Harry Potter Corner

This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on March 8, 2007 Sign up now!

by Shannon Maughan, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 3/8/2007

Mugglenet's Crystal Ball

What will happen in Harry Potter 7? Only J.K. Rowling knows for sure, but Emerson Spartz, who oversees Potter fan site Mugglenet.com, and a few mostly teenage colleagues are making some bold predictions in their book entitled, wait for it… What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7? The 214-page paperback volume, which analyzes the first six books in addition to looking ahead at the final volume, was the result of an "aha!" moment for Nick Denton-Brown, acquisitions editor at Ulysses Press. Denton-Brown approached Spartz with his idea and Ulysses published the title last November. To date the book has gone back to press six times and has 160,000 copies in print. Naturally, the authors have the perfect place for self-promotion—the Mugglenet Web site—but they also are visiting some bookstores this spring and plan another tour this summer. The creative parties involved are not counting out a potential follow-up after HP7 comes out in July, either.

Warner Bros. has confirmed that Daniel Radcliffe has signed on to reprise his role as the wizard-in-training in the sixth and seventh Harry Potter films. The fifth flick is due out July 13, and filming of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is scheduled to begin in September.

Meanwhile, Radcliffe is honing his acting chops playing a troubled stable boy in the stage production of Equus, which has just opened in London's West End. A broad departure from his image of a bespectacled kid hiding under an invisibility cloak, Radcliffe's latest role requires smoking, swearing and appearing in the buff. This new edge added to Radcliffe's resume is causing quite a frenzy—from parents concerned that children will be confused at hearing about (or perhaps seeing photos of) the actor they love as Harry Potter in such a dark performance, to teenage female fans who are filling the London theater out of curiosity's sake. The stir caused by Radcliffe's chiseled abs (and much more) has been picked up by all the major news outlets.

How Much for a Ride on Harry's Cloak Tails?

According to an item from The Bookseller, Amazon.co.uk has reportedly charged publishers up to £2000 to have their books featured in mass emails announcing the title and publication date of the final Harry Potter book. One major U.K. children's publisher in the story declined the Amazon offer, stating, "It's a lot of money and what I didn't want to do was help fund their discounts on Harry Potter." But among the publishers who grabbed a digital ad lift were Egmont, which ran a promo for Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo, HarperCollins Children's Books, pushing the new Garth Nix book, and Walker Books touting Anthony Horowitz's forthcoming novel. An Amazon.co.uk spokesperson declined to comment on this marketing effort.

It's in the Cards…

Beginning this May, aspiring architects can conjure up their own configurations of Harry's alma mater with Building Cards Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a new entry in the popular Building Cards line from Klutz Press. The Hogwarts Building Cards were introduced at Toy Fair last month and are part of a licensing agreement between Klutz and Warner Bros. Consumer Products. Aimed at kids ages eight and up, the Hogwarts card sets are and will be packaged with 90 perforated leaves that break into more than 350 building cards, plus a hand-painted Harry Potter figurine, retailing for $19.95.

Rowling Says 'Expelliarmus!' to E-books

Harry Potter's creator is no fan of e-books. Going back to the Sorcerer's Stone days, Rowling has stated that she will not allow her work published electronically out of a fear of rampant piracy, and out of her desire to have children experience her books the old-fashioned way—on paper. No surprise then, that she recently made an official pronouncement that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will not be released as an e-book.

Rowling has scored a legal victory over the e-book format, too, winning an injunction against eBay India (formerly known as Baazee.com) and sellers on the site who have been trafficking unauthorized e-book versions of Harry Potter books. The decision stems from a 2004 lawsuit filed jointly in India by the author and Warner Bros. Judging by conflicting statements from Rowling's agent and a spokesperson from eBay, Inc. reported by CNET News.com, there is some debate over whether the injunction applies to eBay, Inc. as well as to the individual sellers. The clarification of that point could spell trouble for those selling counterfeit copyrighted material of all kinds on eBay's sites. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for May 28 in the Indian courts.

Indie Booksellers Want Piece of Potter Pie

As we reported in the Feb. 8 HP Corner, independent booksellers in the U.K.—similar to what's happening stateside—have been lamenting the deep-discounting wars over the sale price of HP7, fearing they can't compete, or deciding they don't want to. Some indies are now planning to fight back using a loyalty incentive, the brainchild of south London's Dulwich Books. Dulwich customers earn points toward a free copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with the purchase of other children's book titles prior to June. The Guardian details the effort here.

Six Degrees of Harry Potter

Sure, J.K. Rowling must be used to being treated like a rock star. Same goes for Daniel Radcliffe and other actors in the Harry Potter films. But the person who felt the most Harry Potter love during an appearance at the Jerusalem Book Fair last month was the Hebrew translator of the Potter books, Gili Bar-Hillel. More than 100 fans listened carefully to see if Bar-Hillel might let anything slip about the contents of HP7. "I know one single shard of information, but I'm not allowed to reveal it," Bar-Hillel told the Associated Press. "And I don't like to make speculations."

HP Meets HP

Mere Muggles—a team of teachers from Virginia Stevenson Elementary School in Dayton, Ohio—have worked some real magic, using Harry Potter as the inspiration to earn $42,000 worth of Hewlett-Packard equipment and spark their students' interest in science, math, reading, writing and social studies concepts.

Almost a year ago, according to an article in the Dayton Daily News, the teachers applied for a Hewlett-Packard Technology for Teaching grant, which offered $42,000 in equipment and educational stipends to develop an innovative program that uses technology in the classroom. Each classroom in the school received a tablet PC, a multimedia projector, a digital camera and a printer/scanner/copier. During February and March, classes at the school will use the equipment as they compete as "houses" (a la Hogwarts dormitories) to complete classroom lessons/tasks employing characters and settings from the books. Teachers and students will track their progress on a newly created Intranet site as well. The school's intervention specialist Angela Kleinhans noted in the article, "When you see kids saying 'this is so cool, can we do more?,' that's where the reward is."