Terrorism is a policy or ideology of violence
Terrorism is a policy or ideology of violence[1] intended to intimidate or cause terror[2] for the purpose of "exerting pressure on decision making by state bodies."[1] The term "terror" is largely used to indicate clandestine, low-intensity violence that targets civilians and generates public fear. Thus "terror" is distinct from asymmetric warfare, and violates the concept of a common law of war in which civilian life is regarded. The term "-ism" is used to indicate an ideology —typically one that claims its attacks are in the domain of a "just war" concept, though most condemn such as crimes against humanity.
Terrorism is more commonly understood as an act which is intended to create fear (terror), is perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a materialistic goal or a lone attack), and deliberately targets (or disregards the safety of) non-combatants. Some definitions also include acts of unlawful violence or unconventional warfare, but at present, there is no internationally agreed upon definition of terrorism.[3][4]
A person who practices terrorism is a terrorist. Acts of terrorism are defined as criminal acts according to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 and the domestic jurisprudence of almost all nations.
The word “terrorism” is politically and emotionally charged,[5] and this greatly compounds the difficulty of providing a precise definition. A 1988 study by the United States Army found that over 100 definitions of the word “terrorism” have been used.[6] The concept of terrorism is itself controversial because it is often used by states to delegitimize political or foreign opponents, and potentially legitimize the state's own use of terror against them. A less politically and emotionally charged term (used not only for terrorists), allowing for more accurate analyses, is violent non-state actor.
The history of terrorist organizations suggests that they do not practice terrorism only for its political effectiveness; individual terrorists are also motivated by a desire for social solidarity with other members.[7]
Terrorism has been practiced by a broad array of political organizations for furthering their objectives. It has been practiced by both right-wing and left-wing political parties, nationalistic groups, religious groups, revolutionaries, and ruling governments.[8]
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The Powerhouse of Music Talent
The Powerhouse of Music Talent
Noted Indian music maestro Allah Rakha Rahman, who bagged the prestigious Academy Awards (Oscar) in two categories-the Best original score and Best Song-on February 22, 2009 for his work in Slumdog Millionaire, needs no introduction.It is also a well-known name across the globe.He is credited with redefining contemporary Indian Music.A.R. Rahman born in a family where Music means to earn a livelihood.He,therefore started playing Piano at a very early age.His father R.K. Shekhar ,who was composer, arranger and conductor of Malayalam movies,died when Rahman had barely reached the age of 9.His family had to face a very difficult phase and the musical instrument of family had to be rented out to meet the day-to-day expenses.The young Rahman joined noted composer Ilayaraja`s troupe as a keyboardist and a computer programmer at a very young age.
Rahman set out on his own to compose singles and scores for popular Indian television features after working with a number of renowned composers like Ilyayaraja.Vishwanathan Ramamurthy , Zakir Husain and L.Shankar.In the meantime , he also
Obtain the degree in western classical music from the Trinity College of music (London).He set up his own in-house studio called “Panchatan” record inn at Chennai. His Studio is considered the most sophisticated and hi-tech in Asia today
In 1991, noted filmmaker Mani Ratnam`s film Roja brought him instant fame and thereafter Rahman never looked back and has made invaluable contribution to the world of music ever since. A.R. Rahman has been honoured with so many awards in his carrier that it is almost impossible to make a list of all the prizes . Oscar , Bafta , Golden Gobe , National awards , Filmfare awards , Sreen awards , Kalasaagar awards , Cinegores awards Tamil Nadu State awards , Cinema express awards , and Global Indian Film awards , Zee awards , International Indian Film awards-all of these have been conferred on him on different occasion for different films . In 2000 the government of India conferred prestigious Padma Shri Award on Rahman .
Noted Indian music maestro Allah Rakha Rahman, who bagged the prestigious Academy Awards (Oscar) in two categories-the Best original score and Best Song-on February 22, 2009 for his work in Slumdog Millionaire, needs no introduction.It is also a well-known name across the globe.He is credited with redefining contemporary Indian Music.A.R. Rahman born in a family where Music means to earn a livelihood.He,therefore started playing Piano at a very early age.His father R.K. Shekhar ,who was composer, arranger and conductor of Malayalam movies,died when Rahman had barely reached the age of 9.His family had to face a very difficult phase and the musical instrument of family had to be rented out to meet the day-to-day expenses.The young Rahman joined noted composer Ilayaraja`s troupe as a keyboardist and a computer programmer at a very young age.
Rahman set out on his own to compose singles and scores for popular Indian television features after working with a number of renowned composers like Ilyayaraja.Vishwanathan Ramamurthy , Zakir Husain and L.Shankar.In the meantime , he also
Obtain the degree in western classical music from the Trinity College of music (London).He set up his own in-house studio called “Panchatan” record inn at Chennai. His Studio is considered the most sophisticated and hi-tech in Asia today
In 1991, noted filmmaker Mani Ratnam`s film Roja brought him instant fame and thereafter Rahman never looked back and has made invaluable contribution to the world of music ever since. A.R. Rahman has been honoured with so many awards in his carrier that it is almost impossible to make a list of all the prizes . Oscar , Bafta , Golden Gobe , National awards , Filmfare awards , Sreen awards , Kalasaagar awards , Cinegores awards Tamil Nadu State awards , Cinema express awards , and Global Indian Film awards , Zee awards , International Indian Film awards-all of these have been conferred on him on different occasion for different films . In 2000 the government of India conferred prestigious Padma Shri Award on Rahman .
SWINE FLU
Swine Flu
Swine influenza (also called swine flu, hog flu, and pig flu) is an infection of a host animal by any one of several specific types of microscopic organisms called "swine influenza virus". A swine influenza virus (SIV) is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is usually hosted by (is endemic in) pigs.[2] As of 2009, the known SIV strains are the influenza C virus and the subtypes of the influenza A virus known as H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2, and H2N3. Swine influenza is common in pigs in the midwestern United States (and occasionally in other states), Mexico, Canada, South America, Europe (including the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Italy), Kenya, Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and other parts of eastern Asia.[2]
Transmission of swine influenza virus from pigs to humans is not common and does not always cause human influenza, often only resulting in the production of antibodies in the blood. The meat of the animal poses no risk of transmitting the virus when properly cooked. If transmission does cause human influenza, it is called zoonotic swine flu. People who work with pigs, especially people with intense exposures, are at increased risk of catching swine flu. In the mid-20th century, identification of influenza subtypes became possible, this allows accurate diagnosis of transmission to humans. Since then, fifty confirmed transmissions have been recorded, Rarely, these strains of swine flu can pass from human to human. In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort.
As the swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is a new virus, no swine flu vaccine is available to prevent infections.
And unfortunately, the seasonal flu vaccine that many of us receive will not provide any protection against the swine flu virus.
Experts are already working on a swine flu vaccine though. The CDC has already provided a candidate vaccine virus to several laboratories and manufacturers so that they can produce pilot lots of swine flu vaccines that can be tested to make sure they are safe and effective.
It is important to note that the decision to make a swine flu vaccine is separate from the decision as to whether or not to recommend that people actually receive the vaccine. Experts will likely still have to see what happens throughout the rest of the summer to see if they will recommend that people get a swine flu vaccine.
Swine influenza (also called swine flu, hog flu, and pig flu) is an infection of a host animal by any one of several specific types of microscopic organisms called "swine influenza virus". A swine influenza virus (SIV) is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is usually hosted by (is endemic in) pigs.[2] As of 2009, the known SIV strains are the influenza C virus and the subtypes of the influenza A virus known as H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2, and H2N3. Swine influenza is common in pigs in the midwestern United States (and occasionally in other states), Mexico, Canada, South America, Europe (including the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Italy), Kenya, Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and other parts of eastern Asia.[2]
Transmission of swine influenza virus from pigs to humans is not common and does not always cause human influenza, often only resulting in the production of antibodies in the blood. The meat of the animal poses no risk of transmitting the virus when properly cooked. If transmission does cause human influenza, it is called zoonotic swine flu. People who work with pigs, especially people with intense exposures, are at increased risk of catching swine flu. In the mid-20th century, identification of influenza subtypes became possible, this allows accurate diagnosis of transmission to humans. Since then, fifty confirmed transmissions have been recorded, Rarely, these strains of swine flu can pass from human to human. In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort.
As the swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is a new virus, no swine flu vaccine is available to prevent infections.
And unfortunately, the seasonal flu vaccine that many of us receive will not provide any protection against the swine flu virus.
Experts are already working on a swine flu vaccine though. The CDC has already provided a candidate vaccine virus to several laboratories and manufacturers so that they can produce pilot lots of swine flu vaccines that can be tested to make sure they are safe and effective.
It is important to note that the decision to make a swine flu vaccine is separate from the decision as to whether or not to recommend that people actually receive the vaccine. Experts will likely still have to see what happens throughout the rest of the summer to see if they will recommend that people get a swine flu vaccine.
Did You Know???????????
Did You Know,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
2. Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
3. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
4. No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.
5. Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.
6. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
7. Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
8. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
9. The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.
10. A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.
11. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class.
12. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
13. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
14. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
15. Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
16. The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.
17. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
18. Marilyn Monroe had six toes. (rumor)
19. All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.
20. Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
21. Pearls melt in vinegar.
22. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
23. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
24. It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
25. A duck's quack doesn't echo and no one knows why. (Or does it? http://www.acoustics.salford.ac.uk/acoustics_world/duck/duck.htm)
26. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
27. Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters from the word 'criminal.' The second was William Jefferson Clinton.
28. Turtles can breathe through their butts.
29. Butterflies taste with their feet.
30. In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world's nuclear weapons combined.
31. On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.
32. On average people fear spiders more than they do death.
33. Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.
34. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
35. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
36. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
2. Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
3. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
4. No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.
5. Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.
6. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
7. Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
8. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
9. The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.
10. A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.
11. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class.
12. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
13. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
14. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
15. Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
16. The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.
17. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
18. Marilyn Monroe had six toes. (rumor)
19. All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.
20. Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
21. Pearls melt in vinegar.
22. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
23. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
24. It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
25. A duck's quack doesn't echo and no one knows why. (Or does it? http://www.acoustics.salford.ac.uk/acoustics_world/duck/duck.htm)
26. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
27. Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters from the word 'criminal.' The second was William Jefferson Clinton.
28. Turtles can breathe through their butts.
29. Butterflies taste with their feet.
30. In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world's nuclear weapons combined.
31. On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.
32. On average people fear spiders more than they do death.
33. Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.
34. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
35. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
36. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
The Magnetetic Fish Bowl
The Magnetic Fish Bowl
This unusual fishing game is simple to assemble and great fun to play. And you won't have to worry about pulling poor live fish out of the water.
Items required:
Four to six magnets (one for each player; magnets can be found at any hardware shop), paper clips, stickytape, four to six thin nine-inch sticks (one for each player; unsharpened pencil work really well), a large bowl of water, aluminium foil, string and scissors.
How to prepare the game:
Step [I]:
Fold the aluminium foil in four. Cut 2-inches long fishes out of the folded foil, using the first fish as a pattern fish.
Step [II]:
Slide a paper clip onto the front end of each aluminium foil fish. Drop all the fish into the bowl of water.
Step [III]:
Cut pieces of string about 20cm long. Tie a magnet to one end of each piece. Tie the other end to a stick or pencil and fix it with sticky tape.
How to Play:
Catch the fish by picking them up with the magnets. If two players catch the same fish, they must put it back to the bowl. The player who catches the maximum number of fishes is the winner.
This unusual fishing game is simple to assemble and great fun to play. And you won't have to worry about pulling poor live fish out of the water.
Items required:
Four to six magnets (one for each player; magnets can be found at any hardware shop), paper clips, stickytape, four to six thin nine-inch sticks (one for each player; unsharpened pencil work really well), a large bowl of water, aluminium foil, string and scissors.
How to prepare the game:
Step [I]:
Fold the aluminium foil in four. Cut 2-inches long fishes out of the folded foil, using the first fish as a pattern fish.
Step [II]:
Slide a paper clip onto the front end of each aluminium foil fish. Drop all the fish into the bowl of water.
Step [III]:
Cut pieces of string about 20cm long. Tie a magnet to one end of each piece. Tie the other end to a stick or pencil and fix it with sticky tape.
How to Play:
Catch the fish by picking them up with the magnets. If two players catch the same fish, they must put it back to the bowl. The player who catches the maximum number of fishes is the winner.
Make Gurj
Papier mache Club
The name of Hanuman makes us think of sheer physical strength. The club was the dreaded weapon with which this faithful devotee of Rama defeated his enemies. So, here's a chance to make your own club and have a swinging time during Dussehra.
You will need:
Balloon, waste paper, adhesive, chart paper, blade and paints.
Step 1: Mix the adhesive with water and make it watery. Tear the waste paper into small pieces - one inch long and one inch wide. Blow the balloon and stick the paper pieces on it.
Step 2: Stick at least six to seven layers of paper on the balloon.
Step 3: Leave it to dry overnight.
Step 4: After the layers have dried and hardened, make a hole in the stiffened paper and burst the balloon with a pin and take it out.
Step 5: Roll the chart paper and insert it inside the hole, to make the handle. The club is complete now. You may paint it in any colour - from golden yellow to a rainbow of shades. Action!
The name of Hanuman makes us think of sheer physical strength. The club was the dreaded weapon with which this faithful devotee of Rama defeated his enemies. So, here's a chance to make your own club and have a swinging time during Dussehra.
You will need:
Balloon, waste paper, adhesive, chart paper, blade and paints.
Step 1: Mix the adhesive with water and make it watery. Tear the waste paper into small pieces - one inch long and one inch wide. Blow the balloon and stick the paper pieces on it.
Step 2: Stick at least six to seven layers of paper on the balloon.
Step 3: Leave it to dry overnight.
Step 4: After the layers have dried and hardened, make a hole in the stiffened paper and burst the balloon with a pin and take it out.
Step 5: Roll the chart paper and insert it inside the hole, to make the handle. The club is complete now. You may paint it in any colour - from golden yellow to a rainbow of shades. Action!
Make Gurj
Papier mache Club
The name of Hanuman makes us think of sheer physical strength. The club was the dreaded weapon with which this faithful devotee of Rama defeated his enemies. So, here's a chance to make your own club and have a swinging time during Dussehra.
You will need:
Balloon, waste paper, adhesive, chart paper, blade and paints.
Step 1: Mix the adhesive with water and make it watery. Tear the waste paper into small pieces - one inch long and one inch wide. Blow the balloon and stick the paper pieces on it.
Step 2: Stick at least six to seven layers of paper on the balloon.
Step 3: Leave it to dry overnight.
Step 4: After the layers have dried and hardened, make a hole in the stiffened paper and burst the balloon with a pin and take it out.
Step 5: Roll the chart paper and insert it inside the hole, to make the handle. The club is complete now. You may paint it in any colour - from golden yellow to a rainbow of shades. Action!
The name of Hanuman makes us think of sheer physical strength. The club was the dreaded weapon with which this faithful devotee of Rama defeated his enemies. So, here's a chance to make your own club and have a swinging time during Dussehra.
You will need:
Balloon, waste paper, adhesive, chart paper, blade and paints.
Step 1: Mix the adhesive with water and make it watery. Tear the waste paper into small pieces - one inch long and one inch wide. Blow the balloon and stick the paper pieces on it.
Step 2: Stick at least six to seven layers of paper on the balloon.
Step 3: Leave it to dry overnight.
Step 4: After the layers have dried and hardened, make a hole in the stiffened paper and burst the balloon with a pin and take it out.
Step 5: Roll the chart paper and insert it inside the hole, to make the handle. The club is complete now. You may paint it in any colour - from golden yellow to a rainbow of shades. Action!
Do Magic
The Unbreakable Match
All you need is:
1. One handkerchief with a hem.
2. Two wooden matches or toothpicks.
Step 1: Hide a toothpick in the hem of a handkerchief. Display the handkerchief, and several other toothpicks you have brought with you. Then, have a volunteer point to one of the toothpicks.
Step 2: Pick up the toothpick they chose, place it in the center of the handkerchief, and roll the handkerchief up with the chosen toothpick in its center.
