The latest Harry Potter news

[Arctic]

Possible spoilers!





4/14/03 Potter sneak peek
Harry Potter fans now have access to even more clues about J.K. Rowling's highly anticipated novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. According to the book's plot summary in a new Scholastic catalog, Potter confronts "the unreliability of government and the impotence of the authorities at Hogwarts." The dark arts teacher is said to have a personality "like poisoned honey," and Harry has nightmares about a door in a silent corridor which is "more terrifying than any other nightmares combined." Ron Weasley, Harry's best friend, also becomes Keeper of Gryffindor's Quidditch team. The book, to be released June 21, is fifth in the Harry Potter series.

in comparison, this is what Amazon currently says about the latest potter release (HP and the order of the Phoenix):

Book Description
The next volume in the thrilling, moving, bestselling Harry Potter series

From the Publisher
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling, the fifth in the bestselling series has been scheduled for release on Saturday, June 21, 2003.

"We are thrilled to announce the publication date. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is absolutely superb and will delight all J.K. Rowling's fans. She has written a brilliant and utterly compelling new adventure, which begins with the words:

"The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive.... The only person left outside was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four.

"Later in the novel, J.K. Rowling writes:

"Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses. 'It is time,' he said 'for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything.'

-Barbara Marcus, President of Scholastic Children's Books in the United States, and Nigel Newton, Chief Executive of Bloomsbury Publishing in Britain

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is over 255,000 words compared with over 191,000 words in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The new book is 38 chapters long, one more than Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.


happy. joy.

[masterthes]

Ooh, more Harry exposition. I likes. What do you think he's going to tell Harry? That Voldemont is really his father? :lol

[Arctic]

HP news in review from Book magazine:

http://www.bookmagazine.com/issue28/unfogging.shtml



i think Dumbledore will probably say something about HP being the last member of the secret order of the phoenix or something else along those lines. but i still haven't read the fourth book yet, so i may be way off here.

TANGENT:
having just finished the third book, i have to wonder what all these religious people have been upset about. i guess they aren't really reading the books, just judging them based on the fact that they're about witchcraft and wizardry to some extent. i think it's interesting how traditionally christian holidays have been brought up in every book, not as paganized holidays, but as Christmas and Easter, suggesting that there is no conflict between religion (Christianity at least) and witchcraft. i guess this suggestion in itself could raise some hackles.

[Arctic]

5/9/03 Copies of the unreleased Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix found in field

Despite an anxious three-year wait filled with everything from deferred release dates to internet imitations, both American publisher Scholastic and British publisher Bloomsbury have managed to conceal the plot of J.K. Rowling's fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. But parts of the plot may now be out on the prowl. In England, Suffolk police arrested and questioned four people about the suspected theft of proof copies of the fifth Harry Potter book. The arrests came after two copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix were found abandoned in a field a quarter of a mile away from the plant where the book is being printed. A man walking in the fields found the copies and called The Sun newspaper, which says it is currently safeguarding the two proofs, and has rejected a £25,000 offer for a third.


more on this from bbc news:

Four charged over Potter book
Friday, 9 May, 2003

A worker at the firm printing the unreleased Harry Potter novel has been charged with stealing chapters of the book.

Three others have been charged with handling stolen goods after partial copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was allegedly found in a field in north Suffolk.

Donald Parfitt, 44, from Worlingham near Beccles, who works at Clays Ltd printing firm, was charged on Thursday night and will appear before magistrates in Lowestoft.

Garry Cox, 18, from Harleston in Norfolk, and two 16-year-old boys from Beccles were charged with handling stolen goods.

Two copies of the forthcoming novel by JK Rowling were allegedly found in a field earlier this week - a quarter of a mile from where they were being printed.

The copies were discovered by a walker in Bungay, Suffolk, who immediately contacted the Sun newspaper, which is now said to have them in its possession.

The fifth instalment of the wizard's adventures is not due to be published until 21 June.