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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:15:50 GMT
In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, dragon blood is revealed to be an effective oven cleaner
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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:16:11 GMT
Rowling’s books were the first children’s books included on the New York Bestseller list since E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web in 1952
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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:16:35 GMT
When Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was released in Great Britain, the publisher asked stores not to sell the book until schools were closed for the day to prevent truancy.
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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:16:55 GMT
Several publishers rejected the first Harry Potter manuscript saying it was too long and literary, but Bloomsbury Publisher finally accepted it in 1996. The book’s publisher suggested Rowling use the name “J. K.” rather than her real name “Joanne Rowling” to appeal to male readers. She took the “K” from her grandmother’s name Kathleen, but neither "Kathleen" nor "K" is part of her legal name
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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:17:19 GMT
Rowling’s series has stimulated children to read and has concomitantly boosted the sales of other children’s literature, such as C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia series and Lloyd Alexander’s The Black Cauldron series
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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:17:52 GMT
A few scholars have suggested that the Harry Potter series is sexist because the three most powerful figures are male, females use their power in ways that make them less appealing than the males, and Hermione is less powerful and less poised than the boys. Other scholars say those claims are unfounded
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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:18:34 GMT
Colors play an important role in the Harry Potter novels. For example, shades of red represent goodness, such as Gryffindor’s scarlet robes, Harry’s red ink, and the crimson Hogwarts Express train. The Weasleys have red hair and a red roof. Green is largely associated with negative events, such as when Harry sees a flash of green when his parents die and the green-colored curse that made Ron vomit
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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:18:59 GMT
Numbers are symbolic in the series, especially 2, 3, 4, and 7. For example, the trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione suggest the power of three and the spiritual trinity. Harry fatally wounds the basilisk on its third strike, and Hagrid knocks on the front door of Hogwarts three times. Students attend Hogwarts for seven years and there are seven players on each Quidditch team. Sirius is also imprisoned on the seventh floor of Hogwarts
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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:19:22 GMT
Rowling said her favorite beast in the series is the phoenix, a mythical sacred bird who ignites into flames when it reaches 500 or 1,000 years old only to emerge from the flames as a new and young phoenix
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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:19:38 GMT
Harry’s birthday is July 31, 1980. Rowling’s birthday is also July 31—but in 1966
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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:20:01 GMT
The name Voldemort comes from the French words meaning “fly from death,” and his entire goal is to conquer death. In the second Harry Potter novel, Rowling shows us that “I am Lord Voldemort” is an anagram of “Tom Marvolo Riddle,” which is his actual full name.
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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:20:20 GMT
Harry Potter’s name may refer to a “potter’s field,” which is a cemetery in which people of unknown identity or the very poor are buried. This would be fitting because Harry Potter serves as a type of “everyman,” a powerful mythological archetype
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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:20:48 GMT
Rubeus Hagrid, one of Harry’s closest friends, is part wizard and part giant. Rubeus is Latin for something produced from a bramble or a thicket, which fits Rowling’s description of him as “wild.” Hagrid most likely comes from the term “haggard” which also means “wild” or “unruly
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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:21:12 GMT
Cedric Diggory is one of four students to die in Rowling’s novels. Cedric is a common Welsh name, and Diggory is the name of the professor in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe who traveled to Narnia where he picked an apple to save his mother. The seeds from the apple grew into a tree from which the wardrobe was made.
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Post by Josh Canfield on Mar 4, 2015 20:21:28 GMT
Rowling said she may have inadvertently taken the name of Harry’s school, “Hogwarts,” from a hogwort plant she saw in the Kew Gardens in New York City
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