The Sarasota Herald-Tribune has a cute article about how the Venice Elementary School took a break last week to celebrate Harry Potter with a Trivia Contest.

The London Evening Standard’s Business Day has this article about Harry Potter being at, of all places, an Antiquarian Book Fair: HARRY Potter finds himself in the strangest of places, but an antiquarian book fair? I ask you! His first adventure, Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, was published three years ago. Yet there he …read more!

We came across an article in the June Nutrition Action Healthletter decrying Coca-Cola’s use of Harry Potter to sell “liquid candy” to kids: “Harry Potter” isn’t just about magic. It is magic. The best-selling books have done more to transform millions of children into enthusiastic readers than any well-intentioned effort by anyone, anywhere. They haven’t …read more!

A reader emailed us interesting news from 4 Daily Variety articles this week. In an article about the “post-production” business slowing down, we find out this: This year, ILM is tackling its biggest slate ever, creating visuals for “A.I.,” “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Jurassic Park 3,” “Pearl Harbor,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Star …read more!

An interesting editorial from the Madison Capital Times talks about the book market, first editions and auctions. “Here,” he says, handing over an advanced reader’s copy of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” “This is worth $2,500 on the open market.” It’s a breathless thing, really, to hold something so small and so valuable. But …read more!

Four San Antonio, Texas students (out of 2,672 entrants) won copies of Harry Potter books signed by J.K. Rowling after answering all the questions, asked by the San Antonio Express-News in a trivia context, correctly.

The New York Times has an interesting article about how the success of the Harry Potter book series has encouraged the C.S. Lewis estate to start a marketing campaign to publicize The Chronicles of Narnia. ”They’re turning Narnia into a British version of Mickey Mouse,” said John G. West, co-editor of The C. S. Lewis …read more!

I hereby nominate Jason Gay for the Vernon Dursley award for his satiracal comments in a recent New York Observer piece: Everybody in New York wants to be a kid again. Ride the subway, and what do you see? Thirty-year-old bankers and 26-year-old assistant editors squinty-eyed, obsessing over Harry Potter books. “They’re really good,” they …read more!

To remind us of how cool the first trailer is, (while we await trailer #2 in July), the Philippine Daily Inquirer reviews it in detail.

Heya, I’m back from holidays and – sad to say – there is still no Arabic translation of the Harry Potter books out yet, at least not in Egypt. An unfilled gap? Harry Potter is huuge in Saudi-Arabia and the Emirates (in the English version), so why shouldn’t it be a success in the rest …read more!