Harry Potter spent ten long years living with Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, an aunt and uncle whose outrageous favoritism of their perfectly awful son Dudley leads to some of the most inspired dark comedy since Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But fortunately for Harry, he's about to be granted a scholarship to a unique boarding school called THE HOGWORTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY, where he will become a school hero at the game of Quidditch (a kind of aerial soccer played high above the ground on broomsticks), he will make some wonderful friends, and, unfortunately, a few terrible enemies. For although he seems to be getting your run-of-the-mill boarding school experience (well, ok, even that's pretty darn out of the ordinary), Harry Potter has a destiny that he was born to fulfill. A destiny that others would kill to keep him from.
J.K. Rowling is the author of the enduringly popular Harry Potter books. After the idea for Harry Potter came to her on a delayed train journey in 1990, she plotted out and started writing the series of seven books and the first was published as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the UK in 1997. The series took another ten years to complete, concluding in 2007 with the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
To accompany the series, J.K. Rowling wrote three short companion volumes for charity, Quidditch Through the Agesand Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, in aid of Comic Relief and Lumos, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard, in aid of Lumos. She also collaborated on the writing of a stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which was published as a script book.
Her other books for children include the fairy tale The Ickabog and The Christmas Pig, which were published in 2020 and 2021 respectively and have also been bestsellers. She is also the author of books for adults, including a bestselling crime fiction series.
J.K. Rowling has received many awards and honors for her writing. She also supports a number of causes through her charitable trust Volant and is the founder of the children’s charity Lumos.
To find out more about J.K. Rowling visit jkrowlingstories.com.
Mary GrandPré has illustrated more than twenty beautiful books, including
The Noisy Paint Box by Barb Rosenstock, which received a Caldecott Honor;
Cleonardo, the Little Inventor, of which she is also the author; and the original American editions of all seven Harry Potter novels. Her work has also appeared in the
New Yorker, the
Atlantic Monthly, and the
Wall Street Journal, and her paintings and pastels have been shown in galleries across the United States. Ms. GrandPré lives in Sarasota, Florida, with her family.