Step 3: While you do this, take hold of the toothpick concealed in the hem of the handkerchief, and hand this to the volunteer. Have him confirm that he can feel the toothpick through the handkerchief, and even invite him to break it in half!
Step 4: When he does, take the handkerchief back and break the hidden toothpick again! Everyone will think the toothpick that's been broken is the same one they saw you roll up in the handkerchief a few moments earlier. Now, slowly unroll the handkerchief and show the toothpick, still in its center, and completely unharmed!
All you need is:
1. One handkerchief with a hem.
2. Two wooden matches or toothpicks.
Step 1: Hide a toothpick in the hem of a handkerchief. Display the handkerchief, and several other toothpicks you have brought with you. Then, have a volunteer point to one of the toothpicks.
Step 2: Pick up the toothpick they chose, place it in the center of the handkerchief, and roll the handkerchief up with the chosen toothpick in its center.
Step 3: While you do this, take hold of the toothpick concealed in the hem of the handkerchief, and hand this to the volunteer. Have him confirm that he can feel the toothpick through the handkerchief, and even invite him to break it in half!
Step 4: When he does, take the handkerchief back and break the hidden toothpick again! Everyone will think the toothpick that's been broken is the same one they saw you roll up in the handkerchief a few moments earlier. Now, slowly unroll the handkerchief and show the toothpick, still in its center, and completely unharmed!
MAKE POM POM BALLS
Pom Pom Balls
These balls are soft and won't hurt anyone while playing. Better still, they are easy to make. So why don't you gift a a few to a friend?
The things you need:
1. A small piece of cardboard
2. Thick wool (single or multi-coloured)
3. A scissor
4. Needle
5. Thread
Step 1: Cut the cardboard in the shape of a ring.
Step 2: Now start winding wool around the cardboard ring. Make sure you tie a knot at the starting point in order to keep the wool secure.
Step 3: Thread a needle and take it through each strand of the wool, just the way you make a garland of flowers. Keep one end of the thread loose.
Step 4: With the help of a scissor, cut the wool from the outer circumference.
Step 5: Pull the loose thread. As soon as you do that the wool will get crumpled into a ball.
If you want a bigger ball, you need to wind more wool. Just be sure that when you pass the needle, it should go through all the wool strands.
These balls are soft and won't hurt anyone while playing. Better still, they are easy to make. So why don't you gift a a few to a friend?
The things you need:
1. A small piece of cardboard
2. Thick wool (single or multi-coloured)
3. A scissor
4. Needle
5. Thread
Step 1: Cut the cardboard in the shape of a ring.
Step 2: Now start winding wool around the cardboard ring. Make sure you tie a knot at the starting point in order to keep the wool secure.
Step 3: Thread a needle and take it through each strand of the wool, just the way you make a garland of flowers. Keep one end of the thread loose.
Step 4: With the help of a scissor, cut the wool from the outer circumference.
Step 5: Pull the loose thread. As soon as you do that the wool will get crumpled into a ball.
If you want a bigger ball, you need to wind more wool. Just be sure that when you pass the needle, it should go through all the wool strands.
MAKE SLIPPERS
Make Your Own Slippers
Most of us have slippers to wear inside the house and a different pair for outside use. So why not make your very own slip-ons that make you feel as if you are walking on clouds?
The things you need:
1. The soles of any old pair of slippers.
2. A sheet of foam (1/2 inch thickness)
3 Cotton or flannel cloth (one square metre)
4. Ribbons
5. Adhesive
6. Scissors
Step 1: Cut the foam in the shape of the sole.
Step 2: Double the cloth and trace out the shape of the foam. Draw another boundary one centimetre away from the traced boundary. Cut the cloth from the outer boundary.
Step 3: Run a stitch on the inner boundary, joining the two cloth pieces leaving an opening to insert the foam. Turn the cloth inside out and put the foam. Then, complete the stitch. You can back stitch either by hand or on the sewing machine.
Step 4: Repeat the same procedure to make the strap. This time cut the foam into four identical, rectangular bands - two straps for each slipper. Remember, you have to make two folds to get four equal-sized cloth covers for the straps.
Step 5: Spread the adhesive on the complete sole. First stick one end of the strap and then the foam, which you have covered with the cloth. Finally put some adhesive on the other edge of the strap and fix it underneath the foam.
Step 6: Make a bow with the ribbon and stick it on the strap. You can also do some embroidery on it.
The slippers are ready to be worn but hey, don't be in a hurry. Let the adhesive dry for some time.
Most of us have slippers to wear inside the house and a different pair for outside use. So why not make your very own slip-ons that make you feel as if you are walking on clouds?
The things you need:
1. The soles of any old pair of slippers.
2. A sheet of foam (1/2 inch thickness)
3 Cotton or flannel cloth (one square metre)
4. Ribbons
5. Adhesive
6. Scissors
Step 1: Cut the foam in the shape of the sole.
Step 2: Double the cloth and trace out the shape of the foam. Draw another boundary one centimetre away from the traced boundary. Cut the cloth from the outer boundary.
Step 3: Run a stitch on the inner boundary, joining the two cloth pieces leaving an opening to insert the foam. Turn the cloth inside out and put the foam. Then, complete the stitch. You can back stitch either by hand or on the sewing machine.
Step 4: Repeat the same procedure to make the strap. This time cut the foam into four identical, rectangular bands - two straps for each slipper. Remember, you have to make two folds to get four equal-sized cloth covers for the straps.
Step 5: Spread the adhesive on the complete sole. First stick one end of the strap and then the foam, which you have covered with the cloth. Finally put some adhesive on the other edge of the strap and fix it underneath the foam.
Step 6: Make a bow with the ribbon and stick it on the strap. You can also do some embroidery on it.
The slippers are ready to be worn but hey, don't be in a hurry. Let the adhesive dry for some time.
Make Musical Instruments
Make Your Own Drum
Here's an easy to make drum that the kids can put together very easily.
What you will need
• Glue.
• A round container (I used a plastic DVD holder but this could be anything, including cardboard).To ensure the drum's longevity ensure that this is firm. As an example, the container that I used had a diameter of 5 inches (approximately 13 centimetres).
• Coloured cardboard or paper to decorate the drum (I used two colours but it's your choice).
• Contact (the sticky plastic sheets that are commonly used to cover textbooks etc.) to protect and strengthen the drum. Please note that this is optional.
• Round piece of cardboard to fit over the bottom of the drum.
• Thick piece of plastic which is used as the playing surface of the drum (thick to ensure longevity). I obtained a small sheet from a local hardware store.
• Rubber band or similar to secure the plastic to the top of the drum.
• For the drum sticks you will need two wooden skewers and two Decofoam balls.
How to make
1. Cut the colored cardboard or paper into equal size strips which are the container's height (see the side view photograph). These will be used later for the drum's decoration.
2. Decorate your drum by glueing the strips around the outside of your container and leave it to dry.
3. To strengthen and protect this surface, cover it with the sticky contact.
4. To make the bottom of the drum, place the container on top of the cardboard and trace around it and cut it out (if you wish, place contact on top of this cardboard piece).
5. Glue the bottom of the drum in place and leave to dry.
6. To make the playing surface, cut the thick piece of plastic to size, ensuring that you allow extra room so that it can be fastened with the rubber band.
7. The final step is to fasten this in place with the rubber band and you're done!
Now for something to play it with - the drum sticks!
• Paint two Decofoam balls and leave to dry.
• Pierce each ball with a wooden skewer and then to make it secure, glue them in place.
Make Your Own Didgeridoo
Ancient Instrument Used by Australia's Native Aborigines
Before we get into the instruments, for those of you who want to know more about this fascinating instrument, here are a few facts..
• Possibly the world's oldest musical instrument.
• A wind instrument originally found in Arnhem Land, Northern Australia.
• Is made from limbs and tree trunks hollowed out by termites (insects).
• Is cut to an average length of 1.3 metres (51 inches) and cleaned out with a stick or hot coals.
• Was used as an accompaniment to chants and songs.
• Produces a low-pitch, resonant sound with complex rhythmic patterns.
Whilst traditionally the Didgeridoo is made from wood, you can make one using plastic tubing or a poster tube.
Click here to find out more about the Didgeridoo and Australia's aborigines.
You will need
Plastic tubing, or a poster tube small or large (these are tubes that you can put posters in to send or protect them) and some paint for decoration.
How to make it
Choose the colors that you want to paint with (the paint must be non-toxic and safe for children to use). The aboriginals use natural colors, but you can use whatever you want.
Paint the whole tube with the colors of your choice, then leave it to dry (be sure to apply an initial coat of the base color first). That's all there is to it and you now have your very own home made Didgeridoo!
Do not cover up the ends, as it will not make any sound.
Blow into the tube and discover the different sounds that you can make. Playing the Didgeridoo well is not an easy task but it really is a beautiful instrument and it has a great sound when played well.
Find Other Kids Craft Projects Here
ChildLearningSupport.com
Be sure to visit my web site for more homemade musical instrument and other kids craft projects
Paper Plate Craft Ideas - Easy Kids Crafts
Here's some kids craft projects that your children can make very easily using paper plates.
Wooden Spoon Craft Ideas for Kids
Here's some kids craft projects that your children can make very easily using wooden spoons.
Make Your Own Trumpet
Simple to Make Requiring Few Items
What you will need
• 1 piece of hose - approximately 75cm (29.5 inches) in length.
• Cord with tassels or decorative ribbon.
1 plastic funnel.
• Scissors (do be careful with scissors around children and let them know the safety issues with them and always be there to supervise when they are being used).
• Coloured cellotape.
• 1 pencil (the pencil will be inserted so please use an old or unwanted one).
How to make
1. Decorate the funnel with the coloured tape and push it into one end of the hose and fix it in place with the coloured tape.
2. Add coloured tape to the other end of the hose to make the mouth piece.
3. Loop the hose as shown in the photograph securing it with coloured tape where it overlaps - please note as can be seen from the photograph that the pencil is also secured in place.
4. Decorate the trumpet with strips of coloured tape and with the cord or ribbon.
Now your trumpet is ready. The trumpet produces only a few notes but you can vary the sounds by pressing your lips tighter together as you blow, or letting them relax a little.
Here's an easy to make drum that the kids can put together very easily.
What you will need
• Glue.
• A round container (I used a plastic DVD holder but this could be anything, including cardboard).To ensure the drum's longevity ensure that this is firm. As an example, the container that I used had a diameter of 5 inches (approximately 13 centimetres).
• Coloured cardboard or paper to decorate the drum (I used two colours but it's your choice).
• Contact (the sticky plastic sheets that are commonly used to cover textbooks etc.) to protect and strengthen the drum. Please note that this is optional.
• Round piece of cardboard to fit over the bottom of the drum.
• Thick piece of plastic which is used as the playing surface of the drum (thick to ensure longevity). I obtained a small sheet from a local hardware store.
• Rubber band or similar to secure the plastic to the top of the drum.
• For the drum sticks you will need two wooden skewers and two Decofoam balls.
How to make
1. Cut the colored cardboard or paper into equal size strips which are the container's height (see the side view photograph). These will be used later for the drum's decoration.
2. Decorate your drum by glueing the strips around the outside of your container and leave it to dry.
3. To strengthen and protect this surface, cover it with the sticky contact.
4. To make the bottom of the drum, place the container on top of the cardboard and trace around it and cut it out (if you wish, place contact on top of this cardboard piece).
5. Glue the bottom of the drum in place and leave to dry.
6. To make the playing surface, cut the thick piece of plastic to size, ensuring that you allow extra room so that it can be fastened with the rubber band.
7. The final step is to fasten this in place with the rubber band and you're done!
Now for something to play it with - the drum sticks!
• Paint two Decofoam balls and leave to dry.
• Pierce each ball with a wooden skewer and then to make it secure, glue them in place.
Make Your Own Didgeridoo
Ancient Instrument Used by Australia's Native Aborigines
Before we get into the instruments, for those of you who want to know more about this fascinating instrument, here are a few facts..
• Possibly the world's oldest musical instrument.
• A wind instrument originally found in Arnhem Land, Northern Australia.
• Is made from limbs and tree trunks hollowed out by termites (insects).
• Is cut to an average length of 1.3 metres (51 inches) and cleaned out with a stick or hot coals.
• Was used as an accompaniment to chants and songs.
• Produces a low-pitch, resonant sound with complex rhythmic patterns.
Whilst traditionally the Didgeridoo is made from wood, you can make one using plastic tubing or a poster tube.
Click here to find out more about the Didgeridoo and Australia's aborigines.
You will need
Plastic tubing, or a poster tube small or large (these are tubes that you can put posters in to send or protect them) and some paint for decoration.
How to make it
Choose the colors that you want to paint with (the paint must be non-toxic and safe for children to use). The aboriginals use natural colors, but you can use whatever you want.
Paint the whole tube with the colors of your choice, then leave it to dry (be sure to apply an initial coat of the base color first). That's all there is to it and you now have your very own home made Didgeridoo!
Do not cover up the ends, as it will not make any sound.
Blow into the tube and discover the different sounds that you can make. Playing the Didgeridoo well is not an easy task but it really is a beautiful instrument and it has a great sound when played well.
Find Other Kids Craft Projects Here
ChildLearningSupport.com
Be sure to visit my web site for more homemade musical instrument and other kids craft projects
Paper Plate Craft Ideas - Easy Kids Crafts
Here's some kids craft projects that your children can make very easily using paper plates.
Wooden Spoon Craft Ideas for Kids
Here's some kids craft projects that your children can make very easily using wooden spoons.
Make Your Own Trumpet
Simple to Make Requiring Few Items
What you will need
• 1 piece of hose - approximately 75cm (29.5 inches) in length.
• Cord with tassels or decorative ribbon.
1 plastic funnel.
• Scissors (do be careful with scissors around children and let them know the safety issues with them and always be there to supervise when they are being used).
• Coloured cellotape.
• 1 pencil (the pencil will be inserted so please use an old or unwanted one).
How to make
1. Decorate the funnel with the coloured tape and push it into one end of the hose and fix it in place with the coloured tape.
2. Add coloured tape to the other end of the hose to make the mouth piece.
3. Loop the hose as shown in the photograph securing it with coloured tape where it overlaps - please note as can be seen from the photograph that the pencil is also secured in place.
4. Decorate the trumpet with strips of coloured tape and with the cord or ribbon.
Now your trumpet is ready. The trumpet produces only a few notes but you can vary the sounds by pressing your lips tighter together as you blow, or letting them relax a little.
MATCHBOX DRAWERS
Matchbox Drawers
THINGS REQUIRED
Two drawers from used matchboxes; 4 unused matchsticks; marble paper of any colour; glue.
METHOD
Here is a clever container for keeping pins and needles! And it’s simple to make as well!
1. Cover the drawers with the coloured marble paper.
2. Stick the matchsticks, heads down and two to a side, on each side of the matchbox drawers at equal intervals as shown.
3. Leave to dry completely before using.
THINGS REQUIRED
Two drawers from used matchboxes; 4 unused matchsticks; marble paper of any colour; glue.
METHOD
Here is a clever container for keeping pins and needles! And it’s simple to make as well!
1. Cover the drawers with the coloured marble paper.
2. Stick the matchsticks, heads down and two to a side, on each side of the matchbox drawers at equal intervals as shown.
3. Leave to dry completely before using.
THE END
THE END
There was a little hummingbird in my neighborhood that usually perched on my windowsill. I enjoyed hearing her sing, but I hadn’t seen the little hummingbird for several days. About a week ago, a bad storm came through and blew all the worms away. I felt sorry for the little hummingbird. She must be hungry and flew somewhere else to find worms, I thought to myself. Then one beautiful sunny morning the little hummingbird reappeared on my windowsill.
“Where have you been?” I asked the little hummingbird.
“Just out flying around”, replied the little hummingbird.
“Did you find anything to eat?” I asked.
“Oh there’s plenty of food, but all the twigs and straw were blown away with last week’s storm,” said the little hummingbird in a sad voice.
“I am sorry to hear that. What are you going to do?” I asked.
The little hummingbird shrugged her feathers and said, “I’m not sure, but I have a favor to ask of you.”
