DISCLAIMER: This book is not authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., or anyone associated with the Harry Potter books or movies.

For over a decade, the Harry Potter books have become ubiquitous early texts for children, and are also a popular choice for many adults. Indeed, an entire generation of children has now grown up in the midst of "Pottermania." But beyond the books, movies, web sites, and more, this significant cultural phenomenon also constitutes a powerful form of social text, and speaks volumes about the intersections of ideology, popular culture, and childhood. Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter provided the first sustained analyses of the iconic status of the Potter books, bringing together scholars from various disciplines to examine the impact of the series. This thoroughly revised edition includes updated essays on cultural themes and literary analysis, and its new essays analyze the full scope of the seven-book series as both pop cultural phenomenon and as a set of literary texts. Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter, Second Edition draws on a wider range of intellectual traditions to explore the texts, including moral-theological analysis, psychoanalytic perspectives, and philosophy of technology. The Harry Potter novels engage the social, cultural, and psychological preoccupations of our times, and Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter, Second Edition examines these worlds of consciousness and culture, ultimately revealing how modern anxieties and fixations are reflected in these powerful texts. ("DISCLAIMER: This book is not authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., or anyone associated with the Harry Potter books or movies.")

For fans who want to know about the myths, folklore, legends, and Muggle history embedded in the Harry Potter novels, this treasure trove of fun facts and tantalizing trivia covers the fabulous beasts and creatures, the wizards, magical artifacts, and magical places in the Harry Potter world. Full color.

As an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and a father, Harry Potter struggles with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs while his youngest son, Albus, finds the weight of the family legacy difficult to bear.

Harry Potter. The name conjures up J.K. Rowling's wondrous world of magic that has captured the imaginations of millions on both the printed page and the silver screen with bestselling novels and blockbuster films. The true magic found in this children's fantasy series lies not only in its appeal to people of all ages but in its connection to the greater world of classic literature. Harry Potter's Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures explores the literary landscape of themes and genres J.K. Rowling artfully wove throughout her novels-and the influential authors and stories that inspired her. From Jane Austen's Emma and Charles Dickens's class struggles, through the gothic romances of Dracula and Frankenstein and the detective mysteries of Dorothy L. Sayers, to the dramatic alchemy of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and William Shakespeare, Rowling cast a powerful spell with the great books of English literature that transformed the story of a young wizard into a worldwide pop culture phenomenon.

The Harry Potter series forms a single epic story that has been published in nearly 70 languages, and has been examined in a large number of disciplines. This collection of essays contributes to the scholarly discourse that forms Potter Studies. These essays take on the consideration of Rowling's work as being worthy of study as a phenomenon and influence, as well as a work of literary value. They add genuine statistical information about the reasons for the books' popularity, consider their effects on child readers, and examine some deep-rooted reasons for their having been manipulated in American publishing, in film adaptations, in musical complements, and in their thingification in popular culture around the world. Some of these essays take on the critics of the books' religion and considerations of psychological, as well as philosophical good and evil, and well as some stylistic anomalies. The fact that scholars from China, Germany, Poland, Romania, and Israel, in addition to English-speaking nations, have felt compelled to examine these books in detail testifies in part to Harry Potter's world-wide influence.

An entertaining companion to the Harry Potter books, written by J.K. Rowling. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is an extensive introduction to magical beasts familiar from the Harry Potter books and others we haven't yet met. Includes information about beasts which can be found in Australia and New Zealand and what they eat.