The Scotsman takes a first look of what looks to be a series of the live of Joanne Rowling prior to the Harry Potter series.

TIME has a profile of Ms. Rowling herself.

Nice to hear from the European and Pacific Stars and Stripes that folks stationed overseas in the US Military will get the book like the rest of us. The Army and Air Force Exchange Service will debut the book across Europe, and its newly renovated Bookmark store in Hainerberg, Germany, is hosting a Potter-a-thon beforehand. …read more!

According to the NY Daily News, competition is fierce in the Big Apple with bookstores trying to lure customers away from each other.

BBC has a report on the staggering effect OotP is having on the British postal system. It must be like Sears Catalog day here in the States.

Organisers of a New Zealand festival are planning a world record attempt when the much-anticipated next book in the Harry Potter series is launched. Storylines Festival of New Zealand Childrens Writers and Illustrators co-ordinator Robin Houler said the record sought was for the longest reading aloud of a children’s work. Margaret Mahy, author of The …read more!

Thanks to Alison and Ebony for sending us the TIME Magazine article about OotP. The article covers JK Rowling’s correspondence with Catie Hoch throughout the six-year-old’s illness in 2000, the upcoming slew of midnight parties, churches that use the books to reach out to the children among their membership, censorship and the expected length of …read more!

Brittany Hawkrigg, a 16 yr old winner of Scholastic’s contest is profiled in Newsday for her essay on healing her dad.

They’ll be a Potter in Latin, Ancient Greek and even Irish Gaelic but groups in Scotland are outraged that there will be no Scots Gaelic – the language of Rowling’s homeland.

According to Ohio.com, not all churches take issue with the boy wizard.