“Sure, anything,” I said.
“Can you please give me some bubblegum?” asked the little hummingbird.
I was surprised that a hummingbird would ask for bubblegum, but I was happy to share it with my friend. The little hummingbird chewed the gumballs I gave her, and then blew a bubble bigger than her entire body. She thanked me for the bubblegum and then flew out of sight.
The very next morning the little hummingbird appeared on my windowsill, and asked for a couple more pieces of bubblegum. Like before, I was surprised that a little hummingbird would ask for bubblegum, but I was happy to share it with my friend. The little hummingbird chewed the gumballs I gave her, and then blew a big bubble. She thanked me for the bubblegum and then flew out of sight. A couple of days passed and I hadn’t seen the little hummingbird. I wondered what she was up to. One sunny day I was outside playing when a voice called out my name. I looked around but didn’t see anyone. The voice called out my name again, and this time I realized it was coming from the oak tree in my back yard. It was the little hummingbird who was calling out my name, and she was sitting in a red, orange, and blue nest.
“Look what you helped me build,” said the little hummingbird.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, since there aren’t twigs or straw left from the storm, I had to build something where I could lay my eggs. Because of your willingness to share your bubblegum with me, I was able to build this nest for me and my family. Thank you,” said the little hummingbird.
I climbed up the oak tree, and sure enough there were two little eggs the size of jelly beans laying in the nest made of bubblegum. It felt good to share my bubblegum in the first place, and once I realized it helped the little hummingbird build her nest it made sharing feel even better.
There was a little hummingbird in my neighborhood that usually perched on my windowsill. I enjoyed hearing her sing, but I hadn’t seen the little hummingbird for several days. About a week ago, a bad storm came through and blew all the worms away. I felt sorry for the little hummingbird. She must be hungry and flew somewhere else to find worms, I thought to myself. Then one beautiful sunny morning the little hummingbird reappeared on my windowsill.
“Where have you been?” I asked the little hummingbird.
“Just out flying around”, replied the little hummingbird.
“Did you find anything to eat?” I asked.
“Oh there’s plenty of food, but all the twigs and straw were blown away with last week’s storm,” said the little hummingbird in a sad voice.
“I am sorry to hear that. What are you going to do?” I asked.
The little hummingbird shrugged her feathers and said, “I’m not sure, but I have a favor to ask of you.”
“Sure, anything,” I said.
“Can you please give me some bubblegum?” asked the little hummingbird.
I was surprised that a hummingbird would ask for bubblegum, but I was happy to share it with my friend. The little hummingbird chewed the gumballs I gave her, and then blew a bubble bigger than her entire body. She thanked me for the bubblegum and then flew out of sight.
The very next morning the little hummingbird appeared on my windowsill, and asked for a couple more pieces of bubblegum. Like before, I was surprised that a little hummingbird would ask for bubblegum, but I was happy to share it with my friend. The little hummingbird chewed the gumballs I gave her, and then blew a big bubble. She thanked me for the bubblegum and then flew out of sight. A couple of days passed and I hadn’t seen the little hummingbird. I wondered what she was up to. One sunny day I was outside playing when a voice called out my name. I looked around but didn’t see anyone. The voice called out my name again, and this time I realized it was coming from the oak tree in my back yard. It was the little hummingbird who was calling out my name, and she was sitting in a red, orange, and blue nest.
“Look what you helped me build,” said the little hummingbird.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, since there aren’t twigs or straw left from the storm, I had to build something where I could lay my eggs. Because of your willingness to share your bubblegum with me, I was able to build this nest for me and my family. Thank you,” said the little hummingbird.
I climbed up the oak tree, and sure enough there were two little eggs the size of jelly beans laying in the nest made of bubblegum. It felt good to share my bubblegum in the first place, and once I realized it helped the little hummingbird build her nest it made sharing feel even better.
The Wasp and The Carnary
The Wasp and the Carnary
Hello, Dexter here. I’m just your average ordinary neighborhood wasp. Before you go swatting me though, I think you should know that like everyone else, I too have a story to tell. At least afford me the opportunity to get something off my wings before you swat me with your flyswatter. Please?
It’s late October and the first frost was a couple of weeks ago. The fact that I am still alive is lucky in itself. If it hadn’t been for Mom building her nest in the Miller’s garage, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.
The nectar is long gone on every flower in the region and the warm weather neighborhood social gatherings have long subsided. Those are usually great because of the pop cans. A drop of sugar from a can of soda is to us wasps, what Hershey’s Kisses are to you humans. Things were going well for awhile, but then my usual stomping ground for feasting was taken away from me. Charlie Richards finally started putting the lid on his trash can. Times were tough.
One day a lucky situation came my way though, when Mrs. Jordan on Bexley Street left a fresh baked apple pie sitting on her kitchen table with the window open. I was beside myself with excitement. Just about the time I was ready to take my first bite of pie, a voice yelled out, “What do you think you’re doing?”
The voice scared me so bad I thought I was going to lose my stinger. I looked over my wing but didn’t see anybody.
“I said, what do you think you’re doing,” the voice said again.
This time I looked straight up and there before me was the strangest looking canary you ever laid your eyes on. His entire body was brown and yellow except for his head which was dark green. Humans get teased if they accidentally put on two different colored socks in the morning; given that, maybe that’s why he’s in a cage in the first place I thought to myself. I suddenly felt a sense of compassion for this multi colored bird. I collected myself and said to the canary, “I was just going to have a little taste of this pie.”
“It’s not yours to taste,” said the canary.
“I’m sorry but I couldn’t help myself,” I said.
“Don’t you have any food?” asked the canary.
“No sir,” I replied. “The flowers are all dried up and it’s slim pickings out there.”
“Well, there is no shortage of food here for me,” said the canary. “But every day it’s the same ole thing: nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits, herbs…. After awhile the nuts and fruits can make you feel a little nutty and fruity. To make matters worse, every Tuesday my owners have relatives over for pizza. One of them is a little girl and when I ask for pizza, she always says back to me, ‘Polly, want a cracker?’ Every time I get asked that I cringe. When they first bring you home from the store you expect it for the first couple of months. But day after day after day makes me want to wear earplugs,” said the canary.
“Well, it sounds like we both have our problems,” I said.
“Wait a second,” said the canary. “I have an idea.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Why don’t we each have some of the pie?”
“Fair enough,” I said. “But you’re in a cage, what’s stopping me from just eating this all by myself?”
“I might be in this cage, but I know a lot of birds on the outside that would just fancy a nice little wasp like yourself.”
I swallowed so hard it shook the canary’s cage. “I see your point. Do you have napkins?”
“No,” said the canary. “But I have fresh water in my cage you can help yourself to.”
We ate, and we ate, and then we ate some more. The canary and I nearly stuffed ourselves silly with apple pie. A life-long friendship was formed that day, and I’ll always be thankful to my friend. I plan on stopping by around Thanksgiving to say hi, and pumpkin pie is one of my favorites.
Hello, Dexter here. I’m just your average ordinary neighborhood wasp. Before you go swatting me though, I think you should know that like everyone else, I too have a story to tell. At least afford me the opportunity to get something off my wings before you swat me with your flyswatter. Please?
It’s late October and the first frost was a couple of weeks ago. The fact that I am still alive is lucky in itself. If it hadn’t been for Mom building her nest in the Miller’s garage, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.
The nectar is long gone on every flower in the region and the warm weather neighborhood social gatherings have long subsided. Those are usually great because of the pop cans. A drop of sugar from a can of soda is to us wasps, what Hershey’s Kisses are to you humans. Things were going well for awhile, but then my usual stomping ground for feasting was taken away from me. Charlie Richards finally started putting the lid on his trash can. Times were tough.
One day a lucky situation came my way though, when Mrs. Jordan on Bexley Street left a fresh baked apple pie sitting on her kitchen table with the window open. I was beside myself with excitement. Just about the time I was ready to take my first bite of pie, a voice yelled out, “What do you think you’re doing?”
The voice scared me so bad I thought I was going to lose my stinger. I looked over my wing but didn’t see anybody.
“I said, what do you think you’re doing,” the voice said again.
This time I looked straight up and there before me was the strangest looking canary you ever laid your eyes on. His entire body was brown and yellow except for his head which was dark green. Humans get teased if they accidentally put on two different colored socks in the morning; given that, maybe that’s why he’s in a cage in the first place I thought to myself. I suddenly felt a sense of compassion for this multi colored bird. I collected myself and said to the canary, “I was just going to have a little taste of this pie.”
“It’s not yours to taste,” said the canary.
“I’m sorry but I couldn’t help myself,” I said.
“Don’t you have any food?” asked the canary.
“No sir,” I replied. “The flowers are all dried up and it’s slim pickings out there.”
“Well, there is no shortage of food here for me,” said the canary. “But every day it’s the same ole thing: nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits, herbs…. After awhile the nuts and fruits can make you feel a little nutty and fruity. To make matters worse, every Tuesday my owners have relatives over for pizza. One of them is a little girl and when I ask for pizza, she always says back to me, ‘Polly, want a cracker?’ Every time I get asked that I cringe. When they first bring you home from the store you expect it for the first couple of months. But day after day after day makes me want to wear earplugs,” said the canary.
“Well, it sounds like we both have our problems,” I said.
“Wait a second,” said the canary. “I have an idea.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Why don’t we each have some of the pie?”
“Fair enough,” I said. “But you’re in a cage, what’s stopping me from just eating this all by myself?”
“I might be in this cage, but I know a lot of birds on the outside that would just fancy a nice little wasp like yourself.”
I swallowed so hard it shook the canary’s cage. “I see your point. Do you have napkins?”
“No,” said the canary. “But I have fresh water in my cage you can help yourself to.”
We ate, and we ate, and then we ate some more. The canary and I nearly stuffed ourselves silly with apple pie. A life-long friendship was formed that day, and I’ll always be thankful to my friend. I plan on stopping by around Thanksgiving to say hi, and pumpkin pie is one of my favorites.
How to make paper at home
HOW TO MAKE PAPER AT HOME
Let’s pass to the experiment part of this article. By now, you understand that to make a sheet of paper, you must first get a suspension of cellulose fibers in water. Getting these fibers from a trunk is possible, but it would take too much time and effort. Therefore, we will use newspapers, from which it is easier to extract fibers. In this manner, we will also experiment with the possibility of recycling paper.
MATERIALS (figure 2):
- wooden frame
- sieve with holes of about 1 mm (available in a hardware store)
- Formica sheets
- rectangular bowl/container large enough to fit the frame
- mortar with pestle
- jug
- hairdryer
- newspaper
- green and dried grass (optional)
- flowers (optional)
- flat sponge
- water
Figure 2 - Tools to make paper at home.
With wooden boards, make a frame like that of figure 3. Mount the sieve underneath, with strips of wood and nails enclosing it (figure 4).
Figure 3 - Frame seen from above. Figure 4 - Frame seen from below.
PROCEDURE:
- soak some of the newspaper in water (it’s better if you let it to set for a day or two);
- squeeze out the excess water;
- with the mortar and pestle, crush a little bit of paper at a time until you get a homogeneous paste, consisting of fibers isolated from each other (figure 5);
- repeat this until you have enough paste;
- fill the bowl halfway with water;
- put the paper paste in the bowl and stir it to separate the fibers;
- remove any resulting clumps (a dense suspension of fibers must remain in the water);
- immerse the frame in the watery suspension in the bowl (the sieve should be facing the bottom of the bowl);
- slowly remove the frame from the suspension keeping it steadily horizontal; eventually move the frame to even out the layer of fibers (figure 6);
- wait for the water to drain;
Figure 5 - With mortar and pestle, crush some of the newspaper
until you get a homogeneous paste in which the fibers are isolated
from each other. Put this paste in a water-filled bowl and stir by
hand to help the fibers separate from one another. Figure 6 - Immerse the frame in the bowl, collect part
of the fiber suspension, and slowly remove the frame.
- place the smooth side of a sheet of Formica on top of the sheet of paper still soaked with water;
- press on the Formica a little to drain the water, taking care not to deform the sieve (figure 7);
- with a sponge, collect water from underneath and squeeze it away every so often;
- carefully remove the sheet of Formica so that the sheet of paper remains attached to it (figure 8);
- let the sheet of paper dry. To do this more quickly, you can dry it with a hairdryer (figure 9).
Figure 7 – Place a sheet of Formica on top of the layer
of fiber extracted and squeeze out the excess water,
without putting too much force on the sieve. Figure 8 - Gently, remove the sheet of Formica and with it
the sheet of paper, which will again be soaked with water.
- make other sheets of paper, introducing to the suspension some grass crushed in the mortar;
- (optionally) later introduce some flower petals (without crushing them).
Let’s pass to the experiment part of this article. By now, you understand that to make a sheet of paper, you must first get a suspension of cellulose fibers in water. Getting these fibers from a trunk is possible, but it would take too much time and effort. Therefore, we will use newspapers, from which it is easier to extract fibers. In this manner, we will also experiment with the possibility of recycling paper.
MATERIALS (figure 2):
- wooden frame
- sieve with holes of about 1 mm (available in a hardware store)
- Formica sheets
- rectangular bowl/container large enough to fit the frame
- mortar with pestle
- jug
- hairdryer
- newspaper
- green and dried grass (optional)
- flowers (optional)
- flat sponge
- water
Figure 2 - Tools to make paper at home.
With wooden boards, make a frame like that of figure 3. Mount the sieve underneath, with strips of wood and nails enclosing it (figure 4).
Figure 3 - Frame seen from above. Figure 4 - Frame seen from below.
PROCEDURE:
- soak some of the newspaper in water (it’s better if you let it to set for a day or two);
- squeeze out the excess water;
- with the mortar and pestle, crush a little bit of paper at a time until you get a homogeneous paste, consisting of fibers isolated from each other (figure 5);
- repeat this until you have enough paste;
- fill the bowl halfway with water;
- put the paper paste in the bowl and stir it to separate the fibers;
- remove any resulting clumps (a dense suspension of fibers must remain in the water);
- immerse the frame in the watery suspension in the bowl (the sieve should be facing the bottom of the bowl);
- slowly remove the frame from the suspension keeping it steadily horizontal; eventually move the frame to even out the layer of fibers (figure 6);
- wait for the water to drain;
Figure 5 - With mortar and pestle, crush some of the newspaper
until you get a homogeneous paste in which the fibers are isolated
from each other. Put this paste in a water-filled bowl and stir by
hand to help the fibers separate from one another. Figure 6 - Immerse the frame in the bowl, collect part
of the fiber suspension, and slowly remove the frame.
- place the smooth side of a sheet of Formica on top of the sheet of paper still soaked with water;
- press on the Formica a little to drain the water, taking care not to deform the sieve (figure 7);
- with a sponge, collect water from underneath and squeeze it away every so often;
- carefully remove the sheet of Formica so that the sheet of paper remains attached to it (figure 8);
- let the sheet of paper dry. To do this more quickly, you can dry it with a hairdryer (figure 9).
Figure 7 – Place a sheet of Formica on top of the layer
of fiber extracted and squeeze out the excess water,
without putting too much force on the sieve. Figure 8 - Gently, remove the sheet of Formica and with it
the sheet of paper, which will again be soaked with water.
- make other sheets of paper, introducing to the suspension some grass crushed in the mortar;
- (optionally) later introduce some flower petals (without crushing them).
HARRY POTTER
Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Complete set of the seven books of the Harry Potter series.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Author J. K. Rowling
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre Fantasy, thriller, Young-adult fiction
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
Scholastic Publishing (USA)Raincoast Books (CAN)
Published 26 June 1997 - 21 July 2007
Media type Print (hardcover and paperback)
Audiobook
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter, together with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, his friends from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The central story arc concerns Harry's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents in his quest to conquer the wizarding world and subjugate non-magical (Muggle) people to his rule. Several successfulderivative films, video games and other themed merchandise have been based upon the series.
Since the 1997 release of the first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States, the books have gained immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide.[1] As of June 2008, the book series has sold more than 400 million copies and has been translated into 67 languages,[2][3] and the last four books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history.
