[NOTD] News Of The Day 11/05/07

Poetic Potter Writers Wanted for New Online Contest

New, used and out-of-print online bookseller AbeBooks.com is holding a poetry contest to find the best 'Potter Poet.' A one-of-a-kind, hand crafted Harry Potter bookshelf, made from what else but... the Harry Potter books themselves, will we awarded to writer of the best overall poem as judged by AbeBooks staff.

To enter the contest, we want you to compose a poem dedicated to Harry Potter. It can be anything from a limerick to a haiku to a love poem to an elegy to a sonnet. Be creative – the finest poem about the Boy Wizard will win and we'll also publish the best ones on AbeBooks. There is no limitation on length. You can enter up to three times separately but each entry must contain just one poem.

The contest closes July 6th and the winner will be announced on July 10th. The prize itself will be shipped to the winner before July 21st, just in time for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Complete rules and entry information can be found here, along with information on the American book sculptor, Jim Rosenau.

New U.K. "Order of the Phoenix" Trailer Now Online

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the Cell Phone Game

IGN.com is reporting today about the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix video game, only this time about the mobile version of the game that you can play on your cell phones. At an event held recently, the website had a chance to preview this platform of the game from Electronic Arts, noting "there is about two hours of gameplay in the Phoenix story mode, plus extra goodies, such as a standalone wizard battle component." The report also says:

Visually, Phoenix is one of the more impressive mobile games I have seen. The game employs some fantastic lighting effects, such as pools of torchlight that aren't just painted on the floor, but are actual light sources that cast a glow on characters as they walk beneath them. Even better, the lighting tech is actually in service of the game -- it's not just window dressing. In one level, Harry must sneak across Hogwart's during the night, avoiding detection by Slytherin patrols. You must duck in and out of the shadows, making sure that you are completely out of the illuminated zones before one of the Syltherin "thugs" spots you.

You can see some screens of this mobile game, here.

On a related note, Gamespot has another review of the OotP game on the Wii platform, here.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" Rated PG-13?