Written by Jon Williams
Recently, the
play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
opened at the Palace Theatre in London’s West End to rave reviews. Written by
veteran playwright Jack Thorne based on a story idea he developed with director
John Tiffany as well as Harry Potter creator
and author J.K. Rowling, the play continues Harry’s story starting from the
epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows, which sees Harry sending his son Albus to Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry for the first time. The plot then follows young Albus
as he struggles to forge his own identity in the wake of his father’s heroic
legacy.
Published in
book form, the play’s script has already sold well over three million copies,
fanning the flames of a Potter fever that never went entirely dormant. However,
if you didn’t already have copies of the movies on your shelves, you (and your
patrons) have been out of luck for quite some time. Until now, that is!
Starting today, all eight Harry Potter
movies are available for pre-order in a 2-disc Special Edition format on both
DVD and Blu-ray. These new editions will release on October 4, just in time for
the lead-up to Fantastic Beasts and Where
to Find Them, the spin-off movie coming to theaters on November 18.
As hard as
it may be to believe, the Harry Potter
craze has been ongoing for nearly twenty years. It was June of 1997 when the
first book, Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone was published in the U.K. It came to the U.S. over a
year later, in September of 1998, as Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The next two books, Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry
Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban, were both published in the U.S. in
1999. With the fourth book, Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which came out in July of 2000, the
publication schedule was finally standardized internationally. From there, it
was three years until the next book, Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The sixth book, Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, came in 2005. The events of that
novel whipped fans into a frenzy, which paid off when Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out in 2007, one of the biggest
publishing events of all time.
It was after
Goblet of Fire, with the books’ plots
growing in complexity and length to match the increasing maturity of their
protagonists and readers, that the time in between their publication increased.
However, this is also when the movie series began. In 2001, Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was released into theaters, starring Daniel
Radcliffe in the title role, with Emma
Watson and Rupert
Grint as his faithful friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. That film,
along with the
second, was directed by Chris
Columbus; he stepped down for the third
film in favor of Alfonso
Cuaron. Mike
Newell took over for Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and then David
Yates stepped in to direct the final four films: Order
of the Phoenix, Half-Blood
Prince, and Deathly
Hallows, which was split into two installments in order to maintain all
the action and drama of the final book.
It’s at the
end of that book that Harry Potter and
the Cursed Child picks up, carrying the story into a new generation of
witches and wizards as it adds to the lore for a new generation of fans. Make
sure you have all the magic on your shelves for patrons who can’t get enough of
all things Potter. You can use the
links above to find the audiobooks and new Special Edition DVDs and Blu-rays, and
don’t forget to SmartBrowse ‘Harry Potter’ on our website to find the movie
scores and a wealth of other supplemental material.
Written by Jon Williams
As we wait
for spring to kick into full gear, it’s never too early to start thinking about
summer beach reading and audiobooks for long trips. There is a wonderful slate of
books scheduled for release later this spring and into the summer, but June
looks to be a monster, with highly anticipated new titles coming from two
juggernauts of the literary world.
It was
recently announced that June 24 would bring The
Silkworm by Robert Galbraith. This will be the second crime novel
featuring private detective Cormoran Strike. The first Strike novel was last
year’s The
Cuckoo’s Calling, in which Strike investigated the death of supermodel
Lula Landry, the adopted sister of his childhood friend. That book, of course,
made news (and jumped to the top of the bestseller lists) when it was revealed
that Robert Galbraith was, in fact, the pen name of J.K. Rowling, the wildly
famous author of the Harry
Potter books. After that series concluded in 2007, she made her first
foray into writing for adults with 2012’s The
Casual Vacancy. When that book was an automatic bestseller, she decided
to use a pen name for her next book in order to see how it would perform on its
own merits. That plan was foiled shortly after The Cuckoo’s Calling was published; however, it was drawing rave
reviews even before the truth about its authorship was revealed. The Silkworm promises to pick up where
the first book left off, with Strike this time investigating the case of an
author gone missing before the publication of a devastating tell-all.
Before that
comes out, though, June 3 will bring a new novel from Stephen King. Like
Galbraith’s crime novels, King calls Mr.
Mercedes his first “hard-boiled” detective novel, with his own
signature macabre twist. The tale deals with a killer who operates by driving a
stolen car into crowds of people, and the retired police officer on the trail
to track him down before he can strike again. This is King’s first novel since
last year’s Doctor
Sleep, the long-awaited sequel to his early classic The Shining, and it kicks off a busy month
for the horror master. On June 30, Under
the Dome returns to CBS, a show based on King’s 2009
tome about a small town mysteriously trapped under an invisible force field
that completely seals them off from the outside world. The second season’s
premiere episode was written by King himself. In addition, later this year (November
11) King will publish Revival,
a story more typical to his roots in the horror genre.
And of
course, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of great stories coming
out this spring and summer. Are there any titles you or your patrons are
particularly excited about? Let us know in the comments section below.
Written by Jon Williams
The literary
world was abuzz this weekend with the news that the book The
Cuckoo’s Calling, ostensibly written by debut author “Robert Galbraith,”
was in fact written by none other than Harry
Potter creator J.K. Rowling.
Rowling made
her own debut in 1997 with the publication of Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. That was the beginning of a seven-book
series detailing the exploits of the boy wizard and his friends as they
fought the evil Voldemort in his quest for power and immortality. The books
were both a critical and commercial success; Forbes magazine declared Rowling the first person to become a
billionaire by writing books. The books also spawned eight film
adaptations.
The final Harry Potter book was published in 2007,
leaving a question of where Rowling’s writing career would go from there. That
question was answered in 2012 with the release of The
Casual Vacancy, her first novel aimed at adults. It focuses on the
fictional English town of Pagford, which is thrown into chaos by the death of
one of its council members. The novel is set to be adapted into a television
series for the BBC, to begin airing in 2014.
After the
success of Harry Potter, the hype for
The Casual Vacancy was enormous. It
sold well, but responses were mixed, with critics noting the complete thematic
departure from her children’s series—Potter
focused on friendship and love, whereas The
Casual Vacancy portrayed situations that were dire and bleak. Many felt
there was no way Rowling could publish anything without it being compared to
the cultural phenomenon that was Harry
Potter.
It was
partially for that reason that Rowling took on a pseudonym to publish her
latest work, which was published in April. She had previously expressed a
desire to write a crime novel, and leaving her own name off of it allowed it to
stand on its own. The plan worked, with the book drawing strong reviews from
such sources as Publishers Weekly and
Library Journal. The publisher has
since announced that a second book in the series will be published next summer,
and that Rowling will continue to write them as Robert Galbraith.
Since it was
confirmed on Sunday that Rowling is indeed the author of The Cuckoo’s Calling, sales of the book have exploded, and demand
is sure to remain strong. Be sure to have plenty of copies on your shelves for
patrons when the audio version comes available in September.
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