English-language versions of the books are published byBloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic Press in the United States, Allen & Unwin in Australia, andRaincoast Books in Canada. Thus far, the first five books have been made into a series of motion pictures byWarner Bros. The sixth, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is scheduled for release on 15 July 2009.[4] The series also originated much tie-in merchandise, making the Harry Potter brand worth £7 billion.
Contents
[hide]
• 1 Plot
o 1.1 The wizarding world
o 1.2 Voldemort returns
o 1.3 Supplementary works
• 2 Structure and genre
• 3 Themes
• 4 Origins and publishing history
o 4.1 Translations
o 4.2 Completion of the series
• 5 Achievements
o 5.1 Cultural impact
o 5.2 Awards and honours
o 5.3 Commercial success
• 6 Criticism, praise, and controversy
o 6.1 Literary criticism
o 6.2 Social impacts
o 6.3 Controversies
• 7 Films
• 8 Audiobooks
• 9 References
• 10 External links
Plot
Further information: Harry Potter universe
The novels revolve around Harry Potter, an orphan who discovers that he is a wizard.[5] Wizard ability is inborn, but children are sent to wizarding school to learn the magical skills necessary to succeed in thewizarding world.[6] Harry is invited to attend the boarding school called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Each book chronicles one year in Harry's life, and most of the events take place at Hogwarts.[7] As he struggles through adolescence, Harry learns to overcome many magical, social and emotional hurdles.[8]
The wizarding world
Flashbacks throughout the series reveal that when Harry was a baby he witnessed his parents' murder by Lord Voldemort who was a dark wizard obsessed with racial purity.[9] For reasons not immediately revealed, Voldemort's attempt to kill Harry rebounds.[9] Voldemort is seemingly killed and Harry survives with only a lightning-shaped mark on his forehead as a memento of the attack.[9] As its inadvertent saviour from Voldemort's reign of terror, Harry becomes a living legend in the wizard world. At the orders of his patron, the wizard Albus Dumbledore, Harry is placed in the home of his Muggle (non-wizard) relatives, who keep him completely ignorant of his true heritage.[9]
The first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, begins near Harry's 11th birthday. Half-giant Rubeus Hagrid reveals Harry's history and introduces him to the wizarding world.[9] The world J. K. Rowling created is both completely separate from and yet intimately connected to the real world. While the fantasy world of Narnia is an alternative universe and the Lord of the Rings’ Middle-earth a mythic past, the Wizarding world of Harry Potter exists alongside that of the real world and contains magical elements similar to things in the non-magical world. Many of its institutions and locations are in places that are recognisable in the real world, such as London.[10] It comprises a fragmented collection of hidden streets, overlooked and ancient pubs, lonely country manors and secluded castles that remain invisible to the non-magical population of Muggles.[6]
With Hagrid's help, Harry prepares for and undertakes his first year of study at Hogwarts. As Harry begins to explore the magical world, the reader is introduced to many of the primary locations used throughout the series. Harry meets most of the main characters and gains his two closest friends: Ron Weasley, a fun-loving member of an ancient wizarding family, and Hermione Granger, an obsessively bookish witch of non-magical parentage.[9][11] Harry also encounters the school's potions master,Severus Snape, who appears to have a deep-seated and irrational hatred of him. The plot concludes with Harry's second confrontation with Lord Voldemort, who in his quest for immortality, yearns to gain the power of the Philosopher's Stone.[9]
The series continues with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets describing Harry's second year at Hogwarts. He and his friends investigate a 50-year-old mystery that appears tied to recent sinister events at the school. The novel delves into the history of Hogwarts and a legend revolving around the "Chamber of Secrets", the underground lair of an ancient evil. For the first time, Harry realises that racial prejudice exists in the wizarding world, and he learns that Voldemort's reign of terror was often directed at wizards who were descended from Muggles. Harry is also shocked to learn that he can speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes; this rare ability is often equated with the dark arts. The novel ends after Harry saves the life of Ron's younger sister, Ginny Weasley, by defeating an attempt by Voldemort to reincarnate himself through the memories he stored within a diary.[9]
The third novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, follows Harry in his third year of magical education. It is the only book in the series which does not feature Voldemort. Instead, Harry must deal with the knowledge that he has been targeted by Sirius Black, an escaped murderer believed to have assisted in the deaths of Harry's parents. As Harry struggles with his reaction to the dementors—dark creatures with the power to devour a human soul—which are ostensibly protecting the school, he reaches out to Remus Lupin, a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher with a dark secret. Lupin teaches Harry defensive measures which are well above the level of magic generally shown by people his age. Harry learns that both Lupin and Black were close friends of his father and that Black was framed by their fourth friend, Peter Pettigrew.[12]
Voldemort returns
During Harry's fourth year of school, detailed in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry unwillingly participates in the Triwizard Tournament, a dangerous magical contest.[13] The plot centres on Harry's attempt to discover who has forced him to compete in the tournament and why.[14] An anxious Harry is guided through the tournament by Professor Alastor Moody, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. The point at which the mystery is unravelled marks the series' shift from foreboding and uncertainty into open conflict. The novel ends with the resurgence of Voldemort and the death of a student.[14]
In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry must confront the newly resurfaced Voldemort. In response to Voldemort's reappearance, Dumbledore re-activates the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society which works to defeat Voldemort's minions and protect Voldemort's targets, including Harry. The Order includes many of the adults Harry trusts, including Lupin, Black, and members of theWeasley family. Despite Harry's description of Voldemort's recent activities, the Ministry of Magic and many others in the magical world refuse to believe that Voldemort has returned.[15]
In an attempt to enforce their version of curriculum, the Ministry appoints Dolores Umbridge as the new High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. She transforms the school into a quasi-dictatorial regime and refuses to allow the students to learn ways to defend themselves against dark magic.[15] Harry forms a secret study group and begins to teach his classmates the higher-level skills he has learned. The novel introduces Harry to Luna Lovegood, an airy young witch with a tendency to believe in oddball conspiracy theories. Moreover, it reveals an important prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort.[16] Harry also discovers that he and Voldemort have a telepathic connection, allowing Harry to view some of Voldemort's actions. In the novel's climax, Harry and his school friends face off against Voldemort'sDeath Eaters. The timely arrival of members of the Order of the Phoenix saves the children's lives and allows many of the Death Eaters to be captured.[15]
The sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, shows clearly that Voldemort is leading another wizarding war, which has become so violent that even Muggles have noticed some of its effects. Harry is relatively protected from the danger as he completes his sixth year at Hogwarts. At the beginning of the novel, he stumbles upon an old potions textbook filled with annotations and recommendations signed by a mysterious writer, the Half-Blood Prince.[17] While the shortcuts written in the book help Harry to finally excel at potions, he eventually realises that some of the spells have evil results.
Harry also participates in private tutoring sessions with Albus Dumbledore, who shows him various memories concerning the early life of Voldemort. These sessions reveal that Voldemort's soul is splintered into a series of horcruxes, evil enchanted items hidden in various locations.[17]
The Shell Cottage constructed on Freshwater Beach West for the filming of Deathly Hallows.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book in the series, begins directly after the events of the sixth book. Following Dumbledore's death, Voldemort has completed his ascension to power and gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron, and Hermione drop out of school so that they can find and destroy Voldemort's remaining horcruxes. To ensure their own safety as well as that of their family and friends, they are forced to isolate themselves. As they search for the horcruxes, the trio learn details about Dumbledore's past, as well as Snape's true motives.
The book culminates in the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, in conjunction with members of the Order of the Phoenix and many of the teachers and students, defend Hogwarts from Voldemort, his Death Eaters, and various magical creatures. Several major characters are killed in the first wave of the battle. In an effort to save the survivors, Harry surrenders himself to Voldemort, who attempts to kill Harry. The battle resumes as the parents of many Hogwarts students and residents of the nearby village Hogsmeade arrive to reinforce the Order of the Phoenix. With the last horcrux destroyed, Harry is able to defeat Voldemort. An epilogue describes the lives of the surviving characters and reveals that peace has returned to the wizarding world.
Supplementary works
See also: J. K. Rowling: Philanthropy
Rowling has expanded the Harry Potter universe with several short books produced for various charities.[18][19] In 2001, she released Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (a purported Hogwarts textbook) and Quidditch Through the Ages (a book Harry read for fun). Proceeds from the sale of these two books benefitted the charity Comic Relief.[20] In 2007, Rowling composed seven handwritten copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a collection of fairy tales that is featured in the final novel, one of which was auctioned to raise money for the Children's High Level Group, a fund for mentally disabled children in poor countries. The book was published internationally on 4 December 2008.[21][22][23] Rowling also wrote an 800-word prequel in 2008 as part of a fundraiser organised by the bookseller Waterstones.[24]
Structure and genre
See also: Harry Potter influences and analogues
The Harry Potter novels fall within the genre of fantasy literature; however, in many respects they are alsobildungsromans, or coming of age novels.[25] They can be considered part of the British children'sboarding school genre, which includes Enid Blyton's Malory Towers, St. Clare's and the Naughtiest Girlseries, and Frank Richards's Billy Bunter novels.[26] The Harry Potter books are predominantly set inHogwarts, a fictional British boarding school for wizards, where the curriculum includes the use ofmagic.[26] In this sense they are "in a direct line of descent from Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days and other Victorian and Edwardian novels of British public school life".[27][28] They are also, in the words of Stephen King, "shrewd mystery tales",[29] and each book is constructed in the manner of aSherlock Holmes-style mystery adventure. The stories are told from a third person limited point of view with very few exceptions (such as the opening chapters of Philosopher's Stone and Deathly Hallows and the first two chapters of Half-Blood Prince).
In the middle of each book, Harry struggles with the problems he encounters, and dealing with them often involves the need to violate some school rules—the penalties, in case of being caught out, being disciplinary punishments set out in the Hogwarts regulations (in which the Harry Potter books follow many precedents in the boarding school sub-genre).[26] However, the stories reach their climax in thesummer term, near or just after final exams, when events escalate far beyond in-school squabbles and struggles, and Harry must confront either Voldemort or one of his followers, the Death Eaters, with the stakes a matter of life and death–a point underlined, as the series progresses, by one or more characters being killed in each of the final four books.[30][31] In the aftermath, he learns important lessons through exposition and discussions with head teacher and mentor Albus Dumbledore.
In the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry and his friends spend most of their time away from Hogwarts, and only return there to face Voldemort at the dénouement.[30] Completing the bildungsroman format, in this part Harry must grow up prematurely, losing the chance of a last year as a pupil in a school and needing to act as an adult, on whose decisions everybody else depends—the grown-ups included.[32]
Themes
According to Rowling, a major theme in the series is death: "My books are largely about death. They open with the death of Harry's parents. There is Voldemort's obsession with conquering death and his quest for immortality at any price, the goal of anyone with magic. I so understand why Voldemort wants to conquer death. We're all frightened of it."[33]
Academics and journalists have many other interpretations of themes in the books, some more complex than others, and some including political subtexts. Themes such as normality, oppression, survival, and overcoming imposing odds have all been considered as prevalent throughout the series.[34] Similarly, the theme of making one's way through adolescence and "going over one's most harrowing ordeals—and thus coming to terms with them" has also been considered.[35] Rowling has stated that the books comprise "a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry" and that also pass on a message to "question authority and... not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth".[36][37]
While the books could be said to comprise many other themes, such as power/abuse of power, love,prejudice, and free choice, they are, as J.K. Rowling states, "deeply entrenched in the whole plot"; the writer prefers to let themes "grow organically", rather than sitting down and consciously attempting to impart such ideas to her readers.[38] Along the same lines is the ever-present theme of adolescence, in whose depiction Rowling has been purposeful in acknowledging her characters' sexualities and not leaving Harry, as she put it, "stuck in a state of permanent pre-pubescence".[39] Rowling said that, to her, the moral significance of the tales seems "blindingly obvious." The key for her was the choice between what is right and what is easy, "because that ... is how tyranny is started, with people beingapathetic and taking the easy route and suddenly finding themselves in deep trouble."[40]
Origins and publishing history
In 1990, J. K. Rowling was on a crowded train from Manchester to London when the idea for Harry suddenly "fell into her head". Rowling gives an account of the experience on her website saying:[41]
"I had been writing almost continuously since the age of six but I had never been so excited about an idea before. I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, and all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who did not know he was a wizard became more and more real to me."
Rowling completed Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1995 and the manuscript was sent off to several prospective agents.[42] The second agent she tried, Christopher Little, offered to represent her and sent the manuscript to Bloomsbury. After eight other publishers had rejected Philosopher's Stone, Bloomsbury offered Rowling a £2,500 advance for its publication.[43][44] Despite Rowling's statement that she did not have any particular age group in mind when beginning to write the Harry Potter books, the publishers initially targeted children aged nine to eleven.[45] On the eve of publishing, Rowling was asked by her publishers to adopt a more gender-neutral pen name in order to appeal to the male members of this age group, fearing that they would not be interested in reading a novel they knew to be written by a woman. She elected to use J. K. Rowling (Joanne Kathleen Rowling), using her grandmother's name as her second name because she has no middle name.[46][44]
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published by Bloomsbury, the publisher of all Harry Potterbooks in the United Kingdom, on 30 June 1997.[47] It was released in the United States on 1 September, 1998 by Scholastic—the American publisher of the books—as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,[48]after Rowling had received US$105,000 for the American rights—an unprecedented amount for a children's book by a then-unknown author.[49] Fearing that American readers would not associate the word "philosopher" with a magical theme (although the Philosopher's Stone is alchemy-related), Scholastic insisted that the book be given the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the American market.
The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June, 1999.[50][51] Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was then published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999.[50][51] Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury andScholastic.[52] Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the longest book in the series at 766 pages in the UK version and 870 pages in the US version.[53] It was published worldwide in English on 21 June 2003.[54] Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published on 16 July 2005, and it sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release.[55][56] The seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published 21 July 2007.[57] The book sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of release, breaking down to 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.[58]
Translations
Main article: Harry Potter in translation
The series has been translated into 67 languages,[2][59] placing Rowling among the most translated authors in history.[60] The first translation was into American English, as many words and concepts used by the characters in the novels may have been misleading to a young American audience.[61]Subsequently, the books have seen translations to diverse languages such as Ukrainian, Hindi, Bengali, Welsh, Afrikaans, Latvian and Vietnamese. The first volume has been translated into Latin and evenAncient Greek,[62] making it the longest published work in Ancient Greek since the novels of Heliodorus of Emesa in the 3rd century AD.[63]
Some of the translators hired to work on the books were quite well-known before their work on Harry Potter, such as Viktor Golyshev, who oversaw the Russian translation of the series' fifth book. TheTurkish translation of books two to seven was undertaken by Sevin Okyay, a popular literary critic and cultural commentator.[64] For reasons of secrecy, translation can only start when the books are released in English; thus there is a lag of several months before the translations are available. This has led to more and more copies of the English editions being sold to impatient fans in non-English speaking countries. Such was the clamour to read the fifth book that its English language edition became the first English-language book ever to top the bestseller list in France.[65]
Completion of the series
In December 2005, Rowling stated on her web site, "2006 will be the year when I write the final book in the Harry Potter series."[66] Updates then followed in her online diary chronicling the progress of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with the release date of 21 July 2007. The book itself was finished on 11 January 2007 in the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh, where she scrawled a message on the back of a bust ofHermes. It read: "J. K. Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11 January 2007."[67]
Rowling herself has stated that the last chapter of the final book (in fact, the epilogue) was completed "in something like 1990".[68][69] In June 2006, Rowling, on an appearance on the British talk show Richard & Judy, announced that the chapter had been modified as one character "got a reprieve" and two others who previously survived the story had in fact been killed. On 28 March 2007, the cover art for the Bloomsbury Adult and Child versions and the Scholastic version were released.[70][71]
Achievements
Cultural impact
For more details on this topic, see Harry Potter fandom.
