The Harry Potter Films
The Harry Potter books have been made into eight films which were released between 2001 and 2011.
The films star English actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint in the leading roles of Harry Potter and his best friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.
The films are terrific for adults and for children although, as with the books, they get progressively darker and more scary with more adult themes as you progress through the series. With that in mind, it can be a good idea to watch them yourself before you introduce your younger children to them.
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Harry Potter Books: Reading Order Where To Start And Gift Guide
ByBenjamin Abbott23 September 2021
Find out the reading order for the Harry Potter books and discover which stories are included in the Wizarding World series
The Harry Potter books have been dominating our imaginations for decades, and the series has now ballooned into spin-offs, stage plays, and beyond. If you’re a newcomer, that can make it tricky to know where you should start. How do you read the series in chronological order? And are there new Harry Potter novels on the way? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with the full lowdown here.
Because the Harry Potter books aren’t limited to the boy wizard anymore, we’ve also included info about the series as a whole. Do the Fantastic Beasts scripts ‘count’? Is The Cursed Child a sequel to the Harry Potter novels or films? All will be explained below.
Strap in for some gift ideas as well. We’ve listed a few suggestions for yourself, a friend, or a loved one within this guide, and they rank amongst the best Harry Potter merchandise overall.
Inspiration And Mother’s Death
Rowling worked as a researcher and bilingual secretary in London for Amnesty International, then moved with her boyfriend to Manchester where she worked at the Chamber of Commerce. In 1990, she was on a four-hour delayed train trip from Manchester to London when the idea “came fully formed” into her mind for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry. When she reached her Clapham Junction flat, she began to write immediately.
In December 1990, Rowling’s mother Anne died after ten years suffering from multiple sclerosis. Rowling was writing Harry Potter at the time and had never told her mother about it. Her mother’s death heavily affected Rowling’s writing, and she channelled her own feelings of loss by writing about Harry’s grief in greater detail in the first book.
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How To Tell If You Have A Harry Potter First Edition Harry Potter And The Philosophers Stone
As Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone is the first in series, first editions of this are worth the most so this is what well look at first.
The most important thing to look at when trying to ascertain whether or not you have a Harry Potter First Edition is what Print Run it is. As a first edition, it should count down 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. The earlier the print run, the more its worth. The very early first editions are all hardback editions designed for libraries and initially, there were just 500 released and therefore these can be worth a heck of a lot of money.
There are not many of these editions left making them extremely rare, however, even second and third editions of these copies are worth a fair bit of money.
‘harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire’
“JK’s signature turns any first edition of ‘Goblet of Fire’ into a book with a four-figure price-tag but there are a handful of copies over $10,000. Look out for the limited editions with original watercolor illustrations by Giles Greenfield and Mary GrandPre . If either illustrator has signed a copy, then prices are again in four-figures. Many buyers are also looking for books accompanied by items such as entrance wristbands or golden tickets from events where JK Rowling has conducted a signing.”
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The Harry Potter Series
The Harry Potter series by J K Rowling is brilliant to read aloud to your child but when’s the best age to start?
My husband started reading the first Harry Potter book – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – to our twin sons when they were six. .
This was in 2001 when everyone was first talking about the books and the four of us were keen to find out what all the fuss was about.
And for our two at least, six turned out to be exactly the right age to start reading the Harry Potter series. The boys absolutely loved reading a chapter a night and their dad and I also loved discovering the story with them.
Each Harry Potter book is just a little bit more complex than the one before. For our boys and for millions of other kids around the world, this meant that they were pretty much growing up with Harry and his friends as they read their way through the series.
We read the first three books aloud as a family and have some very special memories of these times. My daughter was only three when we were reading them but she snuggled up on the bed to listen too and the experience seems to have inspired in her a life-long love of all things Harry Potter.By the time Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came out in 2005, my boys were eight and keen to tackle it on their own. The only problem was, they both wanted to be the first in the family to read it!
‘harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban’
“The initial hardcover print run was stopped mid-printing after it was discovered that ‘Joanne Rowling’ rather than ‘JK Rowling’ had been printed on the copyright page. Joanne versions are available for prices starting at around £1,500 and go up to $12,000 for signed pristine copies.”
