Happy Birthday Harry Potter and JK Rowling! Yesterday, July 31, was the shared birthday of the boy wizard and his creator and the beginning of The Magical Quill hunt on Pottermore. According to the Pottermore home page now posting the headline “7 books, 7 days, 7 chances”, early access to site will be granted to those lucky few who find The Magical Quill and complete the registration process. “Each day, from 31 July to 6 August, a clue will be revealed here. Solve the clue and you will be taken to The Magical Quill. Be quick, The Magical Quill won’t be there for long and registration will only be open while spaces are still available each day.” Read more…

Novelist Jane Smiley has written on a variety of subjects in several genres from the Pulitzer Prize winning family drama A Thousand Acres to the animal loving children’s series A Good Horse. For her 13th piece of fiction, the alumna of the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop has drawn from her own family history to create Private Life, telling of the difficult marriage between Capt. Andrew Jackson Jefferson Early and Margaret Mayfield. The novel spans the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, moving from Missouri to California’s Bay Area, and addresses the balance of power in a marriage and gender roles. The author used elements from the lives of her great aunt and uncle to shape her characters. Read more…

Since the release of his first novel, Absolute Power in 1996, David Baldacci has established himself as a master of the political thriller. But the bestselling author has taken a new writing direction with his latest book One Summer (Grand Central Publishing, 352pgs), exploring family drama; a genre he experimented with early in his career. In an interview with Reuters, the writer discussed his experience crafting this sentimental story: “In some ways it was liberating. I didn’t have to lay out a lot of red herrings and clues. I could delve more deeply into the characters. Obviously, it’s a different sort of genre. But those sorts of stories were what I started with. I wrote short stories for 10 years before I became a thriller writer, and their themes were more like the themes explored in One Summer.” Read more…

By John Dalton
Scribner | 336pgs
Release Date: July 19, 2011

Summary:
The Inverted Forest opens just days before Kindermann Forest Summer Camp is set to open for the 1996 season, when the camp director summarily fires all of the counselors for inappropriate behavior, and scrambles to find replacements. Among the newly minted staff is Wyatt Huddy, a gentle giant who suffers from a congenital defect that causes facial disfigurement. The rookie counselors get their first surprise on opening day when the rambunctious children they were expecting turn out to be mentally disabled adults arriving from the state hospital. The entire group must adjust to this unexpected situation, but Wyatt alone harbors the fear of being inadvertently mistaken for a disabled camper. As the days go on and a fellow counselor reveals his true, dangerous nature, Wyatt is swept up in a tragic event that impacts all those involved many years into the future. Read more…

The Harry Potter Alliance turns the lessons learned from series into real world action.

The debut of the final film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in theaters early this morning signifies a new chapter for the Harry Potter generation. Rather than an end, fans like Harry Potter Alliance Executive Director Andrew Slack, see the release of the eighth movie as a new beginning, an opportunity to turn the lessons learned from Harry Potter into action. In an article for the CNN website Slack writes of the gifts that JK Rowling’s creations have given to millions of readers. “Reality is mysterious. And the reality is that a fantasy book aimed at children has forever changed writing, publishing, literature, music, sports, social media and social activism.” Read more…

Author Beverly Cleary has created beloved characters like Ramona Quimby.

Ever since Beverly Cleary published her first book, Henry Huggins in 1950, her work has become an integral part of childhood for generations of kids. More than a half a century and 91 million copies later, she has created a beloved cast of characters, including Ramona Quimby and big sister Beezus, that still capture the imagination of youngsters today. Benjamin Schwarz, the literary editor for The Altantic, recently interviewed the 95 year-old author and asked about how she balanced her budding writing career with the demands of her family as a young mother, and why her characters still appeal to 21st century children.

On starting out as a young writer and mother, she states plainly: “It wasn’t easy. I loved my family and I loved my young career. A neighborhood woman felt that I needed help and offered to come babysit the children. I would write while she looked after them. They would draw pictures and slide them under my door. It worked out nicely.” Read more…

©2011 Warner Bros.

The end is nigh, Potter fans. On Monday, people in the UK started camping out in London’s Trafalgar Square in anticipation of the world premier of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 that will take place on Thursday, July 7. The Guardian reports that prior to the screening, members of the cast and crew will stroll from a staged Diagon Alley set up in Trafalgar Square to the Odeon theater in Leicester Square. Fans outside of Britain have already made plans to flock to theaters next week, when the film is released world-wide. Yet, through all the excitement and anticipation, this ending is bittersweet. Many who have grown up with the books and movies, feel as if they are bidding farewell to their childhood. In a separate article, Naomi Alderman reflects on the enduring popularity of the series, and muses with a few friends on 7 bits of Harry Potter fantasy that they wish were real. Read more…

By J.D. McGhoul with Pat Kilbane
Mythodrome, Inc. ©2011 | Hardcover 160pgs

For those who find themselves unexpectedly among the undead in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, The Brain Eater’s Bible: Sound Advice for the Newly Reanimated Zombie is a must read. Written from the perspective of J.D. McGhoul, an unusual zombie specimen who has retained both his mental faculties and physical agility, the book guides those new to the ways of the walking dead through the ins and outs of zombiedom. The brainchild (mmm, brains) of actor Pat Kilbane (Mad TV, Day of the Dead), this full-color tongue in cheek treatise is chockfull of practical advice, dark humor, detailed diagrams and delightfully gruesome photographs featuring stellar creature designs by special effects pro Dean Jones. Throughout the book, the cold, hard facts of the undead existence are intermixed with excerpts from McGhoul’s diary, which chronicles his personal zombie journey. His private thoughts, revelations and musings will be quite comforting to anyone who has woken up looking “like the ass end of a rotten pizza.” Read more…

For the past week, the Muggle world has been furiously guessing about the details of JK Rowling’s new website, hinted at with a mysterious splash page that pointed to a countdown video on YouTube. Today, Rowling released the details at press conference held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. “Pottermore has been a really great way to give back to the Harry Potter readership, who made the books such a big success,” she announced. In a video screened at the conference, and now posted on the Pottermore home page, the author thanked her readers. “No author could have asked for a more wonderful, diverse and loyal readership.” Rowling then went on to explain the particulars of the site.

“Digital generations will be able to enjoy a safe, unique online reading experience built around the Harry Potter books,” stated Rowling. “Pottermore will be the place where fans of any age can share, participate in and rediscover the stories. It will also be the exclusive place to purchase digital audio books and for the first time e-books in the Harry Potter series. I’ll be joining in too because I will be sharing additional information I’ve been hoarding for years about the world of Harry Potter.” Read more…

By Adam Mansbach
Akashic Books | 32pgs
Release Date: June 14, 2011

Summary:
First things first, though the picture book format and brightly colored illustrations scream children’s book, Adam Mansbach’s new book Go the F**k to Sleep is for adults only, as is evident by the title. Written for parents everywhere who have nearly been driven mad in the quest to get their sweet babies to sleep, the author voices the frustration that many moms and dads have secretly felt, with profane humor. Each spread features a rhyming verse accompanied by Ricardo Cortes’ sweet illustrations of blissfully sleeping children nestled cozily with animals. The first two line of each verse are the saccharine fare of many a bedtime story, but the last lines reveal the annoyed and angry thoughts of a parent pushed to the edge. As the story progresses, the narrator’s emotions move from impatience to fury to utter despair at being a failure as a parent. The foul language and ironic humor elicit laughs and sympathy from myriad parents who have been tortured by toddler bedtime rituals and have wished with all their heart that their little angels would just go the f**k to sleep. Read more…