Crowds wait outside a Borders store in Newark, Delaware for the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Fans of the series were so eager for the latest series release that bookstores around the world began holding events to coincide with the midnight release of the books, beginning with the 2000 publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The events, commonly featuring mock sorting, games, face painting, and otherlive entertainment have achieved popularity with Potter fans and have been highly successful in attracting fans and selling books with nearly nine million of the 10.8 million initial print copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince sold in the first 24 hours.[72][73] The series has also gathered adult fans, leading to the release of two editions of each Harry Potter book, identical in text but with one edition's cover artwork aimed at children and the other aimed at adults.[74] Besides meeting online through blogs, podcasts, and fansites, Harry Potter super-fans can also meet at Harry Potter symposia. The word Muggle has spread beyond its Harry Potter origins, used by many groups to indicate those who are not aware or are lacking in some skill. In 2003, Muggle, entered the Oxford English Dictionary with that definition.[75] The Harry Potter fandom has embraced podcasts as a regular, often weekly, insight to the latest discussion in the fandom. BothMuggleCast and PotterCast[76] have reached the top spot of iTunes podcast rankings and have been polled one of the top 50 favourite podcasts.[77]
Awards and honours
The Harry Potter series have been the recipients of a host of awards since the initial publication ofPhilosopher's Stone including four Whitaker Platinum Book Awards (all of which were awarded in 2001),[78] three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes (1997–1999),[79] two Scottish Arts Council Book Awards(1999 and 2001),[80] the inaugural Whitbread children's book of the year award (1999),[81] the WHSmith book of the year (2006),[82] among others. In 2000, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was nominated for Best Novel in the Hugo Awards while in 2001, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won said award.[83] Honours include a commendation for the Carnegie Medal (1997),[84] a short listing for theGuardian Children's Award (1998), and numerous listings on the notable books, editors' Choices, and best books lists of the American Library Association, The New York Times, Chicago Public Library, andPublishers Weekly.[85]
Commercial success
See also: List of best-selling books
The popularity of the Harry Potter series has translated into substantial financial success for Rowling, her publishers, and other Harry Potter related license holders. This success has made Rowling the first and thus far only billionaire author.[86] The books have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and have also given rise to the popular film adaptations produced by Warner Bros., all of which have been successful in their own right with the first, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, ranking number four on the inflation-unadjusted list of all-time highest grossing films and the other four Harry Potter films each ranking in the top 20.[87][3] The films have in turn spawned eight video games and have led to the licensing of more than 400 additional Harry Potter products (including an iPod) that have, as of 2005, made the Harry Potter brand worth an estimated US$4 billion and J. K. Rowling a US dollar billionaire,[88]making her, by some reports, richer than Queen Elizabeth II.[89][90] However, Rowling has stated that this is false.[91]
The great demand for Harry Potter books motivated the New York Times to create a separate bestseller list for children's literature in 2000, just before the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. By 24 June 2000, Rowling's novels had been on the list for 79 straight weeks; the first three novels were each on the hardcover bestseller list.[92] On 12 April 2007, Barnes & Noble declared that Deathly Hallows has broken its pre-order record, with more than 500,000 copies pre-ordered through its site.[93] For the release of Goblet of Fire, 9,000 FedEx trucks were used with no other purpose than to deliver the book.[94] Together, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble pre-sold more than 700,000 copies of the book.[94]In the United States, the book's initial printing run was 3.8 million copies.[94] This record statistic was broken by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, with 8.5 million, which was then shattered by Half-Blood Prince with 10.8 million copies.[95] 6.9 million copies of Prince were sold in the U.S. within the first 24 hours of its release; in the United Kingdom more than two million copies were sold on the first day.[96]The initial U.S. print run for Deathly Hallows was 12 million copies, and more than a million were pre-ordered through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.[97]
Criticism, praise, and controversy
Literary criticism
Early in its history, Harry Potter received positive reviews, which helped the series to grow a large readership. On publication, the first volume, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, attracted attention from the Scottish newspapers, such as The Scotsman, which said it had "all the makings of a classic",[98] and The Glasgow Herald, which called it "Magic stuff".[98] Soon the English newspapers joined in, with more than one comparing it to Roald Dahl's work: The Mail on Sunday rated it as "the most imaginative debut since Roald Dahl",[98] a view echoed by The Sunday Times ("comparisons to Dahl are, this time, justified"),[98] while The Guardian called it "a richly textured novel given lift-off by an inventive wit".[98]
By the time of the release of the fifth volume, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the books began to receive strong criticism from a number of literary scholars. Yale professor, literary scholar and criticHarold Bloom raised criticisms of the books' literary merits, saying, "Rowling's mind is so governed by clichés and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing."[99] A. S. Byatt authored a New York Times op-ed article calling Rowling's universe a "secondary world, made up of patchworked derivative motifs from all sorts of children's literature ... written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip".[100]
The critic Anthony Holden wrote in The Observer on his experience of judging Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the 1999 Whitbread Awards. His overall view of the series was negative—"the Potter saga was essentially patronising, conservative, highly derivative, dispiritingly nostalgic for a bygone Britain", and he speaks of "pedestrian, ungrammatical prose style".[101]
By contrast, author Fay Weldon, while admitting that the series is "not what the poets hoped for", nevertheless goes on to say, "but this is not poetry, it is readable, saleable, everyday, useful prose".[102]The literary critic A. N. Wilson praised the Harry Potter series in The Times, stating: "There are not many writers who have JK’s Dickensian ability to make us turn the pages, to weep—openly, with tears splashing—and a few pages later to laugh, at invariably good jokes ... We have lived through a decade in which we have followed the publication of the liveliest, funniest, scariest and most moving children’s stories ever written".[103] Charles Taylor of Salon.com, who is primarily a movie critic,[104] took issue with Byatt's criticisms in particular. While he conceded that she may have "a valid cultural point—a teeny one—about the impulses that drive us to reassuring pop trash and away from the troubling complexities of art",[105] he rejected her claims that the series is lacking in serious literary merit and that it owes its success merely to the childhood reassurances it offers. Taylor stressed the progressively darker tone of the books, shown by the murder of a classmate and close friend and the psychological wounds and social isolation each causes. Taylor also argued that Philosopher's Stone, said to be the most lighthearted of the seven published books, disrupts the childhood reassurances that Byatt claims spur the series' success: the book opens with news of a double murder, for example.[105]
Stephen King called the series "a feat of which only a superior imagination is capable", and declared "Rowling's punning, one-eyebrow-cocked sense of humour" to be "remarkable". However, he wrote that despite the story being "a good one", he is "a little tired of discovering Harry at home with his horrible aunt and uncle", the formulaic beginning of all seven books.[29] King has also joked that "Rowling's never met an adverb she did not like!" He does however predict that Harry Potter "will indeed stand time's test and wind up on a shelf where only the best are kept; I think Harry will take his place with Alice, Huck,Frodo, and Dorothy and this is one series not just for the decade, but for the ages."[106]
Social impacts
Although Time magazine named Rowling as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year award, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom,[107] cultural comments on the series have been mixed. Washington Post book critic Ron Charles opined in July 2007 that the large numbers of adults reading the Potter series but few other books may represent a "bad case of cultural infantilism", and that the straightforward "good vs. evil" theme of the series is "childish". He also argued "through no fault of Rowling's", the cultural and marketing "hysteria" marked by the publication of the later books "trains children and adults to expect the roar of the coliseum, a mass-media experience that no other novel can possibly provide".[108]
Librarian Nancy Knapp pointed out the books' potential to improve literacy by motivating children to read much more than they would otherwise do [109] Agreeing about the motivating effects, Diane Penrod also praised the books' blending of simple entertainment with "the qualities of highbrow literary fiction", but expressed concern about the distracting effect of the prolific merchandising that accompanies the book launches.[110]
Jennifer Conn used Snape's and Quidditch coach Madam Hooch's teaching methods as examples of what to avoid and what to emulate in clinical teaching, [111] and 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; andsocial theory".[112]
Jenny Sawyer wrote in the 25 July 2007 Christian Science Monitor that the books represent a "disturbing trend in commercial storytelling and Western society" in that stories "moral center have all but vanished from much of today's pop culture ... after 10 years, 4,195 pages, and over 375 million copies, J. K. Rowling's towering achievement lacks the cornerstone of almost all great children's literature: the hero's moral journey". Harry Potter, Sawyer argues, neither faces a "moral struggle" nor undergoes any ethical growth, and is thus "no guide in circumstances in which right and wrong are anything less than black and white".[113] On the other hand Emily Griesinger described Harry's first passage through to Platform 9¾ as an application of faith and hope, and his encounter with the Sorting Hat as the first of many in which Harry is shaped by the choices he makes. She also noted the "deeper magic" by which the self-sacrifice of Harry's mother protects the boy throughout the series, and which the power-hungryVoldemort fails to understand.[114]
In a 8 November 2002 Slate Magazine article, Chris Suellentrop likened Potter to a "a trust-fund kid whose success at school is largely attributable to the gifts his friends and relatives lavish upon him". Noting that in Rowling's fiction, magical ability potential is "something you are born to, not something you can achieve", Suellentrop wrote that Dumbledore's maxim that "It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities" is hypocritical, as "the school that Dumbledore runs values native gifts above all else".[115] In an 12 August 2007 The New York Times review of The Deathly Hallows, however, Christopher Hitchens praised Rowling for "unmooring" her "English school story" from literary precedents "bound up with dreams of wealth and class and snobbery", arguing that she had instead created "a world of youthful democracy and diversity".[116]
Controversies
Main articles: Legal disputes over the Harry Potter series, Religious debates over the Harry Potter series, and Politics of Harry Potter
The books have been the subject of a number of legal proceedings, stemming either from claims by American Christian groups that the magic in the books promotes witchcraft among children, or from various conflicts over copyright and trademark infringements. The popularity and high market value of the series has led Rowling, her publishers, and film distributor Warner Bros. to take legal measures to protect their copyright, which have included banning the sale of Harry Potter imitations, targeting the owners of websites over the "Harry Potter" domain name, and suing author Nancy Stouffer to counter her accusations that Rowling had plagiarised her work.[117][118][119] Various religious conservatives have claimed that the books promote witchcraft and are therefore unsuitable for children,[120] while a number of critics have criticised the books for promoting various political agendas.[121][122]
The books also aroused controversies in the literary and publishing worlds. In 1997 to 1998 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone won almost all the UK awards judged by children, but none of the children's book awards judged by adults,[123] and Sandra Beckett suggested the reason was intellectual snobberytowards books that were popular among children.[124] In 1999 the winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year Award children's division was entered for the first time on the shortlist for the main award, and one judge threatened to resign if Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was declared the overall winner; it finished second, very close behind the winner of the poetry prize, Seamus Heaney's translation of theAnglo-Saxon epic Beowulf.[124]
In 2000, shortly before publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the previous three Harry Potterbooks topped the New York Times fiction best-seller list and a third of the entries were children's books. The newspaper created a new children's section cover splits children's sections, including both fiction and non-fiction, and initially counting only hardback sales. The move was supported by publishers and booksellers.[125] In 2004 New York Times further split the children's list, which was still dominated byHarry Potter books into sections for series and individual books, and removed the Harry Potter books from the section for individual books.[126] The split in 2000 attracted condemnation, praise and some comments that presented both benefits and disadvantages of the move.[127] Time suggested that, on the same principle, Billboard should have created a separate "mop-tops" list in 1964 when the Beatles held the top five places in its list, and Nielsen should have created a separate game-show list when Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? dominated the ratings.[128]
Films
See also: Harry Potter (film series)
In 1999, Rowling sold the film rights of the first four Harry Potter books to Warner Bros. for a reported £1 million ($1,982,900).[129] Rowling demanded the principal cast be kept strictly British, nonetheless allowing for the inclusion of many Irish actors such as the late Richard Harris as Dumbledore, and for casting of French and Eastern European actors in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where characters from the book are specified as such.[130] After many directors including Steven Spielberg, Terry Gilliam,Jonathan Demme, and Alan Parker were considered, Chris Columbus was appointed on 28 March, 2000 as director for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (titled "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the United States), with Warner Bros. citing his work on other family films such as Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire as influences for their decision.[131] After extensive casting,[132] filming began in October 2000 at Leavesden Film Studios and in London itself, with production ending in July 2001.[133] Philosopher's Stone was released on 14 November, 2001. Just three days after Philosopher's Stone's release, production for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, also directed by Columbus began, finishing in summer 2002. The film was released on 15 November 2002.[134]
Chris Columbus declined to direct Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, only acting as producer. Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón took over the job, and after shooting in 2003, the film was released on 4 June 2004. Due to the fourth film beginning its production before the third's release, Mike Newell was chosen as the director for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,[135] released on 18 November 2005. Newell declined to direct the next movie, and British television director David Yates was chosen for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which began production on January 2006,[136] and was released on 11 July 2007. Yates also directed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,[137] for release on 15 July 2009.[4][138] In March 2008, Warner Bros. announced that the final instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, would be filmed in two segments, with part one released in November 2010 and part two released in July 2011. Yates is expected again return to direct both films.[139] The Harry Potterfilms were huge box office hits, with four of the five on the 20 highest-grossing films worldwide.[140]
Opinions of the films are generally divided among fans, with one group preferring the more faithful approach of the first two films, and another group preferring the more stylised character-driven approach of the later films.[141] Rowling has been constantly supportive of the films,[142][143][144] and evaluatedOrder of the Phoenix as "the best one yet" in the series. She wrote on her web site of the changes in the book-to-film transition, "It is simply impossible to incorporate every one of my storylines into a film that has to be kept under four hours long. Obviously films have restrictions novels do not have, constraints of time and budget; I can create dazzling effects relying on nothing but the interaction of my own and my readers’ imaginations".[145]
Audiobooks
The Harry Potter books have all been released on unabridged audiobook. The UK versions are read byStephen Fry and the US versions are read by Jim Dale. Dale is also the narrator for the special features disc on the DVDs.
References
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External links
Harry Potter portal
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of
Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Harry Potter
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Harry Potter
J. K. Rowling's personal website
Official Harry Potter movies website (Warner Bros.)
Harry Potter on Bloomsbury.com (International publisher)
Harry Potter on Scholastic.com (US publisher)
Harry Potter on Raincoast.com (Canadian publisher)
Harry Potter Wiki
Harry Potter
Complete set of the seven books of the Harry Potter series.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Author J. K. Rowling
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre Fantasy, thriller, Young-adult fiction
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
Scholastic Publishing (USA)Raincoast Books (CAN)
Published 26 June 1997 - 21 July 2007
Media type Print (hardcover and paperback)
Audiobook
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter, together with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, his friends from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The central story arc concerns Harry's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents in his quest to conquer the wizarding world and subjugate non-magical (Muggle) people to his rule. Several successfulderivative films, video games and other themed merchandise have been based upon the series.
Since the 1997 release of the first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States, the books have gained immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide.[1] As of June 2008, the book series has sold more than 400 million copies and has been translated into 67 languages,[2][3] and the last four books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history.
English-language versions of the books are published byBloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic Press in the United States, Allen & Unwin in Australia, andRaincoast Books in Canada. Thus far, the first five books have been made into a series of motion pictures byWarner Bros. The sixth, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is scheduled for release on 15 July 2009.[4] The series also originated much tie-in merchandise, making the Harry Potter brand worth £7 billion.