“First edition first printings will have the number line 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 and a block of misaligned text on page seven. Opinions about the number of copies printed before the errors were spotted vary greatly however, it seems that only a small number came off the press which greatly enhances its value.”
“The deluxe editions, with green cloth, of 1999 are also collectible if they are a first edition . However second printings can be picked up for three figures.”
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Jk Rowlings Wizarding World
The first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, was published in 1997 to immediate popular and critical acclaim. Six further best-selling books and eight blockbuster films followed. The books have been translated into over 80 languages, won multiple awards, and sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling book series in history..
In 2016, a new era of the Wizarding World was unveiled with the launch of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, an original screenplay by J.K. Rowling and the first in a major film series for Warner Bros.
The Harry Potter Series: Ages And Stages
The first three Harry Potter books are great to read aloud to kids aged from about six or seven up. Certainly most children – both boys and girls – will love them from the age of eight.
If your eight-year-old is a fairly capable reader, he or she will probably be able to read the first three books independently. Remember though, that it can be fun to read aloud to older children and the Harry Potter books are great for this purpose because most adults enjoy the stories too.
The last four books are long and quite complex. Certainly many ten-year-olds will be quite capable of reading them but again, I think they’re great for reading aloud to kids aged up to about eleven.
Most teens will enjoy reading the books and in fact the seventh and final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is probably not suitable for readers under about thirteen. And if your teen does want to read the whole series, there are editions with more adult-looking covers so they’re not embarrassed to be seen reading what they probably think of as kids’ books.
The seven books in the Harry Potter series, in order, are:
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Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban
The third book in the series introduces Sirius Black, a deranged mass murderer whos just escaped from the wizard prison of Azkaban. As a result, swarms of Dementors dark, faceless beings that suck the soul out of their victims and serve as the guards of Azkaban infiltrate Hogwarts to patrol for Black, whos supposedly after Harry next. To make matters worse, our normally steadfast hero has a bad reaction to the Dementors, which cause him to faint on a train and even lose a critical Quidditch match.
Again, though, its not all doom and gloom. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban also features Professor Remus Lupin, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and a school friend of Harrys late father. Lupin and Harry quickly forge a father-son-like relationship themselves, and Lupin teaches Harry the Patronus Charm to protect himself from Dementors.
Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione are squabbling even more than usual over their respective pets, Crookshanks the cat and Scabbers the rat. But what seems like a lighthearted subplot turns out to be a major factor in one of the biggest twists of the series, revealed in the last few chapters and which naturally involves Black and Lupin as well. Oh, and hippogriffs and time traveling, in case that wasnt enough to sell you on it.
Harry Potter And The Cursed Child
While not part of the original seven-book series, Cursed Child and the accompanying stage play have become a generally accepted addition to the Harry Potter canon. This 336-page text picks up where the Deathly Hallows epilogue left off, with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Malfoy sending their unfortunately named kids off to Hogwarts Harrys son Albus and Malfoys son Scorpius serve as our protagonists this time around. Upon arrival at Hogwarts, the boys are both sorted into Slytherin and forge an unlikely friendship, which naturally causes tension between Albus and Harry over the next few years.
After a fight with his father, Albus overhears Cedric Diggorys father Amos asking Harry to use a more powerful version of a Time Turner to go back in time and rescue his son. When Harry refuses, Albus enlists Scorpius to help him save Cedric, with the aid of Diggorys niece Delphi. However, as anyone whos seen Back to the Future can attest, messing with timelines is never a good idea especially in the wizarding world. Things are further complicated by the fact that Delphi is not who she says she is, and may have sinister ulterior motives when it comes to rewriting history.
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Hogwarts: An Incomplete And Unreliable Guide
Sourced from the short reads on Pottermore.com and gathered into one book for easy reading, Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guidegives you all of the background information that you might want to know about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardly. Ever been curious about what the Hufflepuff common room looks like ? Did you ever wonder about the origins of Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters? Here’s the book that will provide all of the answers.
