Bloomsbury has announced its cub reporter, who will travel to Scotland to meet and be part of a press conference with Jo Rowling on publication weekend; Vhari Leishman won with the following entry: “I’ve just spent a whole day of my exam leave – note I said spent, not wasted – trying to think of …read more!

With about two weeks left until the zero hour, the team at PotterParties.com has been working like a band of house-elves, and we have some amazing things to report. Firstly, there are now more than 1,500 parties listed on the site, from the US and the UK to Malaysia and Japan. This comes with the …read more!

The Marauder shirt that you sold WB out of last month has begun shipping again; our WB rep assures us that all of you who backordered will get them shortly, and definitely in time for the HBP release. See/order it here. Also, while the idea of a Dumbledore’s Army shirt has been very well met …read more!

Yesterday’s McSweeney’s Online Magazine featured a humorous look at Things You Can Learn About The Plot Of The Next Harry Potter Book Just By Looking At The Cover Art. There’s no real spoilers for actual book content, as they haven’t read it yet, but if you’re avoiding the cover, you might want to skip the …read more!

Bloomsbury has recently introduced a gallery section on their new Harry Potter website where fans can submit reviews and artwork associated with the HP books. In the run-up to publication, they are giving away a signed copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (which will be sent after the 16th of July) to their …read more!

Kids in Shreveport, LA, Canadaigua, NY and the Penn State area can find summer fun at camps inspired by the Harry Potter books, Newsweek magazine reports. Thanks to Penny from the Lexicon for the tip! Also, in the last few hours, we’ve had some tips about other magic-themed camps, including the California Science Center’s Wizard …read more!

A minibook written by J.K. Rowling and auctioned for charity has just resurfaced and been sold on eBay for £24,995 (a customer ended the bidding by paying a predetermined amount that would ensure victory). The piece is, as the eBay store describes it: “A beautiful piece, written, and signed, on the opening page in fine …read more!

Hi all: we’ve reimplemented our poll feature on the main page, to prepare for Friday’s posting of the top 10 questions chosen in our “Ask Jo” contest. In the meantime, do some Snape speculating on the right, there.

UPDATE: Thanks to an anonymous Leaky reader, you can see pics of the segment CNBC did on the book – including images of the finished book being sorted and packed – right here! Barnes & Noble announced on Business Wire today that 124 tractor trailer trucks, weighing more than 4,000,000 pounds, will arrive between now …read more!

Some new stamps showing the first look at Mad-Eye as well as more images of the Horntail and other creatures have been posted by Veritaserum; check it out here! Thanks, VS!