Harry Potter online
p2pnet.net News:- With the Take-Two GTA sex-scenes controversy raging, it’s interesting to see something that’s actually said to be good for kids and adults alike.
But it’s not a game. It’s a book. And it’s not even an e-book.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will go on sale just after midnight on Saturday with 10.8 million US copies ear-marked for the US alone.
And there’s a major online connection which, given the Net’s vast ‘reader base,’ will make its creator almost as famous as Harry himself.
“The cell phone rang at 9 a.m. on May 3,” says the Chicago Tribune and, “Hello, Emerson? This is Jo.”
“That’s how Emerson Spartz, 19, of a small Indiana town 90 minutes east of Chicago, found out he will be flying to Scotland for an hourlong face-to-face meeting next weekend with author J.K. Rowling – Jo, to fans of her Harry Potter series.
” ‘It was a great moment,’ he recalled in his home here. ‘I was, like, `Wow,’ but after that …’
After that, “Spartz went back to work on Mugglenet.com, his dense and authoritative Web site about all things Potter that’s so complete Rowling refers to it to keep her plot lines and characters’ idiosyncrasies on track,” says the Tribune;
Improving reading skills
Meanwhile, “The Harry Potter books boost children’s reading ability and encourage them to read more widely, according to both pupils and their teachers,” says The Observer. “Indeed, many teachers cite JK Rowling’s work as being a valuable educational resource, and more than a third reckon that it is more effective than the government’s National Literacy Strategy.”
A Federation of Children’s Book Groups study found 59% of children believe Harry Potter has, “helped them improve their reading skills” and “Nearly half said that Rowling’s series made them want to read more books,” says the story.
The first five Potter books have now sold more than 265m copies in 200 countries and been translated into 62 languages and the, “The ‘Harry Potter Report’ also examines how the books have triggered an entire cultural shift towards children’s literature in media coverage and retail space,” adds the Guardian.
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See:-
GTA sex-scenes – Rockstar disowns GTA sex mod, p2pnet, July 11, 2005
ear-marked – Harry Potter vs iTunes, p2pnet, July 10, 2005
Chicago Tribune – Web site casts spell on `Potter’ author, July 11, 2005
The Observer – Potter’s magic spell turns boys into bookworms , July 10, 2005
July 11th, 2005 at 11:25 pm
This is what the internet is for, to bring together a group of people to work together on something they like. These types of activities would be impossible over any other kind of communication.