Contents
[hide]
• 1 Plot
o 1.1 The wizarding world
o 1.2 Voldemort returns
o 1.3 Supplementary works
• 2 Structure and genre
• 3 Themes
• 4 Origins and publishing history
o 4.1 Translations
o 4.2 Completion of the series
• 5 Achievements
o 5.1 Cultural impact
o 5.2 Awards and honours
o 5.3 Commercial success
• 6 Criticism, praise, and controversy
o 6.1 Literary criticism
o 6.2 Social impacts
o 6.3 Controversies
• 7 Films
• 8 Audiobooks
• 9 References
• 10 External links
Plot
Further information: Harry Potter universe
The novels revolve around Harry Potter, an orphan who discovers that he is a wizard.[5] Wizard ability is inborn, but children are sent to wizarding school to learn the magical skills necessary to succeed in thewizarding world.[6] Harry is invited to attend the boarding school called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Each book chronicles one year in Harry's life, and most of the events take place at Hogwarts.[7] As he struggles through adolescence, Harry learns to overcome many magical, social and emotional hurdles.[8]
The wizarding world
Flashbacks throughout the series reveal that when Harry was a baby he witnessed his parents' murder by Lord Voldemort who was a dark wizard obsessed with racial purity.[9] For reasons not immediately revealed, Voldemort's attempt to kill Harry rebounds.[9] Voldemort is seemingly killed and Harry survives with only a lightning-shaped mark on his forehead as a memento of the attack.[9] As its inadvertent saviour from Voldemort's reign of terror, Harry becomes a living legend in the wizard world. At the orders of his patron, the wizard Albus Dumbledore, Harry is placed in the home of his Muggle (non-wizard) relatives, who keep him completely ignorant of his true heritage.[9]
The first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, begins near Harry's 11th birthday. Half-giant Rubeus Hagrid reveals Harry's history and introduces him to the wizarding world.[9] The world J. K. Rowling created is both completely separate from and yet intimately connected to the real world. While the fantasy world of Narnia is an alternative universe and the Lord of the Rings’ Middle-earth a mythic past, the Wizarding world of Harry Potter exists alongside that of the real world and contains magical elements similar to things in the non-magical world. Many of its institutions and locations are in places that are recognisable in the real world, such as London.[10] It comprises a fragmented collection of hidden streets, overlooked and ancient pubs, lonely country manors and secluded castles that remain invisible to the non-magical population of Muggles.[6]
With Hagrid's help, Harry prepares for and undertakes his first year of study at Hogwarts. As Harry begins to explore the magical world, the reader is introduced to many of the primary locations used throughout the series. Harry meets most of the main characters and gains his two closest friends: Ron Weasley, a fun-loving member of an ancient wizarding family, and Hermione Granger, an obsessively bookish witch of non-magical parentage.[9][11] Harry also encounters the school's potions master,Severus Snape, who appears to have a deep-seated and irrational hatred of him. The plot concludes with Harry's second confrontation with Lord Voldemort, who in his quest for immortality, yearns to gain the power of the Philosopher's Stone.[9]
The series continues with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets describing Harry's second year at Hogwarts. He and his friends investigate a 50-year-old mystery that appears tied to recent sinister events at the school. The novel delves into the history of Hogwarts and a legend revolving around the "Chamber of Secrets", the underground lair of an ancient evil. For the first time, Harry realises that racial prejudice exists in the wizarding world, and he learns that Voldemort's reign of terror was often directed at wizards who were descended from Muggles. Harry is also shocked to learn that he can speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes; this rare ability is often equated with the dark arts. The novel ends after Harry saves the life of Ron's younger sister, Ginny Weasley, by defeating an attempt by Voldemort to reincarnate himself through the memories he stored within a diary.[9]
The third novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, follows Harry in his third year of magical education. It is the only book in the series which does not feature Voldemort. Instead, Harry must deal with the knowledge that he has been targeted by Sirius Black, an escaped murderer believed to have assisted in the deaths of Harry's parents. As Harry struggles with his reaction to the dementors—dark creatures with the power to devour a human soul—which are ostensibly protecting the school, he reaches out to Remus Lupin, a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher with a dark secret. Lupin teaches Harry defensive measures which are well above the level of magic generally shown by people his age. Harry learns that both Lupin and Black were close friends of his father and that Black was framed by their fourth friend, Peter Pettigrew.[12]
Voldemort returns
During Harry's fourth year of school, detailed in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry unwillingly participates in the Triwizard Tournament, a dangerous magical contest.[13] The plot centres on Harry's attempt to discover who has forced him to compete in the tournament and why.[14] An anxious Harry is guided through the tournament by Professor Alastor Moody, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. The point at which the mystery is unravelled marks the series' shift from foreboding and uncertainty into open conflict. The novel ends with the resurgence of Voldemort and the death of a student.[14]
In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry must confront the newly resurfaced Voldemort. In response to Voldemort's reappearance, Dumbledore re-activates the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society which works to defeat Voldemort's minions and protect Voldemort's targets, including Harry. The Order includes many of the adults Harry trusts, including Lupin, Black, and members of theWeasley family. Despite Harry's description of Voldemort's recent activities, the Ministry of Magic and many others in the magical world refuse to believe that Voldemort has returned.[15]
In an attempt to enforce their version of curriculum, the Ministry appoints Dolores Umbridge as the new High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. She transforms the school into a quasi-dictatorial regime and refuses to allow the students to learn ways to defend themselves against dark magic.[15] Harry forms a secret study group and begins to teach his classmates the higher-level skills he has learned. The novel introduces Harry to Luna Lovegood, an airy young witch with a tendency to believe in oddball conspiracy theories. Moreover, it reveals an important prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort.[16] Harry also discovers that he and Voldemort have a telepathic connection, allowing Harry to view some of Voldemort's actions. In the novel's climax, Harry and his school friends face off against Voldemort'sDeath Eaters. The timely arrival of members of the Order of the Phoenix saves the children's lives and allows many of the Death Eaters to be captured.[15]
The sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, shows clearly that Voldemort is leading another wizarding war, which has become so violent that even Muggles have noticed some of its effects. Harry is relatively protected from the danger as he completes his sixth year at Hogwarts. At the beginning of the novel, he stumbles upon an old potions textbook filled with annotations and recommendations signed by a mysterious writer, the Half-Blood Prince.[17] While the shortcuts written in the book help Harry to finally excel at potions, he eventually realises that some of the spells have evil results.
Harry also participates in private tutoring sessions with Albus Dumbledore, who shows him various memories concerning the early life of Voldemort. These sessions reveal that Voldemort's soul is splintered into a series of horcruxes, evil enchanted items hidden in various locations.[17]
The Shell Cottage constructed on Freshwater Beach West for the filming of Deathly Hallows.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book in the series, begins directly after the events of the sixth book. Following Dumbledore's death, Voldemort has completed his ascension to power and gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron, and Hermione drop out of school so that they can find and destroy Voldemort's remaining horcruxes. To ensure their own safety as well as that of their family and friends, they are forced to isolate themselves. As they search for the horcruxes, the trio learn details about Dumbledore's past, as well as Snape's true motives.
The book culminates in the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, in conjunction with members of the Order of the Phoenix and many of the teachers and students, defend Hogwarts from Voldemort, his Death Eaters, and various magical creatures. Several major characters are killed in the first wave of the battle. In an effort to save the survivors, Harry surrenders himself to Voldemort, who attempts to kill Harry. The battle resumes as the parents of many Hogwarts students and residents of the nearby village Hogsmeade arrive to reinforce the Order of the Phoenix. With the last horcrux destroyed, Harry is able to defeat Voldemort. An epilogue describes the lives of the surviving characters and reveals that peace has returned to the wizarding world.
Supplementary works
See also: J. K. Rowling: Philanthropy
Rowling has expanded the Harry Potter universe with several short books produced for various charities.[18][19] In 2001, she released Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (a purported Hogwarts textbook) and Quidditch Through the Ages (a book Harry read for fun). Proceeds from the sale of these two books benefitted the charity Comic Relief.[20] In 2007, Rowling composed seven handwritten copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a collection of fairy tales that is featured in the final novel, one of which was auctioned to raise money for the Children's High Level Group, a fund for mentally disabled children in poor countries. The book was published internationally on 4 December 2008.[21][22][23] Rowling also wrote an 800-word prequel in 2008 as part of a fundraiser organised by the bookseller Waterstones.[24]
Structure and genre
See also: Harry Potter influences and analogues
The Harry Potter novels fall within the genre of fantasy literature; however, in many respects they are alsobildungsromans, or coming of age novels.[25] They can be considered part of the British children'sboarding school genre, which includes Enid Blyton's Malory Towers, St. Clare's and the Naughtiest Girlseries, and Frank Richards's Billy Bunter novels.[26] The Harry Potter books are predominantly set inHogwarts, a fictional British boarding school for wizards, where the curriculum includes the use ofmagic.[26] In this sense they are "in a direct line of descent from Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days and other Victorian and Edwardian novels of British public school life".[27][28] They are also, in the words of Stephen King, "shrewd mystery tales",[29] and each book is constructed in the manner of aSherlock Holmes-style mystery adventure. The stories are told from a third person limited point of view with very few exceptions (such as the opening chapters of Philosopher's Stone and Deathly Hallows and the first two chapters of Half-Blood Prince).
In the middle of each book, Harry struggles with the problems he encounters, and dealing with them often involves the need to violate some school rules—the penalties, in case of being caught out, being disciplinary punishments set out in the Hogwarts regulations (in which the Harry Potter books follow many precedents in the boarding school sub-genre).[26] However, the stories reach their climax in thesummer term, near or just after final exams, when events escalate far beyond in-school squabbles and struggles, and Harry must confront either Voldemort or one of his followers, the Death Eaters, with the stakes a matter of life and death–a point underlined, as the series progresses, by one or more characters being killed in each of the final four books.[30][31] In the aftermath, he learns important lessons through exposition and discussions with head teacher and mentor Albus Dumbledore.
In the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry and his friends spend most of their time away from Hogwarts, and only return there to face Voldemort at the dénouement.[30] Completing the bildungsroman format, in this part Harry must grow up prematurely, losing the chance of a last year as a pupil in a school and needing to act as an adult, on whose decisions everybody else depends—the grown-ups included.[32]
Themes
According to Rowling, a major theme in the series is death: "My books are largely about death. They open with the death of Harry's parents. There is Voldemort's obsession with conquering death and his quest for immortality at any price, the goal of anyone with magic. I so understand why Voldemort wants to conquer death. We're all frightened of it."[33]
Academics and journalists have many other interpretations of themes in the books, some more complex than others, and some including political subtexts. Themes such as normality, oppression, survival, and overcoming imposing odds have all been considered as prevalent throughout the series.[34] Similarly, the theme of making one's way through adolescence and "going over one's most harrowing ordeals—and thus coming to terms with them" has also been considered.[35] Rowling has stated that the books comprise "a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry" and that also pass on a message to "question authority and... not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth".[36][37]
While the books could be said to comprise many other themes, such as power/abuse of power, love,prejudice, and free choice, they are, as J.K. Rowling states, "deeply entrenched in the whole plot"; the writer prefers to let themes "grow organically", rather than sitting down and consciously attempting to impart such ideas to her readers.[38] Along the same lines is the ever-present theme of adolescence, in whose depiction Rowling has been purposeful in acknowledging her characters' sexualities and not leaving Harry, as she put it, "stuck in a state of permanent pre-pubescence".[39] Rowling said that, to her, the moral significance of the tales seems "blindingly obvious." The key for her was the choice between what is right and what is easy, "because that ... is how tyranny is started, with people beingapathetic and taking the easy route and suddenly finding themselves in deep trouble."[40]
Origins and publishing history
In 1990, J. K. Rowling was on a crowded train from Manchester to London when the idea for Harry suddenly "fell into her head". Rowling gives an account of the experience on her website saying:[41]
"I had been writing almost continuously since the age of six but I had never been so excited about an idea before. I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, and all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who did not know he was a wizard became more and more real to me."
Rowling completed Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1995 and the manuscript was sent off to several prospective agents.[42] The second agent she tried, Christopher Little, offered to represent her and sent the manuscript to Bloomsbury. After eight other publishers had rejected Philosopher's Stone, Bloomsbury offered Rowling a £2,500 advance for its publication.[43][44] Despite Rowling's statement that she did not have any particular age group in mind when beginning to write the Harry Potter books, the publishers initially targeted children aged nine to eleven.[45] On the eve of publishing, Rowling was asked by her publishers to adopt a more gender-neutral pen name in order to appeal to the male members of this age group, fearing that they would not be interested in reading a novel they knew to be written by a woman. She elected to use J. K. Rowling (Joanne Kathleen Rowling), using her grandmother's name as her second name because she has no middle name.[46][44]
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published by Bloomsbury, the publisher of all Harry Potterbooks in the United Kingdom, on 30 June 1997.[47] It was released in the United States on 1 September, 1998 by Scholastic—the American publisher of the books—as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,[48]after Rowling had received US$105,000 for the American rights—an unprecedented amount for a children's book by a then-unknown author.[49] Fearing that American readers would not associate the word "philosopher" with a magical theme (although the Philosopher's Stone is alchemy-related), Scholastic insisted that the book be given the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the American market.
The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June, 1999.[50][51] Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was then published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999.[50][51] Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury andScholastic.[52] Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the longest book in the series at 766 pages in the UK version and 870 pages in the US version.[53] It was published worldwide in English on 21 June 2003.[54] Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published on 16 July 2005, and it sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release.[55][56] The seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published 21 July 2007.[57] The book sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of release, breaking down to 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.[58]
Translations
Main article: Harry Potter in translation
The series has been translated into 67 languages,[2][59] placing Rowling among the most translated authors in history.[60] The first translation was into American English, as many words and concepts used by the characters in the novels may have been misleading to a young American audience.[61]Subsequently, the books have seen translations to diverse languages such as Ukrainian, Hindi, Bengali, Welsh, Afrikaans, Latvian and Vietnamese. The first volume has been translated into Latin and evenAncient Greek,[62] making it the longest published work in Ancient Greek since the novels of Heliodorus of Emesa in the 3rd century AD.[63]
Some of the translators hired to work on the books were quite well-known before their work on Harry Potter, such as Viktor Golyshev, who oversaw the Russian translation of the series' fifth book. TheTurkish translation of books two to seven was undertaken by Sevin Okyay, a popular literary critic and cultural commentator.[64] For reasons of secrecy, translation can only start when the books are released in English; thus there is a lag of several months before the translations are available. This has led to more and more copies of the English editions being sold to impatient fans in non-English speaking countries. Such was the clamour to read the fifth book that its English language edition became the first English-language book ever to top the bestseller list in France.[65]
Completion of the series
In December 2005, Rowling stated on her web site, "2006 will be the year when I write the final book in the Harry Potter series."[66] Updates then followed in her online diary chronicling the progress of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with the release date of 21 July 2007. The book itself was finished on 11 January 2007 in the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh, where she scrawled a message on the back of a bust ofHermes. It read: "J. K. Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11 January 2007."[67]
Rowling herself has stated that the last chapter of the final book (in fact, the epilogue) was completed "in something like 1990".[68][69] In June 2006, Rowling, on an appearance on the British talk show Richard & Judy, announced that the chapter had been modified as one character "got a reprieve" and two others who previously survived the story had in fact been killed. On 28 March 2007, the cover art for the Bloomsbury Adult and Child versions and the Scholastic version were released.[70][71]
Achievements
Cultural impact
For more details on this topic, see Harry Potter fandom.
