As featured in the first year set texts reading list in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is an extensive introduction to the magical beasts that exist in the magical, non-Muggle world.Some of the animals featured in the A-Z you will have already met in the existing Harry Potter books: for example Hippogriff, Flobberworm, Kappa - others you certainly won't: read on to find out exactly what a Chizpurfle is, or why one should always beware of the sinister Lethifold...As Albus Dumbledore says in his introduction, this set text book by Newt Scamander has given the perfect grounding to many a Hogwarts student. It will be helpful to all Muggles out there too...On reading the book you will also find that Harry, Ron and (in one instance) Hermione - couldn't resist graffitiing the book, and adding their own hand-written opinions.
'We do not need magic to transform our wold; we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already'In 2008, J.K. Rowling delivered a deeply affecting commencement speech at Harvard University. Now, due to popular demand, the most-viewed commencement speech on Harvards website is published for the first time in book form. In Very Good Lives, J.K. Rowling asks the profound and provocative questions: How can we embrace failure? And how can we use our imagination to better both ourselves and others?Drawing from stories of her own postgraduate years, the world-famous author addresses some of lifes most important issues with acuity and emotional force.Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust said, I have heard and read many commencement speeches, none more moving and memorable than J.K. Rowlings. Years after her visit to Harvard, people still talk about itand still find inspiration in her singular evocation of the idea that living a meaningful life so often means daring to risk failure. What a powerful example she embodies, and what a remarkable gift her speech was, and is, for all of us privileged to hear it thenand to read it now.As well as contributing toward university-wide financial aid at Harvard University, sales of Very Good Lives will benefit Lumos, a non-profit international childrens organization founded by J.K. Rowling, which works to end the institutionalization of children around the world.J.K. Rowling said about the charity:Lumos is a spell I created in Harry Potter that brings light to a desperately dark and frightening place. At Lumos this is just what we do: we reveal the hidden children locked away behind closed doors in institutions and forgotten by the world, so that everyone first of all understands the problem and then works together to fix it. It is my dream that within our lifetime, the very idea of institutionalising children will seem to belong to a cruel fictional world.
When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils. Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the towns council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations? Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowlings first novel for adults.
When Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…. Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the town's council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations? Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults.
Een grote roman over een kleine gemeenschapWanneer Barry Fairbrother onverwacht sterft, zijn de bewoners van Pagford geschokt. Pagford lijkt een idyllisch Engels plattelandsdorp, met een charmant marktplein en een oude abdij, maar achter die fraaie façade gaan grote conflicten schuil. Rijk tegen arm, tieners tegen hun ouders, vrouwen tegen hun echtgenoten, leraren tegen hun leerlingen...In Pagford is niets wat het lijkt. De lege stoel die Barry achterlaat in de gemeenteraad is de aanleiding tot de grootste strijd die het dorp ooit heeft gekend. Wie zal zegevieren in deze verkiezingen vol opportunisme, valsheid en verbijsterende onthullingen?Een goede raad is de eerste roman voor volwassenen van J.K. Rowling. In dit bijzondere boek onderzoekt een van 's werelds beste vertellers de grote vragen van onze tijd.
When a letter arrives for unhappy but ordinary Harry Potter, a decade-old secret is revealed to him that apparently he's the last to know. His parents were wizards, killed by a Dark Lord's curse when Harry was just a baby, and which he somehow survived. Leaving his unsympathetic aunt and uncle for Hogwarts, a wizarding school brimming with ghosts and enchantments, Harry stumbles upon a sinister adventure when he finds a three-headed dog guarding a room on the third floor. Then he hears of a missing stone with astonishing powers which could be valuable, dangerous, or both.
Harry can't wait for his holidays with the dire Dursleys to end. But a small, self-punishing house-elf warns Harry of mortal danger awaiting him at Hogwarts School. Returning to the castle nevertheless, Harry hears a rumour about a chamber of secrets, holding unknown horrors to wizards of Muggle parentage. Now someone is casting spells that turn people to stone, and a terrible warning is found painted on the wall. The chief suspect - always in the wrong place - is Harry. But something much darker has yet to be unleashed.
Harry Potter is an ordinary boy who lives in a cupboard under the stairs at his Aunt and Uncle's house, which he thinks is normal for someone whose parents have been killed in a "car crash". He is rescued into a world where magic lessons are the order of the day. This is the first in the series.
