Chat with CBBC Newsround's Lizo Mzimba About Harry Potter - Live on TV

Want to be on TV? Want to talk about Order of the Phoenix? Want to talk about Order of the Phoenix on TV? How about win an all-expenses paid trip to London to do it?
The CBBC Newsround show has announced a contest.

Here's what you need:

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• Your top 3 predictions for Book 5
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• Sum upContinued...

OotP Surpasses 500,000 Pre-Orders on Amazon.com

According to Reuters, book pre-ordrs for OotP have surpassed 500,000. And that's just one Web site.

CoS DVD Mixed Up with Exorcist?

Movie site Empire Online reports that a father bought the Chamber of Secrets movie for his 5-year old daughter and it ended up being The Exorcist. Sounds suspicious but, if true....even *I* had nightmares from that movie.

Reminder: US Contest to win trip to Rowling Event in UK Deadline Today

Thanks to Laura for the reminder - those of you who are not yet 18 and are planning on entering the Scholastic Essay Contest to win an all-expense paid trip to London, England to hear J.K. Rowling answer questions and read from her new novel...need to have your entries postmarkedContinued...

Chris Rankin AKA Percy Weasley Takes Part in Book V Events

ChrisRankin.com has announced that Chris Rankin, who plays the role of Percy Weasley in the Harry Potter movies, will be participating in 3 Book V launch events - one in Norwich for the midnight release and two on Saturday; one in Barking and another in Windsor.

Scholastic Launches Book V Site

The Scholastic Book V site is now live containing the SPOILERS that were found in the most recent Scholastic catalogue.

New Site: Harry Potter MeetUp And Read-In (MUARI)

Well folks, I've been hinting liberally over the past couple weeks of a big project I've been working on to bring you the maximum amount of fandom participation in the upcoming launch of Order of the Phoenix - I wanted to wait until we had exactly 30 days to go and so I have - it's here:Continued...

Barnes & Noble announces Book V Campaign

Barnes & Noble, today, announced that most stores will be open the night of Friday, June 20th for the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. (Editor's Note:: Most likely those stores within malls will have to negociate the mall staying open. I'm inclined to believe that all standaloneContinued...

Buckbeak Makes an Appearance in Glencoe

Sandra emailed us this article from a local paper in Glencoe with some great details about the filming:

Warner Brothers has been inundated with requests from kids and parents to be extras on set during the location shoot in the gloomy glen.

Warner Brothers’ spokeswoman Vanessa Davies said yesterday: “WeContinued...

Surprise - Potter said to break all records

The BBC picked up an article from the Wall Street Journal today on some of the stats for book sales in the US.

Scholastic will ship 8.5 million copies of the book to shops in time for its release.

The marketing campaign will cost between $3-4m (£1.8-2.5m).

The four previous Harry Potter books have soldContinued...

Are You Ready? Scholastic Begins the Countdown

Well, fellow witches & wizards (and sneaky muggles) - it begins. Over the next month you'll be seeing hundreds of articles about one of the largest launches in the history of the book - TLC even has something due out this week to celebrate this massive undertaking.
Scholastic has announced aContinued...

Committee for the Struggle Against Witchcraft

Thanks to David for sending us this snippet from The Week Magazine. It sounds like Arthur Weasley will have his hands full:

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Denounce your neighbor: The Saudi religious police have launched a Web site where Saudis can anonymously accuse their neighbors of violating religious laws,Continued...

Azkaban Update at the BBC

The BBC has an update about Azkaban filming at Glencoe over the weekend. Rain has been hampering progress over the past week.

Hagrid's hut has been built and there is a smallish castle structure too, says one local councillor.

Information about Australian Book V Launch

An interesting article in the Canberra Times discusses a bookseller whose just started reading Book 1. It also contains some information about the release of Book V, on Saturday, June 21st at 9am in Australia:

I've only just started reading the first few chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher'sContinued...

Double Hagrid

The Sunday Mail has an update of rugby-player Martin Bayfield whose been Robbie Coltrane's double of Hagrid since the first movie. Funny they say it's an exclusive since we reported it in January 2001.