with a wizard in front of a Harry Potter backdrop, wizard passports, face painting, wand making, a costume contest, games and prizes. Refreshments will be for sale also. Everyone is encouraged to attend dressed as a favorite Harry Potter character. The store's staff will be dressed in costume as well. For the release of the last Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," Reese said the store held a similar party. "We had a record number of customers at the last event," she said. The store will be open its regular hours as it prepares for the party. The costume contest will be held in the children's area and the other activities will be at stations set up around the store. Reese said some of the games will be guessing the number of jellybeans in a container and playing the world game Scrabble. She doesn't know yet what the prizes will be. "I'm sure it'll be good stuff," she said. Reese said the book's publisher, Scholastic, Inc., is helping the store host the party. There are guidelines to make it run smoothly. She said numbered wristbands will be distributed at 6 p.m. and party-goers must have a wristband in order to purchase a book. Customers who pre-order a book will receive a yellow wristband and will line up first. All other customers will be given an orange wristband to purchase a book. Adults must accompany children and pre-ordered books must be purchased by July 18. Groups of 25 will go up to cash registers to purchase books and Reese said the store will probably be open until 2:30 a.m. to accommodate all the customers. The store will reopen at 7 a.m. the next morning, which is four hours earlier than normal. Burchard said if any books are left from the party, they will be sold then.

Harry Potter books cast healing magic

A boy wizard's stories helped two sisters briefly escape terminal cancer. Now, their story captivates judges.

By TERRI BRYCE REEVES
Published July 2, 2005

PALM HARBOR - As Olivia Ceraolo lay dying of bone cancer last year, her younger sister needed something to take her mind off the ravaging effects of chemotherapy.

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books provided that relief. Resting in their twin beds, Olivia and Julia would take turns reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix .

"When Olivia was upset or in pain, my mom would tell me, "Talk about something that will cheer her up,"' Julia, 12, recently wrote in an essay.

Olivia, a competitive sailor, violinist, surfer and aspiring poet, died at 16 last October. But in her illness, "Harry Potter would make her chuckle," Julia wrote. "Ms. Rowling brought joy to my sister and continues to help me get through my grief and escape my worries."

Now, Julia's essay is taking her to London for the release of the sixth book in Rowling's series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince . Julia is one of 10 fans ages 9 to 17 nationwide chosen to make the trip after writing about why they loved reading about the boy wizard.

Julia's essay was chosen from more than 8,000 entries in the contest, sponsored by Scholastic books. A combination of the joy she took in reading and the sadness of her sister's death caught judges' attention.

"They built a wonderful bond over these books," Scholastic spokesman Kyle Good said. "Also the books have inspired her to be a writer. Her talents as a budding young writer really came through."

The Tarpon Springs Middle School seventh-grader learned she won Wednesday.

"I almost cried," she said Friday by telephone from New York, just hours after appearing on NBC's Today show. "I was jumping up and down, screaming my head off."

Julia and her mother, Carla, had one day to pack and fly to the Big Apple, where Katie Couric interviewed Julia and two other winners.

During the interview, Couric asked the trio, all wearing wizard hats, two Harry Potter trivia questions.

Julia nailed both.

"I was really nervous during the plane ride and in the hotel," she said. "I was worried I'd make a fool out of myself. But Katie is extremely nice and once I started talking, it was really fun."

Next Julia and her mother will fly - by plane, no broomsticks allowed - from New York to London on July 16. She will board her American Airlines flight at one minute past the stroke of midnight, known to fans as the witching hour. Then she will be handed a free copy the new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to read during the overnight flight.

Scholastic expects the books to soar off the shelves when they go on sale at 12:01 a.m. July 16. The publisher is printing an unprecedented 10.8-million copies initially.

In her essay, Julia wrote, "Without the "magic therapy' of Harry Potter, I wouldn't have been able to get though the unimaginable horror of Olivia's illness."

Two weeks before her death, Olivia received a letter from J.K. Rowling, who had heard of her illness through a friend. Rowling expressed concern, sent birthday wishes and complimented Olivia on her poetry.

Julia, who also has an older brother, senses that Olivia is probably very proud right now. When she was 13, Olivia herself learned how writing could pay off, winning a trip for four to Antigua in a contest.

"She's probably giggling and laughing," she said. "I know this would make her very happy."

Harry Potter fan hopes book will work its magic on Rowling

Lifestyle & Leisure

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Revealed: The eight-year-old girl who saved Harry Potter