Uses In Education And Business
Writers on education and business subjects have used the book as an object lesson. Writing about clinical teaching in medical schools, Jennifer Conn contrasted Snape’s technical expertise with his intimidating behaviour towards students. Quidditch coach Madam Hooch on the other hand, illustrated useful techniques in the teaching of physical skills, including breaking down complex actions into sequences of simple ones and helping students to avoid common errors. Joyce Fields wrote that the books illustrate four of the five main topics in a typical first-year sociology class: “sociological concepts including culture, society, and socialisation stratification and social inequality social institutions and social theory“.
Stephen Brown noted that the early Harry Potter books, especially Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, were a runaway success despite inadequate and poorly organised marketing. Brown advised marketing executives to be less preoccupied with rigorous statistical analyses and the “analysis, planning, implementation, and control” model of management. Instead he recommended that they should treat the stories as “a marketing masterclass”, full of enticing products and brand names. For example, a real-world analogue of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans was introduced under licence in 2000 by toymaker Hasbro.
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Quidditch Through The Ages
Or maybe it’s J.K. Rowling’s smash-hit sport, Quidditch, that tickles your fancy. Today, Quidditch is an actual sport played at over 100 colleges in the United States such is the strength of the grip that it’s exerted on our public imagination. But if you’re interested in the academic side of Quidditch, Rowling’s got you covered with Quidditch Through the Ages, which will tell you all that you ever wanted to know about the history and rules behind Quidditch.
A Brief Overview Of The Harry Potter Series
| Rowling, J.K. |
The Harry Potter books have become a phenomenon that has gripped an entire generation of children and adults alike. When J.K. Rowling started writing the children’s book series, it did not occur in her wildest imagination that her books would have such a global effect. The book series has inspired a lot of children to read, which is a huge accomplishment considering that the Harry Potter books had to contend with video games, television, and the internet. If you want to know just what Potter fans are so enamored of, here is a brief overview of the seven book series.
The Boy Who Lived…
The first book introduces readers to Harry Potter, an 11 year old boy that lives in the world of non-magical beings, or Muggles as they are called. On his 11th birthday he is visited by the half-giant Rubeus Hagrid and is introduced to the wizarding world and enrolled him in the Hogwarts School for Witches and Wizards. Hogwarts is where Harry meets his two best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and the great wizard and headmaster of the school, Albus Dumbledore. The story revolves around Harry during his studies at Hogwarts, Harry learns of the reasons why he has magical powers, who his parents are and how they died, and his connection with the man who killed them, the evil wizard Lord Voldemort.
Voldemort Returns…
Dumbledore Dies…
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Every Harry Potter Book In Chronological Order
The Harry Potter series includes some of the most beloved children’s books then and now. And, we’re going to look back at them in chronological order.
Harry Potter is one of the most successful movie franchises in history, bringing in over $9 billion in the worldwide box office. However, before the movies ruled the world, J.K. Rowling’s book series was an even bigger success story.
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Rowling released the first novel in the Harry Potter world in 1997 and soon developed a giant franchise known as The Wizarding World, which includes Harry Potter novels, the world of movies, the stageplays based on her work, and an entire world on the Internet. With so much to love about Harry Potter, here is a look at all the Harry Potter books in chronological order for those wanting to discover the world of the written word.
Us Publication And Reception
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| jumper | sweater |
Scholastic Corporation bought the U.S. rights at the Bologna Book Fair in April 1997 for US$105,000, an unusually high sum for a children’s book. Scholastic’s Arthur Levine thought that “philosopher” sounded too archaic for readers and after some discussion , the American edition was published in September 1998 under the title Rowling suggested, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Rowling later said that she regretted this change and would have fought it if she had been in a stronger position at the time.Philip Nel has pointed out that the change lost the connection with alchemy, and the meaning of some other terms changed in translation, for example from “crumpet” to “muffin“. While Rowling accepted the change from both the British English “mum” and Seamus Finnigan’s Irish variant “mam” to the American variant “mom” in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, she vetoed this change in the later books, which was then reversed in later editions of Philosopher’s Stone. However, Nel considered that Scholastic’s translations were considerably more sensitive than most of those imposed on British English books of the time, and that some other changes could be regarded as useful copyedits. Since the UK editions of early titles in the series were published months prior to the American versions, some American readers became familiar with the British English versions owing to having bought them from online retailers.
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