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HARRY
POTTER AND THE ROYAL TREATMENT The names of the people who are chosen to receive such special honors as OBEs or a knighthood are announced twice each year in England --- at the New Year and on the Queen's birthday in June. The recipients are announced as The Queen's Honours, but are also approved by England's Prime Minister. Those people who have been selected receive their actual awards at Buckingham Palace at one of 20 investiture services throughout the year, presided over by Queen Elizabeth or Prince Charles. Rowling's name was announced on the list in June 2000, but she could not receive her medal as originally planned --- in December 2000 --- because her daughter was ill. But better late than never, the Harry Potter author is now enjoying her new title. HARRY'S
SCHOOLBOOKS In FANTASTIC BEASTS, you'll find an alphabetical listing of the creatures you've read about in the four Harry Potter books, like Blast-ended Skrewts, dragons and basilisks (giant serpents). QUIDDITCH THROUGH THE AGES takes a historic look at this high-flying game, including the rules and advancements in equipment over the years (right up through the Nimbus Two Thousand and Firebolt models of broomsticks). Besides being great fun to read, these books are also being used as a charity fundraiser. Proceeds from every book sold (at $3.99 each, here in the U.S.) go to a special Harry's Books Fund that will benefit children in need in some of the world's poorest countries. Every sale counts --- just 50 cents will send a child to school for a week --- you can really make a difference.
But one Potter fan site creator, a 15-year-old British girl named Claire Field (her site is harrypotterguide.co.uk) is in the middle of a legal battle with Warner Bros. over her rights to keep operating her site. Other Potter fans have come to Field's defense, too, by starting the Defense Agains the Dark Arts Project at potterwar.org.uk. On that site, they tell other Potter site creators how to take action and protect themselves, and encourage Potter fans to boycott any Harry Potter merchandise, which would essentially keep money away from Warner Bros. Potterwar.org.uk also offers a more detailed explanation of Claire Field's legal exchanges with Warner Bros. attorneys. OOPS!
BOOK
5 TITLE ANNOUNCED! J.K. Rowling was a guest at AOL Live on October 19th, 2000. Were you there? Or did you miss it? Not to worry....we have a transcript right here! HARRY POTTER AND FRIENDS ARE CAST The eleven-year-old British actor Daniel Radcliffe must feel almost as fortunate as Harry Potter himself did when, at the same age, Harry learned he was going to begin a magical new life as a wizard. Radcliffe has been chosen from a huge group of Harry hopefuls to play the role of the famous young wizard in the movie "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Harry's best friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, have also been cast. Emma Watson, age 10, will portray Hermione, and Rupert Grint, age 11, will play the part of Ron. Like Radcliffe, both actors are British. Warner Bros. had more than 40,000 responses to its casting call for Harry and his friends. The studio announced that the three actors had been cast on August 21, 2000, after a lengthy search. Radcliffe recently played David Copperfield in a British television movie based on the classic novel by Charles Dickens. He will also appear later this year in the upcoming film "The Tailor of Panama." Watson and Grint are new faces on film, as both have acted only in school plays until now. J.K. Rowling was very happy about the chosen actors and was quoted as saying that she doesn't believe a better Harry could have been found. She was especially happy that the characters will be played by British actors. Until the announcement, the only confirmed cast member was Ook, a white owl who has been chosen to play the part of Harry's pet, Hedwig. Previously, Ook worked with the British Natural History Lecture Service, touring schools to teach students about wildlife. Gloucester Cathedral will serve as the setting for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The 900-year-old cathedral, with its ancient towers, spires, passageways, and cloisters, should be perfect as the magical and mysterious Hogwarts.
Despite the worldwide excitement and anticipation for the film, Harry
Potter fans have a while to wait before they see the magic of the books
on screen. The movie is due in theaters on November 16, 2001.
August 24 , 2000 J.K. ROWLING'S FAIRY-TALE CHANGE OF FORTUNE When Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book, she was a struggling single mother, so poor that she would go to cafes to write in order to save money by not heating her apartment. Things couldn't be more different today. In the past year, she has earned $30.64 million, making her the most highly paid woman in Britain and the third richest woman in the U.K. July 14, 2000 THE GOBLET OF FIRE BREAKS RECORDS IN THE U.S. AND BRITAIN When HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE went on sale at 12:01 a.m., copies began to fly off the shelves like magic. Within a few days, the book had smashed book sales records in the United States and in Britain. The book's publisher, Scholastic, printed 3.8 million copies of THE GOBLET OF FIRE. Combined with the 2 million copies printed in Britain, 5 million copies were printed worldwide--a record-breaking number. Even so, many bookstores sold every copy they had during the first weekend the book was on sale. Some were sold out by Saturday morning or even Friday night! On Wednesday, July 12, Scholastic announced that it would print 3 million more copies of the book, bringing the total number to 6.8 million. That's more than THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN sold in all of 1999, and more than twice as much as the biggest-selling book of last year, THE TESTAMENT, by John Grisham. So don't worry--if you haven't been able to get your hands on a copy of THE GOBLET OF FIRE yet, there will soon be plenty more out there! In Britain, Harry's fans were just as excited about the book's July 8 publication. More than 372,000 copies were sold in Britain on July 8, easily breaking Britain's record for the biggest number of a book has sold on its first day. (The old British record was 110,000 copies in three days, set by Delia Smith, a cookbook writer.) The first day it was available, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE was bought by roughly one in every 150 people in Britain. In 1999, Book 1 was Britain's biggest-selling book, selling 503,000 copies. More Facts: Number of copies sold by Barnes & Noble by Monday (July 10) morning: 502,000 Number of copies sold in the first hour the book was on sale, at Barnes & Noble: 114,000--that's 1,900 books per minute! Number of copies delivered by Amazon.com on Saturday, July 8: 250,000. Altogether, these books would weigh 675,000 pounds and if lined up end to end would stretch 36 miles Total number of books ordered at Amazon.com by Saturday night: 400,000 Number of copies sold by Borders by Monday (July 10) morning: 200,000 Reading
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