Celebrate Harry Potter’s 15th Birthday!

Tags

books, Children's literature, Harry Potter, JK Rowling, reading, The Philosopher's Stone, The Sorcerer's Stone

Did you know that it’s almost 15 years since reader’s in the U.S. first encountered the wizarding world of Harry Potter and travelled with him on his adventures to Hogwarts?

I can’t quite believe it, mostly because I remember a trip my husband and I took to New England before we were married which seems like only yesterday. Whilst there, we were approached by a young boy. Realising that we were from the UK, he wanted to know if we knew someone called Joanne Rowling? We’d never heard of her at that point, but this young boy’s enthusiastic description of the first Harry Potter book really piqued our interest. We were hooked from that moment on! As soon as we got home we went out to discover more. In fact, Harry Potter has featured a great deal in our lives since then-I read ‘Order of the Phoenix’ on our honeymoon during our lazy beach days (I’m a quick reader!) and now our children are big fans-my 6 year old believes she IS Harry and is trying to read ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’ on her own, whilst my 2 year old keeps picking up sticks and pretending they’re wands!

To encourage new readers in the U.S. to discover this magical world a brand new cover has been designed for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (the Philosopher’s Stone for UK readers) which was revealed by Scholastic last week. All seven will be re-released eventually with new covers.

The art work is by Kazuhiro Kibuishi who created the graphic novel series Amulet. Kazuhiro was inspired by the idea of paying homage to great literature by creating something that would befit a classic series.

One of the driving factors behind the new designs has been the desire to engage new readers with the books who may have only ever seen the stories portrayed on film.

As far as I’m concerned, these stories are just almost perfect literature and any attempt to engage a new generation in reading the books before watching the films is a great idea. I have to say, that I insist that my children will read the books first before watching the films and we’ll take our time doing it too to prolong the enjoyment!