How to use this Page

Bloomsbury wants to know: are you the biggest Harry Potter fan?

The British publisher of the Harry Potter series is hosting a competition to find the biggest fan in the U.K. and Ireland. Fans will only be able to enter the competition by submitting an entry though participating bookshops and libraries. More than 1,800 venues will be participating; a map and list of locations is provided on Bloomsbury's website.

Instructions to enter the competition are as follows:

The grand prize winner will receive a family holiday to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort and a leather-bound, signed, dedicated and numbered 15th Anniversary edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Fourteen runners-up will also be chosen, and they too will receive the aforementioned 15th anniversary edition of Philsopher's Stone.

The competition begins today and will run until July 31st. Good luck to all who enter!

According to BBC News, a group of more than 60 scholars have congregated at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland to discuss the literary merits of the Harry Potter series over the next two days.

The conference, entitled "A Brand of Fictional Magic: Reading Harry Potter as Literature," will feature over 50 lectures about the series with topics ranging from the role of paganism, British national identity and how death is dealt with in the books. A complete anthology based on this conference is expected to be published in 2013.

Conference organizer, Professor John Patrick Pazdziora, had this to say about putting together such a conference:

"We can't avoid the fact that Harry Potter is the main narrative experience of an entire generation - the children who literally grew up with Harry Potter.

"The Harry Potter novels are simply the most important and influential children's books of the late-20th and early 21st Centuries."

"For very many people, this is their first experience of literature, and of literary art. So they want to think about it, and analyse it, and talk about it."

The Pottermore Insider is giving fans a special behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the Hogwarts house crests illustrations used on the site.

In this first blog post, the step-by-step process for the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw crests are detailed showing preliminary sketches and the coloring process.

In coming up with these crests, created by Atomhawk Design, the Pottermore Insider says:

The starting point for each of the house crests was the Hogwarts crest, which first appeared on the title pages of the Harry Potter books, and represents all four Hogwarts houses. This original artwork and J.K. Rowling’s descriptions of the houses were used to inspire four unique house emblems for Pottermore.

The artists started by talking about the best way to include the natural elements of fire, earth, water and air into each house; what the best positions and expressions for the animals would be; and the most effective way to include the house colours in the final designs.

As a continuation of last week's blog post, the Pottermore Insider is giving fans a look behind-the-scenes at the creation of the four Hogwarts house crests.

Once again, a step-by-step process is outlined, this time for the Slytherin and Hufflepuff crests. The illustrations were created by Atomhawk Design. Read more about it here.

On creating the Hufflepuff crest, the team says:

The Hufflepuff crest proved to be the most difficult creation for the team. There is a limited amount of detail about Hufflepuff house in "Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone" and they were aware that they needed to work a little harder to make the crest feel authentic and representative of the Hufflepuff nature. There was also the question of how to show the badger as a tenacious animal, to show Hufflepuffs as unafraid of hard work.

Some of the Pottermore Slytherin community have already noticed that theirs is the only animal looking to the left, while the other house crests have animals looking to the right. This was a decision that came about during the final stages of design, when the crests were all placed together.

The official Pottermore shop was launched this morning, marking the first time that the Harry Potter books are available to buy in an eBook and digital audio book format.

This will be the only place to purchase digital copies of the Harry Potter series, which will be available in all formats for eReaders, tablets, smartphones and mp3 players.

The eBooks for Years 1-3 are available for $7.99, while Years 4-7 are priced at $9.99. Or, the complete series can be purchased for $57.54.

Digital audio books for Years 1-3 will cost $29.99, and Years 4-7 is priced at $44.99. The complete Harry Potter audio collection can be purchased for $ 242.94.

Even though the Pottermore shop is now open, Pottermore remains in beta. It's expected to open to everyone in April.

J.K. Rowling will receive the Freedom of the City of London on Tuesday, May 8 for her services to children's literature, according to a press release from the City of London.

The ceremony will take place at the Mansion House, the official residence of London's Lord Mayor. She will read aloud the Declaration of a Freeman and be presented with a framed parchment certificate.

In a statement, Ms. Rowling spoke of what the award means to her and some special perks:

“Both my parents were Londoners.  They met on a train departing from King’s Cross Station in 1964, and while neither of them ever lived in London again, both their daughters headed straight for the capital the moment that they were independent.  To me, London is packed with personal memories, but it has never lost the aura of excitement and mystery that it had during trips to see family as a child.

“I am prouder than I can say to be given the Freedom of the City, which, on top of all the known benefits (and few people realize this), entitles me to a free pint in The Leaky Cauldron and a ten Galleon voucher to spend in Diagon Alley.”

The Freedom of the City of London can be traced back to 1237. Today, people are presented with the award because it offers them a link with the historic City of London and one of its ancient traditions.

As reported previously, an exhibition of works by artist Mary GrandPre has now opened at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in Iowa, and contains highlights of her work done for the US editions of the Harry Potter book series. Today, thanks to TLC staffer Jeff, we can now show you a sample of the many pieces of art in this display, including a first look at an alternative cover for Harry Potter and... Read the rest of this post

Scholastic, the US publishers of the Harry Potter novels, will be releasing a new box set of the series this summer. This new collection, which you can see here in our galleries, is available for pre-order via Barnes and Noble, as well as Walmart.  Included in the collection are the set of US paperback editions of books one through seven, with the box to feature the Deluxe cover from Harry Pott... Read the rest of this post

A quick followup this morning regarding this story from last month involving an auction of a rare First Edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Scores of you owled to let us know the auction was completed, with the book selling for a record $19,120. The AP reports that "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was one of only 200 copies from the first printing issued with illustra... Read the rest of this post

Next month, there will be a very large auction for a number of rare and valuable collection of children's literature including several Harry Potter novels by author J.K. Rowling. With the auction to take place on December 16th, items of note will include a rare uncorrected proof of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, uncorrected proof copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, plus ... Read the rest of this post

As the year draws to an end, Scholastic, US publishers of the Harry Potter novels, have a reminder for us today of the remarkable decade that was, and the amazing impact of the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. The sales figures are staggering, but as publisher Arthur A. Levine and VP of Scholastic reminds us, the true magic has been in the reading:

"What the numbers leave out is the singular

The Pottemore Insider has been updated to say that a new batch of Welcome e-mails for Pottermore beta access were sent out today, August 25th, from 2:45pm BST (9:45am EST).

Welcome e-mails were also sent out yesterday to a lucky few.

You can read Leaky's first thoughts on Pottermore at this link. If you already have access to the beta version of Pottermore, let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

A sketch of Harry Potter with the mythical hippogriff Buckbeak drawn by former Harry Potter illustrator Cliff Wright will be up for auction at the end of the month, the Daily Mail reports.

Mr. Wright was the illustrator of the UK Harry Potter book covers for Sorcerer's Stone through Prisoner of Azkaban. The sketch was made in 2002, and is estimated to sell for £10,000 at the Antiques for Everyone Fair in Birmingham from October 27 - 30.

See a preview of this rare drawing at this link!