<p>The movies for the longest time also came out in Nov each year (until the last ones). It was pretty much always the birthday weekend of one of my kid’s friends. So every year that was the birthday plan–go see the new HP movie!
BAM had great release parties for the books at midnight. Quite an event the first few times! Still have a necklace from that promotion.
When JKR was interviewed years ago she showed examples of her journals of her writing plus the art she had done of diagon alley. The story (all 7 novels–she hadn’t even gotten there yet so they were under lock and key by this time) was essentially in place before she even started writing the first book. Really an amazing piece of work.</p>
<p>I worked at a division of Scholastic when we published HP & Sorcerers Stone and all the sequels so my kids were especially lucky as all of us at Scholastic were told to read the book as the company expected big things…little did they know just how big! I have really fond memories of reading out loud with my girls. We also have the Jim Dale tapes…but my real claim to fame is coming in #2 behind the president of our division at a Harry Potter trivia contest at Sales Conference and receiving my very own “autographed by JK Rowling” book #5 that was being launched… so with that I have really mixed feelings. I am generally not a fan of redesigned covers unless the originals become really dated but the original cover art and chapter art are very special and not dated at all…although I cannot say that the new art is especially bad or doesn’t work well…</p>
<p>Squee – HP! 
The original cover artist lived in our town, and she used to have a lot of people tracking her down and knocking on her door. I believe she has moved (and the attention eventually faded).</p>
<p>My kids say they are sad for kids today who don’t get to grow up anticipating the release of each new HP volume. We spent hundreds of hours (not kidding) discussing them and speculating on the next plot twist between volumes. My kids say the anticipation and discussion of the books was one of the best parts of their childhood.</p>
<p>^that is an awesome story bookmama, you definitely live up to your screen name! I was thrilled that Scholastic scored the HP franchise. I am a veteran school book fair coordinator and we always used Scholastic. They gave great support and seemed to be really concerned that the fairs had a wide selection of books for many types of young readers. They were among many also-rans before they hit the mother lode with HP, couldn’t have happened to a nicer, more grounded publishing house, in my opinion :)</p>
<p>I bought stock in Scholastic as soon as I finished the first HP book. :D</p>
<p>When I told D15 about the new cover she was disappointed. There is apparently a degree of sacredness to keeping things the same to her !</p>
<p>D and i have shared hp books and movies. We have visited England twice and have looked for some of the places where the movies were filmed or places mentioned in the books. Last year we visited the studio, it’s amazing!</p>
<p>The best thing about the HP books were the rituals - going to Borders or B&N at midnight where my pre-teens would make friends with others like them, coming home and reading it with my youngest where she would read a paragraph of so, and then sit on my lap as I continued, explaining words and concepts that she didn’t know.</p>
<p>I think it’s silly to go through the hassle of putting new covers - would have been much better if there was a new “pre-” book or other such concept</p>
<p>forgetting the covers, I just loved the series. Brings back so many happy memories. </p>
<p>Only tangible gift the worm received fr Bar Mitzvah was HP books. My aunt went on and on about hearing an interview with JKR. At 2 a.m., the worm was lying in bed reading. Then the rituals of buying books when they came out and the sleepovers. His friend loved to stay over, because I didn’t make him read under the blankets, with a flashlight. </p>
<p>Later, I was working in a residential facility with teens and young women. I would be reading HP at my breaks, as would some of the girls. I incorporated themes of HP into my therapeutic groups, which were fun. </p>
<p>My g/f would take me to the newest release of film, which was my b/d gift. It was sad that there were no more. Her book for adults was so sad.</p>
<p>True confession from Bookmama22… I am a former Scholastic Book Fair rep… but I moved on from that to a different career in publishing over 10 years ago…</p>
<p>bookworm, my D2 thinks those sound like the best sleepovers ever!</p>
<p>inparent, the worm, when he wore his contact lessons, looked so much like HP. He didn’t need a costume. Years later, his path has been quite diffrent from daniel radcliffe’s.</p>
<p>bookmama, 10 years ago, at least 4 HP books came out. Working at scholastic must have been such fun!</p>
<p>J.K. did a book signing at our local Barnes and Noble when HP3 came out. DW and S went to it, and the line was out the door and around the building.</p>
<p>As they got close, you could see that she had a helper on either side and they would take a book, open it, stick it in front of her, she would sign, and the person on the other side would grab it and hand it back. It was like an assembly line. She rarely even looked up.</p>
<p>After about 90 minutes, S finally got his turn. As he handed them his book he said “I really love the books they are awesome.” She put down her pen, looked up at him and told him “that’s the nicest thing anyone can say to me, thanks!”</p>
<p>S was on cloud 9.</p>
<p>And we have a signed HP1 and HP3.</p>
<p>We all read them, and fought over who got to read them first.</p>
<p>Momentarily shifting focus away from the joy of reading and raising the dark spectre of standardized testing-- </p>
<p>I used to wonder, only half jokingly, if there’d be an upward blip in CR and verbal type scores in the years following the arrival of the HP books. Not only did they get more kids reading, but kept them reading for years. Adults, too!</p>
<p>And as for the new illustrations-- from that one glimpse, I like them. Wasn’t crazy about the original ones. As I got older I preferred to form my own mental pictures anyway, but never felt the original HP illustrations lived up to the text. </p>
<p>IMO, the most unfortunate reworking of book art was when the Beverly Cleary books (Ramona, Henry Huggins, etc) moved away from the charming, simple original Louis Darling illustrations.</p>
<p>Momentarily shifting focus away from the joy of reading and raising the dark spectre of standardized testing-- </p>
<p>I used to wonder, onlly half jokingly, if there’d be an upward blip in CR and verbal type scores in the years following the arrival of the HP books. Not only did it get more kids reading, but it kept them reading - for years. Adults, too!</p>
<p>And as for the new illustrations-- I like them. Wasn’t crazy about the original ones anyway. In some ways I almost preferred no illustrations as I got older, as I preferred to form my own mental pictures. </p>
<p>IMO, the most unfortunate reworking of book arrt was when the Beverly Cleary books (Ramona, Henry Huggins, etc) moved away from the charming, simple original Louis Darling illustrations.</p>
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<p>Brilliant!</p>
<p>lol^^ Hermione would be so proud. </p>
<p>Love the new cover. Not enough to rebuy the books just to get them though</p>