Crowds wait outside a Borders store in Newark, Delaware for the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Fans of the series were so eager for the latest series release that bookstores around the world began holding events to coincide with the midnight release of the books, beginning with the 2000 publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The events, commonly featuring mock sorting, games, face painting, and otherlive entertainment have achieved popularity with Potter fans and have been highly successful in attracting fans and selling books with nearly nine million of the 10.8 million initial print copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince sold in the first 24 hours.[72][73] The series has also gathered adult fans, leading to the release of two editions of each Harry Potter book, identical in text but with one edition's cover artwork aimed at children and the other aimed at adults.[74] Besides meeting online through blogs, podcasts, and fansites, Harry Potter super-fans can also meet at Harry Potter symposia. The word Muggle has spread beyond its Harry Potter origins, used by many groups to indicate those who are not aware or are lacking in some skill. In 2003, Muggle, entered the Oxford English Dictionary with that definition.[75] The Harry Potter fandom has embraced podcasts as a regular, often weekly, insight to the latest discussion in the fandom. BothMuggleCast and PotterCast[76] have reached the top spot of iTunes podcast rankings and have been polled one of the top 50 favourite podcasts.[77]
Awards and honours
The Harry Potter series have been the recipients of a host of awards since the initial publication ofPhilosopher's Stone including four Whitaker Platinum Book Awards (all of which were awarded in 2001),[78] three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes (1997–1999),[79] two Scottish Arts Council Book Awards(1999 and 2001),[80] the inaugural Whitbread children's book of the year award (1999),[81] the WHSmith book of the year (2006),[82] among others. In 2000, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was nominated for Best Novel in the Hugo Awards while in 2001, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won said award.[83] Honours include a commendation for the Carnegie Medal (1997),[84] a short listing for theGuardian Children's Award (1998), and numerous listings on the notable books, editors' Choices, and best books lists of the American Library Association, The New York Times, Chicago Public Library, andPublishers Weekly.[85]
Commercial success
See also: List of best-selling books
The popularity of the Harry Potter series has translated into substantial financial success for Rowling, her publishers, and other Harry Potter related license holders. This success has made Rowling the first and thus far only billionaire author.[86] The books have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and have also given rise to the popular film adaptations produced by Warner Bros., all of which have been successful in their own right with the first, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, ranking number four on the inflation-unadjusted list of all-time highest grossing films and the other four Harry Potter films each ranking in the top 20.[87][3] The films have in turn spawned eight video games and have led to the licensing of more than 400 additional Harry Potter products (including an iPod) that have, as of 2005, made the Harry Potter brand worth an estimated US$4 billion and J. K. Rowling a US dollar billionaire,[88]making her, by some reports, richer than Queen Elizabeth II.[89][90] However, Rowling has stated that this is false.[91]
The great demand for Harry Potter books motivated the New York Times to create a separate bestseller list for children's literature in 2000, just before the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. By 24 June 2000, Rowling's novels had been on the list for 79 straight weeks; the first three novels were each on the hardcover bestseller list.[92] On 12 April 2007, Barnes & Noble declared that Deathly Hallows has broken its pre-order record, with more than 500,000 copies pre-ordered through its site.[93] For the release of Goblet of Fire, 9,000 FedEx trucks were used with no other purpose than to deliver the book.[94] Together, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble pre-sold more than 700,000 copies of the book.[94]In the United States, the book's initial printing run was 3.8 million copies.[94] This record statistic was broken by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, with 8.5 million, which was then shattered by Half-Blood Prince with 10.8 million copies.[95] 6.9 million copies of Prince were sold in the U.S. within the first 24 hours of its release; in the United Kingdom more than two million copies were sold on the first day.[96]The initial U.S. print run for Deathly Hallows was 12 million copies, and more than a million were pre-ordered through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.[97]
Criticism, praise, and controversy
Literary criticism
Early in its history, Harry Potter received positive reviews, which helped the series to grow a large readership. On publication, the first volume, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, attracted attention from the Scottish newspapers, such as The Scotsman, which said it had "all the makings of a classic",[98] and The Glasgow Herald, which called it "Magic stuff".[98] Soon the English newspapers joined in, with more than one comparing it to Roald Dahl's work: The Mail on Sunday rated it as "the most imaginative debut since Roald Dahl",[98] a view echoed by The Sunday Times ("comparisons to Dahl are, this time, justified"),[98] while The Guardian called it "a richly textured novel given lift-off by an inventive wit".[98]
By the time of the release of the fifth volume, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the books began to receive strong criticism from a number of literary scholars. Yale professor, literary scholar and criticHarold Bloom raised criticisms of the books' literary merits, saying, "Rowling's mind is so governed by clichés and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing."[99] A. S. Byatt authored a New York Times op-ed article calling Rowling's universe a "secondary world, made up of patchworked derivative motifs from all sorts of children's literature ... written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip".[100]
The critic Anthony Holden wrote in The Observer on his experience of judging Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the 1999 Whitbread Awards. His overall view of the series was negative—"the Potter saga was essentially patronising, conservative, highly derivative, dispiritingly nostalgic for a bygone Britain", and he speaks of "pedestrian, ungrammatical prose style".[101]
By contrast, author Fay Weldon, while admitting that the series is "not what the poets hoped for", nevertheless goes on to say, "but this is not poetry, it is readable, saleable, everyday, useful prose".[102]The literary critic A. N. Wilson praised the Harry Potter series in The Times, stating: "There are not many writers who have JK’s Dickensian ability to make us turn the pages, to weep—openly, with tears splashing—and a few pages later to laugh, at invariably good jokes ... We have lived through a decade in which we have followed the publication of the liveliest, funniest, scariest and most moving children’s stories ever written".[103] Charles Taylor of Salon.com, who is primarily a movie critic,[104] took issue with Byatt's criticisms in particular. While he conceded that she may have "a valid cultural point—a teeny one—about the impulses that drive us to reassuring pop trash and away from the troubling complexities of art",[105] he rejected her claims that the series is lacking in serious literary merit and that it owes its success merely to the childhood reassurances it offers. Taylor stressed the progressively darker tone of the books, shown by the murder of a classmate and close friend and the psychological wounds and social isolation each causes. Taylor also argued that Philosopher's Stone, said to be the most lighthearted of the seven published books, disrupts the childhood reassurances that Byatt claims spur the series' success: the book opens with news of a double murder, for example.[105]
Stephen King called the series "a feat of which only a superior imagination is capable", and declared "Rowling's punning, one-eyebrow-cocked sense of humour" to be "remarkable". However, he wrote that despite the story being "a good one", he is "a little tired of discovering Harry at home with his horrible aunt and uncle", the formulaic beginning of all seven books.[29] King has also joked that "Rowling's never met an adverb she did not like!" He does however predict that Harry Potter "will indeed stand time's test and wind up on a shelf where only the best are kept; I think Harry will take his place with Alice, Huck,Frodo, and Dorothy and this is one series not just for the decade, but for the ages."[106]
Social impacts
Although Time magazine named Rowling as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year award, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom,[107] cultural comments on the series have been mixed. Washington Post book critic Ron Charles opined in July 2007 that the large numbers of adults reading the Potter series but few other books may represent a "bad case of cultural infantilism", and that the straightforward "good vs. evil" theme of the series is "childish". He also argued "through no fault of Rowling's", the cultural and marketing "hysteria" marked by the publication of the later books "trains children and adults to expect the roar of the coliseum, a mass-media experience that no other novel can possibly provide".[108]
Librarian Nancy Knapp pointed out the books' potential to improve literacy by motivating children to read much more than they would otherwise do [109] Agreeing about the motivating effects, Diane Penrod also praised the books' blending of simple entertainment with "the qualities of highbrow literary fiction", but expressed concern about the distracting effect of the prolific merchandising that accompanies the book launches.[110]
Jennifer Conn used Snape's and Quidditch coach Madam Hooch's teaching methods as examples of what to avoid and what to emulate in clinical teaching, [111] and 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; andsocial theory".[112]
Jenny Sawyer wrote in the 25 July 2007 Christian Science Monitor that the books represent a "disturbing trend in commercial storytelling and Western society" in that stories "moral center have all but vanished from much of today's pop culture ... after 10 years, 4,195 pages, and over 375 million copies, J. K. Rowling's towering achievement lacks the cornerstone of almost all great children's literature: the hero's moral journey". Harry Potter, Sawyer argues, neither faces a "moral struggle" nor undergoes any ethical growth, and is thus "no guide in circumstances in which right and wrong are anything less than black and white".[113] On the other hand Emily Griesinger described Harry's first passage through to Platform 9¾ as an application of faith and hope, and his encounter with the Sorting Hat as the first of many in which Harry is shaped by the choices he makes. She also noted the "deeper magic" by which the self-sacrifice of Harry's mother protects the boy throughout the series, and which the power-hungryVoldemort fails to understand.[114]
In a 8 November 2002 Slate Magazine article, Chris Suellentrop likened Potter to a "a trust-fund kid whose success at school is largely attributable to the gifts his friends and relatives lavish upon him". Noting that in Rowling's fiction, magical ability potential is "something you are born to, not something you can achieve", Suellentrop wrote that Dumbledore's maxim that "It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities" is hypocritical, as "the school that Dumbledore runs values native gifts above all else".[115] In an 12 August 2007 The New York Times review of The Deathly Hallows, however, Christopher Hitchens praised Rowling for "unmooring" her "English school story" from literary precedents "bound up with dreams of wealth and class and snobbery", arguing that she had instead created "a world of youthful democracy and diversity".[116]
Controversies
Main articles: Legal disputes over the Harry Potter series, Religious debates over the Harry Potter series, and Politics of Harry Potter
The books have been the subject of a number of legal proceedings, stemming either from claims by American Christian groups that the magic in the books promotes witchcraft among children, or from various conflicts over copyright and trademark infringements. The popularity and high market value of the series has led Rowling, her publishers, and film distributor Warner Bros. to take legal measures to protect their copyright, which have included banning the sale of Harry Potter imitations, targeting the owners of websites over the "Harry Potter" domain name, and suing author Nancy Stouffer to counter her accusations that Rowling had plagiarised her work.[117][118][119] Various religious conservatives have claimed that the books promote witchcraft and are therefore unsuitable for children,[120] while a number of critics have criticised the books for promoting various political agendas.[121][122]
The books also aroused controversies in the literary and publishing worlds. In 1997 to 1998 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone won almost all the UK awards judged by children, but none of the children's book awards judged by adults,[123] and Sandra Beckett suggested the reason was intellectual snobberytowards books that were popular among children.[124] In 1999 the winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year Award children's division was entered for the first time on the shortlist for the main award, and one judge threatened to resign if Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was declared the overall winner; it finished second, very close behind the winner of the poetry prize, Seamus Heaney's translation of theAnglo-Saxon epic Beowulf.[124]
In 2000, shortly before publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the previous three Harry Potterbooks topped the New York Times fiction best-seller list and a third of the entries were children's books. The newspaper created a new children's section cover splits children's sections, including both fiction and non-fiction, and initially counting only hardback sales. The move was supported by publishers and booksellers.[125] In 2004 New York Times further split the children's list, which was still dominated byHarry Potter books into sections for series and individual books, and removed the Harry Potter books from the section for individual books.[126] The split in 2000 attracted condemnation, praise and some comments that presented both benefits and disadvantages of the move.[127] Time suggested that, on the same principle, Billboard should have created a separate "mop-tops" list in 1964 when the Beatles held the top five places in its list, and Nielsen should have created a separate game-show list when Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? dominated the ratings.[128]
Films
See also: Harry Potter (film series)
In 1999, Rowling sold the film rights of the first four Harry Potter books to Warner Bros. for a reported £1 million ($1,982,900).[129] Rowling demanded the principal cast be kept strictly British, nonetheless allowing for the inclusion of many Irish actors such as the late Richard Harris as Dumbledore, and for casting of French and Eastern European actors in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where characters from the book are specified as such.[130] After many directors including Steven Spielberg, Terry Gilliam,Jonathan Demme, and Alan Parker were considered, Chris Columbus was appointed on 28 March, 2000 as director for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (titled "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the United States), with Warner Bros. citing his work on other family films such as Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire as influences for their decision.[131] After extensive casting,[132] filming began in October 2000 at Leavesden Film Studios and in London itself, with production ending in July 2001.[133] Philosopher's Stone was released on 14 November, 2001. Just three days after Philosopher's Stone's release, production for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, also directed by Columbus began, finishing in summer 2002. The film was released on 15 November 2002.[134]
Chris Columbus declined to direct Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, only acting as producer. Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón took over the job, and after shooting in 2003, the film was released on 4 June 2004. Due to the fourth film beginning its production before the third's release, Mike Newell was chosen as the director for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,[135] released on 18 November 2005. Newell declined to direct the next movie, and British television director David Yates was chosen for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which began production on January 2006,[136] and was released on 11 July 2007. Yates also directed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,[137] for release on 15 July 2009.[4][138] In March 2008, Warner Bros. announced that the final instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, would be filmed in two segments, with part one released in November 2010 and part two released in July 2011. Yates is expected again return to direct both films.[139] The Harry Potterfilms were huge box office hits, with four of the five on the 20 highest-grossing films worldwide.[140]
Opinions of the films are generally divided among fans, with one group preferring the more faithful approach of the first two films, and another group preferring the more stylised character-driven approach of the later films.[141] Rowling has been constantly supportive of the films,[142][143][144] and evaluatedOrder of the Phoenix as "the best one yet" in the series. She wrote on her web site of the changes in the book-to-film transition, "It is simply impossible to incorporate every one of my storylines into a film that has to be kept under four hours long. Obviously films have restrictions novels do not have, constraints of time and budget; I can create dazzling effects relying on nothing but the interaction of my own and my readers’ imaginations".[145]
Audiobooks
The Harry Potter books have all been released on unabridged audiobook. The UK versions are read byStephen Fry and the US versions are read by Jim Dale. Dale is also the narrator for the special features disc on the DVDs.
References
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4. ^ a b "Coming Sooner: Harry Potter Changes Release Date". TVGuide.com. Retrieved on 15 April 2009.
5. ^ "Review: Gladly drinking from Rowling's 'Goblet of Fire'". CNN. 14 July 2000. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
6. ^ a b "A Muggle's guide to Harry Potter". BBC. 28 May 2004. Retrieved on 22 August 2008.
7. ^ Frauenfelder, David (17 July 2007). "Harry Potter, Hogwarts and Home". The News & Observer Publishing Company. Retrieved on 29 September 2008.
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11. ^ "J K Rowling at the Edinburgh Book Festival". J.K. Rowling.com. 15 August 2004. Retrieved on 27 September 2008.
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13. ^ King, Stephen (23 July 2000). "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". The New York Times. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
14. ^ a b King, Stephen (23 July 2000). "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 2". The New York Times. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
15. ^ a b c "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’". The New York Times. 13 July 2003. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
16. ^ A. Whited, Lana. (2004). The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon. University of Missouri Press. p. 371. ISBN 9780826215499.
17. ^ a b Kakutani, Michiko (16 July 2005). "Harry Potter Works His Magic Again in a Far Darker Tale". The New York Times. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
18. ^ "How Rowling conjured up millions". BBC. Retrieved on 7 September 2008.
19. ^ "Comic Relief : Quidditch through the ages". Albris. Retrieved on 7 September 2008.
20. ^ "The Money". Comic Relief. Retrieved on 25 October 2007.
21. ^ "JK Rowling Fairy Tales To Go On Sale For Charity". ANI. 2008. Retrieved on 2 August 2008.
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28. ^ A. Whited, Lana. (2004). The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon. University of Missouri Press. p. 28. ISBN 9780826215499.
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58. ^ "Harry Potter finale sales hit 11 m". BBC. 23 July 2007. Retrieved on 20 August 2008.
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63. ^ Castle, Tim (2 December 2004). "Harry Potter? It's All Greek to Me". Reuters. Retrieved on 28 July 2008.
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65. ^ Staff Writer (1 July 2003). "OOTP is best seller in France — in English!". BBC. Retrieved on 28 July 2008.
66. ^ "Rowling gearing up for final 'Potter'". CNN. 27 December 2005. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
67. ^ "Potter author signs off in style". BBC. 2 February 2007.
68. ^ ""Rowling to kill two in final book"". BBC. 27 June 2006. Retrieved on 25 July 2007.
69. ^ ""Harry Potter and Me"". BBC News. 28 December 2001. Retrieved on 12 September 2007.
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71. ^ "Cover Art: Harry Potter 7". Scholastic. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
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74. ^ "Harry Potter at Bloomsbury Publishing — Adult and Children Covers". Bloomsbury Publishing. Retrieved on 18 August 2008.
75. ^ McCaffrey, Meg (1 May 2003). "'Muggle' Redux in the Oxford English Dictionary". School Library Journal. Retrieved on 1 May 2007.
76. ^ "Book corner: Secrets of Podcasting". Apple Inc.. 8 September 2005. Retrieved on 31 January 2007.
77. ^ "Mugglenet.com Taps Limelight's Magic for Podcast Delivery of Harry Potter Content". PR Newswire. 8 November 2005. Retrieved on 31 January 2007.
78. ^ "Book honour for Harry Potter author". BBC. 21 September 2001. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
79. ^ "JK Rowling: From rags to riches". BBC. 20 September 2008. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
80. ^ "Book 'Oscar' for Potter author". BBC. 30 May 2001. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
81. ^ "Harry Potter casts a spell on the world". CNN. 18 July 1999. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
82. ^ "Meet J.K. Rowling". Scholastic. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
83. ^ "Moviegoers get wound up over ‘Watchmen’". MSNBC. 22 July 2008. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
84. ^ "Harry Potter beaten to top award". BBC. 7 July 2000. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
85. ^ Levine, Arthur (2001–2005). "Awards". Arthur A. Levine Books. Retrieved on 21 May 2006.
