| Commentator:
Three years ago, when we first introduced you to Harry
Potter, more than a few people out there said, “Harry who?”
Today, there may be someone somewhere who doesn’t know
him, but we can’t find him.
Harry Potter si the wizard hero of the world’s most
popular novels. Four
so far, with three more to come.
And he’s the star of the block buster movie, with more
of those to come, too.
Nothing has ever happened in the world of children’s
books, or any other books, for that matter, to even approach
the Harry Potter phenomena.
But when we first introduced you to Joanne Rowling,
Harry Potter’s creator, the third book was just about to come
out. The scale
of her success was just beginning to sink in.
Thirty-six year old Joanne Rowling lives and writes
in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle.
JK Rowling:
The basic plot is that Harry is not only a wizard,
but a famous wizard, but he doesn’t know he’s a wizard.
He doesn’t find out until he’s 11.
He finds out why he’s got this lightning shaped scar
on his forehead, he finds out that his parents were murdered,
and what he’s supposed to do about it.
And also to confront the person who murdered them.
Commentator:
Harry Potter is an old-fashioned, triumph over evil
story, but full of quirks and surprises. Kids
that fly on broomsticks, owls that deliver the mail.
It’s set in a British boarding school just for wizards
called Hogwarts.
JK Rowling speaks of different names that
she picked from a herbology book.
She shows her drawings of Harry, Dudley, Prof. McGonagall.
Commenter speaks of how many times children
have read the books, sometimes eight times each.
JK Rowling:
I had that happen to me.
One time when I was signing books, a mother came up
to me and said that her son was here, and she dieing to meet
me, but he was too ashamed of the state of his book.
He asked me to have you sign it.
And it (the book) was all wrinkly and covered in rubbish.
The cover was all wrinkly.
(laughs) And
I made her go and get him, because that is exactly the state
I like to see the books in. I have no track (?) with these people, these very elegant people
who don’t crack the spine when they read a book. I say crack the spine when you read it, ‘cause that’s what
it’s there for.
Commentator:
So many people are cracking the spine on Joanne Rowling’s
books that she is becoming a publishing figure of historic
proportions. Speaks
of her past, of JK Rowling’s divorce, and ending up on welfare.
JK Rowling states that she did have money
to write on paper, and not napkins.
She was still teaching, and was biding her time, finishing
the books. She
shows some of her teaching papers, in which on the back she
had written down the Gryffindor ghosts names.
Commentator:
Long before JK Rowling was published, she had seven
books meticulously plotted out.
JK Rowling shows an old beat up box, that
has much of her work in it.
She says it is one of many from her bedroom.
She says that she knows where everything is.
She says that box is number one.
She says she likes finding surprises in the boxes,
so if she filed more efficiently, she wouldn’t have those
little surprises.
JK Rowling says that she had to write the
book while she had the chance, or she knew she wouldn’t finish
it. She states how she would walk her baby daughter around and,
once her daughter fell asleep, she would go into the nearest
café and write. Once
her manuscript was done, she submitted it to some publisher,
in which four or five turned down, stating it was too long
for children.
When Bloombsbury, with the help of her
then new agent Chris Little, finally accepted her book, was
the second happiest moment in her life, after the birth of
her child. She
states there was no advertising for the books, but the books
continually climbed the charts.
She says that the children were the ones who told each
other about it.
Chris Little, her agent, states that the
demand came from nowhere but the playgrounds.
Kids from Connecticut speaking about reading
the books, and telling each other about them, and how detailed
the books are. That
they no longer play games, just read the books.
Commentator states that adults love the
books, too. So
much that Britain has made adult versions.
Just the fact that kids love this one book so much,
sets it apart from others. In fact the publishers tried to mask the fact that JK Rowling
was a woman, by making her use her initials.
Chris Little states this is because traditionally
boys don’t like to read books by girls, but girls will read
any author.
Commentator:
The secrets out now, and kids don’t care who she is,
as long as she keeps writing.
Especially getting the reluctant readers to read.
JK Rowling:
Yes, I’ve been told that story (reluctant readers)
many times. One
of them, a dyslexic nine year old, stated that this was the
first book he had ever read in his life.
Which absolutely supports my resolution that children
are grossly underestimated.
Shows her reading to children, and one
asks her if any of the characters were based off herself.
She says that Hermione was, which she isn’t very proud
of. That Hermione
is very annoying, but that she was also when she was eleven.
But, she states she’s loosened up as she’s became older,
and so will Hermione.
Commentator speaks of the books being sequels,
which JK Rowling states that she doesn’t see them as sequels,
but as one long novel, split up over seven years.
Commentator speaks of the book’s rights
being sold to Warner Brothers for the movie.
She also mentions a TV Series, and
action figures.
JK Rowling says that she doesn’t know about
the TV Series, but she says ‘possibly.’
She says she doesn’t like action figures.
She calls them dolls.
Commentator closes with stating that JK
Rowlig just got married, and that she is still working on
Book V. |
