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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Jackie, on a Mac the £ is made by pressing option 3. Can't help you with a Gates machine.
David, I'm sure there's some of that collector's frenzy, as well, unfortunately. In fact, some of the books printed in the US are missing pages; others have a few pages printed upside down: apparently those who bought these books are auctioning them off as collector's items.
But for the most part, I believe kids are actually reading again. The bookstore I work in admittedly caters to a university community and is no cross-section. But the kids who were there for our Harry Potter party last Saturday knew every single detail in the first three books. There was no winner for the trivia quiz - they all scored 100.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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>reading HP is about as intellectually stimulating as watching an episode of Neighbours
most any parent would tell you that getting a kid to read almost anything is considered more intellectually stimulating than almost anything they watch on TV!
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Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
"Young readers can respond startlingly well to much of this complexity. From these novels they get not only magic, bravery, fun, satire, some pointed lessons on racism, a call to arms against cynicism and sheer page-turning pleasure, they also get a master-class in plot construction, and a mighty mental work-out in memory, anticipation and narrative alertness. Those critics who suggest the Harry Potter books are inherently simplistic fail to look past the pleasing frolics to the remarkable scale and tenacity of invention involved." Catherine Lockerbie, 15th Scotsman July 2000 http://www.scotsman.com/cgi-bin/t3.cgi/taf/books.taf? I'm not sure how long this link will work (I'll try to update it) but the review is from a journalist who's work I respect. Of course there is hype. I'm not altogether happy about it but it does seem to go with the territory of things for children - Buzz Lightyear, Teletubbies, Tracey Island. All were sell-outs here in recent Christmas shopping frenzies. Firstly it is amazing to see a ... book ... in the same category. Secondly the thing the book has, like Neighbours, Friends, Eastenders or whatever children watch is a very discussable plot. It has reached a critical mass so it is possible to discuss aspects of the plot with other children in a way that is usually confined to films or television. In the review above one of the things that is highlighted is that way that a small item on one page of the first book suddenly becomes very important in the third or fourth book. I didn't get a ticket for the recent book signing in Edinburgh but a friend took her daughter along. She had to queue for over an hour to get her book signed but there wasn't a problem. The children were all moving along quietly with their heads in their books. Even with her experience as an primary school teacher, she was stunned! I'll have to go now and persuade my eleven year old to take a break from reading to have some breakfast. I have hardly seen her since she got her book yesterday!
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I said I would get back with JK Rowling’s version of the answer to why the change in title - so here goes. I didn’t get chance to ask any questions during today’s session at the Edinburgh Book Festival http://www.edbookfest.co.uk but she was asked many questions - including one asking why the first book had a different name in America. Here’s the gist of what she said: “You must remember that when I wrote the first book I knew that most children’s writers did not make a lot of money. I had anticipated that I would continue supporting myself and my daughter through my teaching and I would try to get my writing to fund itself in some way, so that I could justify continuing to write. When the first book was published I was delighted but also thought that it was likely that only three copies would be sold and none outside my immediate family. ….. The decision to publish the book with a different title in the USA is one that I would like to have been able to go back and change. Actually the title was a compromise. The American publisher said that “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” did not really reflect the nature of the story and they wanted it to be called “Harry Potter and the School for Wizards”. I felt that that gave far too much away, so “Sorcerer’s Stone replaced Philosopher’s Stone” as a compromise. At the time I so pleased that I had a publisher that I didn’t really feel able to stand my ground. I now realise the problems it has caused, one bookseller in America told me that, after the first book was published, children kept trying to buy the Philosopher’s Stone book as they thought it was the sequel”. After the session I managed to ask her if this would cause problems with the film – would they keep two versions? She said that it was a problem and that they may have to settle on one version – most likely the original title. There is a very good interview that some people might like to look at on the Bloomsbury site http://new.bloomsbury.com/harrypotter
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 6,511 |
Thank you so much for the update and the links, Jo! Interesting compromise they settled on, and I can understand her reluctance to stand her ground at that early date. You know what I bet? I bet they'll call it "Harry Potter I" (in reference to a comment in another thread on "The Madness of King George III")  But seriously, the wise thing to do would be to call it "Harry Potter" and leave it at that. The sequels could all then have their respective titles, which I'm presuming to be identical cross-Pond.
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Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
Ah ... but the problem is deeper than merely the title. What do they do when they mention the Philospher's stone in the plot - do they do a separate soundtrack for American release?
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>>...What do they do when they mention the Philospher's stone in the plot - do they do a separate soundtrack for American release?
Good point. Hadn't thought of that. Maybe visual cues?
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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sorry to disappoint y'all, but here is a link to the WB casting call for "J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/cmp/main-fr.html
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Joined: Jul 2000
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
and I thought it would be a cartoon. . .
well, I guess kids wouldn't be able to relate to a cartoon as much as they do the book.
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Joined: Jul 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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> Is Harry Potter Jr. next?
I have it on good authority that in the last book Harry will be a head of household. In fact the book is going to be called Harry Potter Familias.
All seriousness aside, there are some right-wing Christian elements here in Colorado who are trying to get these books banned. One youth minister in Colorado Springs actually burned one of the books page by page for his young and impressionable charges, chanting, "This is the hell they will inhabit" as each page caught fire. He also burned a bunch of Pokemon stuff. We're VERY liberated here. Probably because we're so close to Kansas :)
TEd
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