86. ^ Watson, Julie (26 February 2004). "J. K. Rowling And The Billion-Dollar Empire". Forbes. Retrieved on 3 December 2007.
87. ^ "J.K. Rowling publishes Harry Potter spin-off". Telegraph.com. 1 November 2007. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
88. ^ "The World's Billionaires:#891 Joanne (JK) Rowling". Forbes. 8 March 2007. Retrieved on 29 July 2008.
89. ^ "J. K. Rowling Richer than the Queen". BBC. 27 April 2003. Retrieved on 29 July 2008.
90. ^ "Harry Potter Brand Wizard". Business Week. 21 July 2005. Retrieved on 29 July 2008.
91. ^ "Rowling joins Forbes billionaires". BBC. Retrieved on 9 September 2008.
92. ^ Smith, Dinitia (24 June, 2000). "The Times Plans a Children's Best-Seller List". The New York Times. Retrieved on 30 September 2008.
93. ^ "New Harry Potter breaks pre-order record". RTÉ.ie Entertainment. 13 April 2007. Retrieved on 23 April 2007.
94. ^ a b c Fierman, Daniel (31 August 2005). "Wild About Harry". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 4 March 2007. "When I buy the books for my grandchildren, I have them all gift wrapped but one...that's for me. And I have not been 12 for over 50 years."
95. ^ "Harry Potter hits midnight frenzy". CNN. 15 July 2005. Retrieved on 15 January 2007.
96. ^ "Worksheet: Half-Blood Prince sets UK record". BBC. 20 July 2005. Retrieved on 19 January 2007.
97. ^ "Record print run for final Potter". BBC. 15 March 2007. Retrieved on 22 May 2007.
98. ^ a b c d e Eccleshare, Julia (2002). A Guide to the Harry Potter Novels. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 10. ISBN 9780826453174.
99. ^ Bloom, Harold (24 September 2003). "Dumbing down American readers". The Boston Globe. Retrieved on 20 June 2006.
100. ^ Byatt, A. S. (7 July 2003). "Harry Potter and the Childish Adult". The New York Times. Retrieved on 1 August 2008.
101. ^ Holden, Anthony (25 June 2000). "Why Harry Potter does not cast a spell over me". The Observer. Retrieved on 1 August 2008.
102. ^ Allison, Rebecca (11 July 2003). "Rowling books 'for people with stunted imaginations'". The Guardian. Retrieved on 1 August 2008.
103. ^ Wilson, A. N. (29 July 2007). "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling". Times Online. Retrieved on 28 September 2008.
104. ^ "Salon Columnist". Salon.com. 2000. Retrieved on 3 August 2008.
105. ^ a b Taylor, Charles (8 July 2003). "A. S. Byatt and the goblet of bile". Salon.com. Retrieved on 3 August 2008.
106. ^ Fox, Killian (31 December 2006). "JK Rowling:The mistress of all she surveys". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 10 February 2007.
107. ^ "Person of the Year 2007 Runners-Up: J. K. Rowling". Time magazine. 23 December 2007. Retrieved on 23 December 2007.
108. ^ Charles, Ron (15 July 2007). "Harry Potter and the Death of Reading". The Washington Post. Retrieved on 16 April 2008.
109. ^ Knapp, N.F. (2003). "In Defense of Harry Potter: An Apologia". School Libraries Worldwide (International Association of School Librarianship) 9 (1): 78-91. Retrieved on 14 May 2009.
110. ^ Penrod, D (December 2001). "The Trouble with Harry: A Reason for Teaching Media Literacy to Young Adults".The Writing Instructor (Professional Writing Program at Purdue University). Retrieved on 16 May 2009.
111. ^ Conn, J.J. (2002). "What can clinical teachers learn from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone?". Medical Education 36 (12): 1176-1181. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2923.2002.01376.x.
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113. ^ Sawyer, Jenny (25 July 2007). "Missing from 'Harry Potter" – a real moral struggle". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved on 16 April 2008.
114. ^ Griesinger, E. (2002). "Harry Potter and the "deeper magic": narrating hope in children's literature". Christianity and Literature 51 (3): 455-480. Retrieved on 15 May 2009.
115. ^ Suellentrop, Chris (8 November 2002). "Harry Potter: Fraud". Slate Magazine. Retrieved on 16 April 2008.
116. ^ Hitchens, Christopher (12 August 2007). "The Boy Who Lived". The New York Times. 2. Retrieved on 1 April 2008.
117. ^ "SScholastic Inc, J.K. Rowling and Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P, Plaintiffs/Counterclaim Defendants, -against- Nancy Stouffer: United States District Court for the Southern District of New York". ICQ. 17 September 2002. Retrieved on 12 June 2007.
118. ^ McCarthy, Kieren (2000). "Warner Brothers bullying ruins Field family Xmas". The Register. Retrieved on 3 May 2007.
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145. ^ Rowling, J. K.. "How did you feel about the POA filmmakers leaving the Marauder’s Map’s background out of the story? (A Mugglenet/Lexicon question)". J. K. Rowling. Retrieved on 6 September 2008.
External links
Harry Potter portal
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of
Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Harry Potter
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Harry Potter
J. K. Rowling's personal website
Official Harry Potter movies website (Warner Bros.)
Harry Potter on Bloomsbury.com (International publisher)
Harry Potter on Scholastic.com (US publisher)
Harry Potter on Raincoast.com (Canadian publisher)
Harry Potter Wiki
Tongue Twisters
Latest English Tongue Twisters
mere paer ki pochi tere khoche me ja pahuchi
na idhar pahuchi na udhar pahuchi
khabar pahuchi to ye pahuci ki
mere paer ki pochi tere khoche me ja pahuchi
Sixth Sick Shakes Sixth Sheep's Sick
Which witch wished which wicked wish?
If you understand say,"understand".
If you don't understand say,"don't understand".
But if you say don't understand even if you understand,How will i understand that you understands?Understand?!
pake pad pe paka papita,paka pad ya paka papita,pake pad ko pakde pinku,pinku pakde paka papita
how many coockies could a good cook cook, if a good cook could cook good coockies (
I slit a sheet, a sheet I slit, upon a slitted sheet I sit. (
Yellow Lorry, Red Lorry! Yellow Lorry, Re
Lorry ! Yellow Lorry, Red Lorry
time to tick and prick ticks lick ticks an kick ticks (
the sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick
Father Francis From France Fried Five Fresh Fish For Five Friends From France.
Mr garigation says that english matriculation examination is botheration to all sinhala nations' whose main occupation is paddy cultivation
selly sold sea shels on the sea floor to buy some sea shels on the other side of the sea floor.
bitty bought some bitter butter,
then she bought some better butter
to make the bitter butter better
How much wood, would a woodchuck chuck
if would the woodchuck chuk wood!!!
Man makes mind to make others meagre.
She Sells Sea Shells on the Sea Shore
Betty Botter bought a bit of butter. But the butter was bitter. So Betty Botter bought a bit of butter to make the bitter butter better butter
Walter Waddle won a walking wager.
Did Walter Waddle win a walking wager?
If Walter Waddle won a walking wager,
Where's the walking wager Walter Waddle won?
Good blood bad Blood good blood bad blood good blood bad blood.
BETTY BOUGHT A BIT OE BUTTER BUT BIT OF BUTTER WAS BAD,BETTY AGAIN BOUGHT A BIT OF BUTTER BUT THIS TIME BIT OF BUTTER WAS BETTER ( By :
I FEEL A FEEL A FUNNY FEEL. A FUNNY FEEL I FEEL. IF U FEEL THE FEEL I FEEL. I'LL FEEL THE FEEL U FEEL.
If u Notice This Notice You will Notice that This Notice is not worth Noticing..., )
I WISH TO WISH THE WISH YOU WISH TO WISH,BUT IF YOU WISH THE WISH THE WITCH WISHES,I WON'T WISH THE WISH YOU WISH TO WISH ( By :
UPPER ROLLER - LOWER ROLLER
LALI BOLI LALLU SE, LALLAN LAAYA THA LALLU KI SHADI PE, LAAL LAAL LIFAFE MEIN LADDU
DOLLY AND DALLY WORK DAILY AT DELL IN DELHI.
BIG MAN BLEW BIG BLUE BUBBLES.
SIXTY-SIX SUPER SINGER SANG SIXTY-SIX SUPER SONG OF SIXTIES ON SIXTEEN NIGHT AT SEXON SQUARE AT SIX O'CLOCK.
FIFTY FRENCH FELL FROM FIFTH FLOOR
Pot Water ..Hot Water .. But Water
I LIKE the people LIKE you who LIKE others LIKE me and make the others LIKE me to LIKE others LIKE you…its worth understanding!!!
Radha Ki booni main niboo ki dhara
PETER PIPER PICKED A PECK OF PICKLED PEPPERS
A PECK OF PICKLED PEPPERS PETER PIPER PICKED
IF PETER PIPER PICKED A PECK OF PICKLED PEPPERS
WHERE IS THE PECK OF PICKLED PEPPERS PETER PIPER PICKED
Once a fellow met a fellow In a field of beans. Said a fellow to a fellow, "If a fellow asks a fellow, Can a fellow tell a fellow What a fellow means?"
Moses supposes his toeses are roses,but Moses supposes erroneously,for moses he knowses his toeses aren't roses ,as moses supposes his toeses to be. ( By :
Shoe Section, Shoe Section, Shoe Section
betty boughter bought some butter but the butter was bitter ,so she bought some better butter to make the bitter butter better butter
i feel a feel a funny feel ,a funny feel i feel, if u feel the feel i feel i feel the feel u feel. (
Mr. See owned a saw.
And Mr. Soar owned a seesaw.
Now, See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw
Before Soar saw See,
Which made Soar sore.
Had Soar seen See's saw
Before See sawed Soar's seesaw,
See's saw would not have sawed
Soar's seesaw.
So See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw.
But it was sad to see Soar so sore
just because See's saw sawed
Soar's seesaw. ( By : Jigar )
I wish you were a fish in my dish.
clever Claris cat chased clicking chubby Clover rat.
If you tell Tom to tell a tongue-twister his tongue will be twisted as tongue-twister twists tongues.
A flea and a fly in a flue Said the fly "Oh what should we do" Said the flea" Let us fly Said the fly"Let us flee" So they flew through a flaw in the flue
Nine nice night nurses nursing nicely
The owner of the inside inn was inside his inside inn with his inside outside his inside inn
Once a fellow met a fellow In a field of beans. Said a fellow to a fellow, "If a fellow asks a fellow, Can a fellow tell a fellow What a fellow means?"
I thought a thought.But the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I thought. If the thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought, I wouldn't have thought so much.
mere paer ki pochi tere khoche me ja pahuchi
na idhar pahuchi na udhar pahuchi
khabar pahuchi to ye pahuci ki
mere paer ki pochi tere khoche me ja pahuchi
Sixth Sick Shakes Sixth Sheep's Sick
Which witch wished which wicked wish?
If you understand say,"understand".
If you don't understand say,"don't understand".
But if you say don't understand even if you understand,How will i understand that you understands?Understand?!
pake pad pe paka papita,paka pad ya paka papita,pake pad ko pakde pinku,pinku pakde paka papita
how many coockies could a good cook cook, if a good cook could cook good coockies (
I slit a sheet, a sheet I slit, upon a slitted sheet I sit. (
Yellow Lorry, Red Lorry! Yellow Lorry, Re
Lorry ! Yellow Lorry, Red Lorry
time to tick and prick ticks lick ticks an kick ticks (
the sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick
Father Francis From France Fried Five Fresh Fish For Five Friends From France.
Mr garigation says that english matriculation examination is botheration to all sinhala nations' whose main occupation is paddy cultivation
selly sold sea shels on the sea floor to buy some sea shels on the other side of the sea floor.
bitty bought some bitter butter,
then she bought some better butter
to make the bitter butter better
How much wood, would a woodchuck chuck
if would the woodchuck chuk wood!!!
Man makes mind to make others meagre.
She Sells Sea Shells on the Sea Shore
Betty Botter bought a bit of butter. But the butter was bitter. So Betty Botter bought a bit of butter to make the bitter butter better butter
Walter Waddle won a walking wager.
Did Walter Waddle win a walking wager?
If Walter Waddle won a walking wager,
Where's the walking wager Walter Waddle won?
Good blood bad Blood good blood bad blood good blood bad blood.
BETTY BOUGHT A BIT OE BUTTER BUT BIT OF BUTTER WAS BAD,BETTY AGAIN BOUGHT A BIT OF BUTTER BUT THIS TIME BIT OF BUTTER WAS BETTER ( By :
I FEEL A FEEL A FUNNY FEEL. A FUNNY FEEL I FEEL. IF U FEEL THE FEEL I FEEL. I'LL FEEL THE FEEL U FEEL.
If u Notice This Notice You will Notice that This Notice is not worth Noticing..., )
I WISH TO WISH THE WISH YOU WISH TO WISH,BUT IF YOU WISH THE WISH THE WITCH WISHES,I WON'T WISH THE WISH YOU WISH TO WISH ( By :
UPPER ROLLER - LOWER ROLLER
LALI BOLI LALLU SE, LALLAN LAAYA THA LALLU KI SHADI PE, LAAL LAAL LIFAFE MEIN LADDU
DOLLY AND DALLY WORK DAILY AT DELL IN DELHI.
BIG MAN BLEW BIG BLUE BUBBLES.
SIXTY-SIX SUPER SINGER SANG SIXTY-SIX SUPER SONG OF SIXTIES ON SIXTEEN NIGHT AT SEXON SQUARE AT SIX O'CLOCK.
FIFTY FRENCH FELL FROM FIFTH FLOOR
Pot Water ..Hot Water .. But Water
I LIKE the people LIKE you who LIKE others LIKE me and make the others LIKE me to LIKE others LIKE you…its worth understanding!!!
Radha Ki booni main niboo ki dhara
PETER PIPER PICKED A PECK OF PICKLED PEPPERS
A PECK OF PICKLED PEPPERS PETER PIPER PICKED
IF PETER PIPER PICKED A PECK OF PICKLED PEPPERS
WHERE IS THE PECK OF PICKLED PEPPERS PETER PIPER PICKED
Once a fellow met a fellow In a field of beans. Said a fellow to a fellow, "If a fellow asks a fellow, Can a fellow tell a fellow What a fellow means?"
Moses supposes his toeses are roses,but Moses supposes erroneously,for moses he knowses his toeses aren't roses ,as moses supposes his toeses to be. ( By :
Shoe Section, Shoe Section, Shoe Section
betty boughter bought some butter but the butter was bitter ,so she bought some better butter to make the bitter butter better butter
i feel a feel a funny feel ,a funny feel i feel, if u feel the feel i feel i feel the feel u feel. (
Mr. See owned a saw.
And Mr. Soar owned a seesaw.
Now, See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw
Before Soar saw See,
Which made Soar sore.
Had Soar seen See's saw
Before See sawed Soar's seesaw,
See's saw would not have sawed
Soar's seesaw.
So See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw.
But it was sad to see Soar so sore
just because See's saw sawed
Soar's seesaw. ( By : Jigar )
I wish you were a fish in my dish.
clever Claris cat chased clicking chubby Clover rat.
If you tell Tom to tell a tongue-twister his tongue will be twisted as tongue-twister twists tongues.
A flea and a fly in a flue Said the fly "Oh what should we do" Said the flea" Let us fly Said the fly"Let us flee" So they flew through a flaw in the flue
Nine nice night nurses nursing nicely
The owner of the inside inn was inside his inside inn with his inside outside his inside inn
Once a fellow met a fellow In a field of beans. Said a fellow to a fellow, "If a fellow asks a fellow, Can a fellow tell a fellow What a fellow means?"
I thought a thought.But the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I thought. If the thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought, I wouldn't have thought so much.
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