That Potter Park

Three rides will form the center of the new park. Universal still will not talk much about the biggest one, a high-tech experience inside the castle called Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey that involves the likenesses of the heroes from the films.

Flight of the Hippogriff is described as a family coaster that simulates a Hippogriff (the half-horse, half-eagle beast from “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”) training flight over Hogwarts castle. Dragon Challenge is a twin high-speed coaster that will feature elements from the Triwizard Tournament.

Interactive shopping is a major component, said Paul Daurio, show producer for the park. For instance, the Ollivanders wand shop will replicate Ms. Rowling’s story line: the wand chooses the wizard instead of the other way around. Other stores will offer Potter merchandise that is unavailable elsewhere, like extendable ears.

The castle itself will be about 150-feet tall but will appear to tower some 600 feet in the air because of architectural and filmmaking tricks, Mr. Daurio said. Over all, the park will resemble Hogsmeade, Ms. Rowling’s all-wizard village.

From this New York Times article on the coming Harry Potter theme park.  Or go to this NPR piece.  And for a bit of fun, go to the park’s  website.

The Bard’s Babbitty Rabbitty

“Come off it!” said Ron, looking in disbelief from Harry to Hermione. “You must’ve heard of Babbitty Rabbitty —”

“Ron, you know full well Harry and I were brought up by Muggles!” said Hermione. “We didn’t hear stories like that when we were little we heard ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ and ‘Cinderella’ —”

“What’s that, an illness?” asked Ron.

Beedle the Bard, that is.  First mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Babbitty’s story and four others by this wizard storyteller are now available for all us Muggles.  And in case you have trouble understanding them, there’s commentary by one Albus Dumbledore to clarify things.  Yesterday, at the New York Public Library (where I’d been to see the lovely Laura Amy Schlitz tell stories), I stopped by to gaze at Aurthur A. Levine’s copy of this small volume and picked up a copy for myself (rather drab-looking, I have to say, after that gorgeous handmade one of Arthur’s), and read it last night. Illustrated by Rowling herself, it is a very amusing trifle.

Here are a few reviews (some almost as long as the book itself):

Lev Grossman at Time Magazine.

Mary Harris Russell at the Chicago Tribune.

Sameer Rahim at the Telegraph.

Amanda Craig at the Times.

Rowling wins lawsuit against Web site operator

Rowling wins lawsuit against Web site operator – NYTimes.com
A judge says ”Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling has won her claim that a fan violated her copyright with his plans to publish a Potter encyclopedia.

The Tale of One Bad Tommy

The Lost, I Mean, Next Harry Potter

According to Powell’s Book Blog:

Publishers are constantly promoting one new children’s fantasy series after another as “the next Harry Potter.” But let’s be honest: nobody saw the last Harry Potter coming, so how are they supposed to predict the next one?

However, as much as any book can be considered a sure thing, 39% of our respondents wholeheartedly believe that Lost Babies: The Early Years by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse will be the next big thing!

Publishing industry, are you listening? We want the wacky, fun-filled adventures of infant Jack, Kate, and Sawyer fighting for control of their play room against Locke, who believes the play room has mysterious powers because he has been crawling for four years — and suddenly he can walk!

Maybe It is Just the Invisibility Cloak At Work?

It had to happen sometime — and, lo, an era has ended. After a 10-year run, and less than a year after the seventh and final book in J. K. Rowling’s series was published, the Harry Potter books have fallen — as of the May 11 issue of the Book Review, which went to press last night — off The Times’s best-seller list.

Ten Years Later, Harry Potter Vanishes From the Best-Seller List – Paper Cuts – Books – New York Times Blog

Remembering Harry: Muggle Quidditch

Just came back from watching a game of Quidditch between Middlebury and Columbia Colleges here in NYC. Lots of college kids running around with brooms between their legs while one in bright yellow (the Snitch evidently) ran all about chased by, what else?, two Seekers. According to this news release:

In 2005, students at Middlebury created earth-bound rules for the famous sport depicted in the Harry Potter novels. Since then it has grown into a major phenomenon at the college, with more than 400 students playing in the Middlebury league. The club created a Facebook page called the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association to spread the word and standardize the rules. It now has nearly 65 member colleges from across the country.

Looked like a mixture of tag, rugby, dodge ball, and a few other of the rougher sports. I got a kick out of those very athletic kids always keeping the brooms between their legs (one of the rules) and that lanky bright yellow Snitch dashing about. Here’s a USA Today article about the burgeoning sport and a Middlebury student documentary about it:

The Hugo Awards

I have always known about the Hugo Awards, but not how they were selected.  Interesting!

Denvention 3, the 66th World Science Fiction Convention, has announced the ballot for the 2008 Hugo Awards. Nominations were made by the members of last year’s World Science Fiction Convention, held in Yokohama, and this year’s, to be held in Denver. Members of the 2008 convention will have until July 1, 2008, to vote on this ballot. Winners will be announced and trophies awarded at Denvention’s Hugo Awards Ceremony on Saturday, August 9.

The voting will be conducted by mail and online. The online ballot will be available at the Denvention 3 web site in the near future. You do not have to attend the convention to vote. A Supporting Membership ($50) is sufficient to secure you voting rights. Memberships can be purchased here.

(The members also created the shortlist by way of nominations.)

And then there are the categories, like none I’ve seen before. Children’s material shows up on several short lists:

Best Related Book

• The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana Glyer; appendix by David Bratman (Kent State University Press)
• Breakfast in the Ruins: Science Fiction in the Last Millennium by Barry Malzberg (Baen)
• Emshwiller: Infinity x Two by Luis Ortiz, intro. by Carol Emshwiller, fwd. by Alex Eisenstien (Nonstop)
• Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction by Jeff Prucher (Oxford University Press)
• The Arrival by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• Enchanted Written by Bill Kelly Directed by Kevin Lima (Walt Disney Pictures)
• The Golden Compass Written by Chris Weitz Based on the novel by Philip Pullman Directed by Chris Weitz (New Line Cinema)
• Heroes, Season 1 Created by Tim Kring (NBC Universal Television and Tailwind Productions Written by Tim Kring, Jeff Loeb, Bryan Fuller, Michael Green, Natalie Chaidez, Jesse Alexander, Adam Armus, Aron Eli Coleite, Joe Pokaski, Christopher Zatta, Chuck Kim. Directed by David Semel, Allan Arkush, Greg Beeman, Ernest R. Dickerson, Paul Shapiro, Donna Deitch, Paul A. Edwards, John Badham, Terrence O’Hara, Jeannot Szwarc, Roxann Dawson, Kevin Bray, Adam Kane
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Written by Michael Goldenberg Based on the novel by J.K. Rowling Directed by David Yates (Warner Bros. Pictures)
• Stardust Written by Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Paramount Pictures)

Best Professional Artist

• Bob Eggleton
• Phil Foglio
• John Harris
• Stephan Martiniere
• John Picacio
• Shaun Tan

Remembering Harry: David vs Goliath?

Here’s a very thorough article by John Crace on the court case involving the publication (or not) of The Harry Potter Lexicon:  Harry Potter: the last battle | News | guardian.co.uk Books.

Remembering Harry: He’s Not Dead Yet?

Says Rowling in Time Magazine: “If, and it’s a big if, I ever write an eighth book about the [wizarding ] world, I doubt that Harry would be the central character,” she says. “I feel like I’ve already told his story. But these are big ifs. Let’s give it 10 years and see how we feel then.”