High Res Poster for Bloomsbury Relaunch of "Fantastic Beasts" and "Quidditch Through the Ages" by J.K. Rowling
Books
Previously we told you Bloomsbury was re-releasing Harry Schoolbooks, aka "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," and "Quidditch Through the Ages" written by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling in support of the Comic Relief Charity. That relaunch is due to take place next month now on July 6th, complete with new cover art for the books which we showed you last month. Bloomsbury has now issued a new poster for the books, low res download here (PDF), high res download here (PDF). Pre-orders from the UK are available here via our Cauldron Shop.
Be sure to check out a transcript of the interview JKR gave in 2001 for the original release of the books (pdf here) where she noted:
Q. Did the books take you a long time to write?
J.K. Not a very long time: I wrote them right after I’d finished Book 4, so compared to Book 4, which
as you probably know is a very, very long book, they didn’t take long at all.
Q. One of them has extra stuff written in it by Harry. What’s all that about?
J.K. That’s Harry and Ron graffiti-ing the book, as you do to your schoolbooks. You do doodle on
them, I always wrote all over mine. Teachers reading this will not be happy that I’m saying it but you
do, don’t you? So they’ve just scribbled things on them and said rude things in them, the name of
their favourite Quidditch team and stuff in the book.
Q. Can you tell me where and when Quidditch was invented?
J.K. Quidditch started in the 11th century, at a place called Queerditch Marsh which you probably
won’t find marked on maps. But obviously that’s because wizards have made the place unplottable
(which means you can’t plot them on the map). Originally it was quite a crude game played on
broomsticks, and over the subsequent two centuries they added more balls until it became the game
we know now.
Q. Is Quidditch just as popular as it is in England all around the world?
J.K. It’s popular nearly everywhere, but not so much in the Far East as they prefer the flying carpet to
the broomstick, so it’s a real minority sport over there. But in most other places it’s fairly popular.
Q. How many beasts are there in Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them?
J.K. There are 75 but that’s not including the 10 different species of dragon. So that would be 84 if
you counted them.
As stated on the website, sales of Fantastic Beasts "will go to Comic Relief,
which means that the Pounds and Galleons you exchange for it will do
magic beyond the powers of any wizard. If you feel that this is
insufficient reason to part with your money, I can only hope that
passing wizards feel more charitable if they ever see you being
attacked by a Manticore. Albus Dumbledore.
asowme!