Lifestyle & Leisure

Harry Potter author J K Rowling. Picture / Reuters

03.07.05 1.00pm

By John Lawless

It was an eight-year-old girl, not an 11-year-old boy wizard, who rescued J K Rowling from life on 70-a-week (NZ$180) benefits as a divorced single mother. The eagerly anticipated launch next week of her latest book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, will propel Rowling's wealth further beyond the 562m she has already amassed from the record-breaking series. Yet, as Nigel Newton, the chairman of Bloomsbury Publishing reveals today, the first Harry Potter manuscript was rejected by all of his major rivals. And it was only the pester-power of his daughter, Alice - who read a chapter and demanded more - that finally convinced the publisher he had a winner on his hands. The story he tells in a rare personal interview is almost as unlikely as one of Rowling's muggles-and-magic plots. Bloomsbury, the off-beat company named after the 1920s London literary set, was just about the last chance for Rowling to get the original Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone into print. Her agent, Christopher Little, called at Bloomsbury Publishing's cramped offices in Soho Square and gave Newton a sample to read. He took it home but, instead of settling down with it himself, handed it to Alice, then eight years old. "She came down from her room an hour later glowing," Newton recalls, "saying, 'Dad, this is so much better than anything else.' "She nagged and nagged me in the following months, wanting to see what came next." Newton made out a cheque to Joanne Kathleen Rowling for just 2,500 (NZ$6,470), which has since proved one of the wisest investments in publishing history. He had signed up a writer who was to go on to outsell Jackie Collins's steamy blockbusters 10 times in a year. The first Potter book is also on its way to becoming the world's best-selling novel of all time. "It was very fortunate for us," said Newton. "We'd only just started to publish children's books in June 1994. And we hit it lucky." He says "eight others turned J K Rowling down; ie, the whole lot". The not-knowing-what-comes-next factor has created 260 million sales for successive books. Christopher Little is reported to have earned almost 19m in 2002. Daniel Radcliffe, who stars as Harry Potter in the films,became, at 14, the world's youngest millionaire. But Rowling became a dollar billionaire. Forbes magazine estimated her wealth last year at (pounds sterling)562m, reporting that she is "one of only five self-made female billionaires and the first billion-dollar author". Bloomsbury has since invested in other children's books, including a new release of The Popcorn Pirates from Alexander McCall Smith. He admits, though, that the Potter phenomenon is likely to be "a total one-off. There has never been anything like it." It is appropriate that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is to be launched at a glittering ceremony at midnight on 16 July, in the city of Edinburgh where Rowling wrote the original. She completed her first book, Rabbit, at the age of six, and had discarded two adult fiction novels before Harry Potter "simply fell into my head" during a tedious train journey from Manchester in 1990. She had returned to the Scottish capital after living in Portugal, where she had her first child. Harry Potter was penned in a nearby cafe as her daughter, Jessica, slept. Rowling has given a new account of her delight at Bloomsbury's decisive vote of approval on her personal website, explaining that "finally, in August 1996, Christopher telephoned me and told me that Bloomsbury had 'made an offer'. I could not quite believe my ears. 'You mean it's going to be published?' I asked rather stupidly. 'It's definitely going to be published?' After I had hung up, I screamed and jumped into the air." Now aged 40 and remarried, she remains resolutely unfazed by her own amazing story, admitting: "The rewards were disproportionate, but I could see how I got there, so that made it easier to rationalise."

'Harry Potter' works his magic as a library draw July 16 release of 6th book in series has young and old alike signing up to snare a copy as soon as possible

By ANNE MILLER, Staff writer First published: Tuesday, July 5, 2005

This summer, the cool kids are chillin' with Hagrid at the library. Between a heat wave timed to the end of the school year and the latest volume in the best-selling Harry Potter series due out July 16, local libraries are hopping. Advertisement < =1.1 src="http://ads.timesunion.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/www.timesunion.com/aspstories/story.asp/storyid=376378/190543329714@x10!x10"> < =1.1> Libraries report reserve lists stretching from here to Hagrid's hut at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, with another 11 days to go before the book's release. They also have seen more patrons spending hours reading and surfing the Internet during the heat of the day. It's the latest uptick in several years of growing usage at local libraries. Schenectady saw circulation rise 10 percent last year over the year before, and so far it has grown another 15 percent this year. "People have said to me, 'I have to get out of the house,' " said Sereena Butch, Schenectady's coordinator of children's services. Albany city library circulation leaped by almost 150,000 items from 2003 to 2004. But the big news this summer, beyond the heat and the ubiquitous summer reading lists from schools (which also are boosting library use this week), is a certain teenage wizard. Advance orders for the sixth book in the J.K. Rowling series, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," have spun the book to the top of the Amazon.com bestseller list. The five libraries in the Albany city system will collectively buy about 75 books, said Assistant Director Tim Burke. Only "The DaVinci Code" comes close to occupying that much shelf space, he said. The key to understanding the world of wizards lies in understanding kids. Burke's 15-year-old son has grown up with Harry and his spell-casting cohorts. "He's started getting interested in girls and stuff," Burke said of Harry. "There's as much real stuff going on as fantasy." Everyone, it seems, is readying their wands for the big night, which isn't a mere literary allusion at the Albany library. The librarians are throwing a midnight release party for the first 50 lucky patrons whose parents signed permission slips. The midnight release parties originated with bookstores like The Open Door in Schenectady, which encourages even the tiniest muggles, or nonmagic people, to come in costume for a party way past their bedtimes. The bookstore and Proctor's Theatre are joining for a fund-raiser that night. The Open Door will sell books in the theater hallway after a showing of the "Prisoner of Azkaban," the movie version of book three. The bookstore will donate a fifth of its share of the profits to the theater renovation. "I don't see it ending anytime soon," said resident book-buyer Lily Bartels as she leaned against the Young Adult shelves, her elbow resting between Harry Potter books 4 and 5. "This has really captured kids." And adults. Bartels said childless couples have ordered his-and-hers copies, impatient to read it together that very first night. Not everyone wants to hand over the goblin gold for the $29.99 retail price of the book, however. Guilderland youth services librarian Teresa Pavoldi has turned readers toward the library. Others might wait until school opens, and Scholastic Books offers kids the title at a discount.

Even if they want to own the book, they can read it before" by reserving at the library, she said. The mother of three was forced by the orphaned hero to negotiate a little family politicking. Her kids, ages 10, 11 and 14, will share a copy, if they help her find a discounted one. The eldest gets first crack. "Last time she told what happened," Pavoldi said. "But this time she's sworn to secrecy." In Schenectady, Sereena Butch, coordinator of children's services, believes Harry Potter-mania doesn't have quite the magic of two years ago. "I don't have a lot of kids coming in to ask for it," she said. But the libraries still plan on buying upward of 20 versions of the new book. Reservation lists are broaching 200 names with 13 days left. Those at the bottom of the reserve list -- or the family pecking order -- do have one comforting thought. By the time their copies come through and they do see Hagrid the gentle giant again, they, too, can chill.

It probably will be October.