Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a play based on a story co-written by Rowling.
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37 Facts About Harry Potter
2.
The Dursleys consider themselves perfectly normal, but at the age of eleven, Harry Potter discovers that he is a wizard.
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3.
Harry Potter meets a half-giant named Hagrid who invites him to attend the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
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4.
Harry Potter learns that as a baby, his parents were murdered by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort.
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5.
Harry Potter becomes a student at Hogwarts and is sorted into Gryffindor House.
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6.
Harry Potter discovers an ability to speak the snake language Parseltongue, which he learns is rare and associated with the Dark Arts.
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7.
Harry Potter discovers that the chamber was opened by Ron's younger sister, Ginny Weasley, who was possessed by an old diary in her belongings.
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8.
Harry Potter is Hogwarts' second participant after Cedric Diggory, an unusual occurrence that causes his friends to distance themselves from him.
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9.
Harry Potter competes against schools Beauxbaton and Durmstrang with the help of the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody.
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10.
Harry Potter manages to escape, but Cedric is killed and Voldemort is resurrected using Harry Potter's blood.
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11.
Harry Potter is punished for disobeying Umbridge, and dreams of a dark corridor in the Ministry of Magic.
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12.
Harry Potter finds an old textbook with annotations by the Half-Blood Prince, due to which he achieves success in Potions class.
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13.
Harry Potter takes lessons with Dumbledore, viewing memories about the early life of Voldemort in a device called a Pensieve.
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14.
Harry Potter learns from a drunken Slughorn that he used to teach Tom Riddle, and that Voldemort divided his soul into pieces, creating a series of Horcruxes.
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15.
Harry Potter learns that Snape was always loyal to Dumbledore, and that he himself is a Horcrux.
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16.
In Harry Potter, Rowling juxtaposes the extraordinary against the ordinary.
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17.
Harry Potter is ordinary and relatable, with down-to-earth features such as wearing broken glasses; the scholar Roni Natov terms him an "everychild".
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18.
The stories reach their climax in the summer term, near or just after final exams, when events escalate far beyond in-school squabbles and struggles, and Harry Potter must confront either Voldemort or one of his followers, the Death Eaters, with the stakes a matter of life and death – a point underlined, as the series progresses, by characters being killed in each of the final four books.
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19.
The American scholars Heather Arden and Kathrn Lorenz in particular argue that many aspects of the Harry Potter stories are inspired by a 14th-century French Arthurian romance, Claris et Laris, writing of the "startling" similarities between the adventures of Harry Potter and the knight Claris.
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20.
Harry Potter is a hero because he loves others, even willing to accept death to save them; Voldemort is a villain because he does not.
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21.
Harry Potter carries the protection of his mother's sacrifice in his blood; Voldemort, who wants Harry Potter's blood and the protection it carries, does not understand that love vanquishes death.
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22.
Harry Potter assumes in the first book that Quirrell is on the side of good because he opposes Snape, who appears to be malicious; in reality, Quirrell is an agent of Voldemort, while Snape is loyal to Dumbledore.
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23.
All seven Harry Potter books have been released in unabridged audiobook versions, with Stephen Fry reading the UK editions and Jim Dale voicing the series for the American editions.
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24.
Popularity of the Harry Potter series has translated into substantial financial success for Rowling, her publishers, and other Harry Potter related license holders.
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25.
Great demand for Harry Potter books motivated The New York Times to create a separate best-seller list for children's literature in 2000, just before the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
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26.
Portrayal of women in Harry Potter has been described as complex and varied, but nonetheless conforming to stereotypical and patriarchal depictions of gender.
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27.
The goblins of the world of Harry Potter have been accused of perpetuating antisemitic caricatures – they are described by Rowling as a "secretive cabal of hook-nosed, greedy bankers", a description associated with Jewish stereotypes.
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28.
Some critics view Harry Potter rise, along with the concurrent success of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, as part of a broader shift in reading tastes: a rejection of literary fiction in favour of plot and adventure.
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29.
However, the assumption that Harry Potter books have increased literacy among young people is "largely a folk legend".
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30.
Research by the National Endowment for the Arts has found no increase in reading among children coinciding with the Harry Potter publishing phenomenon, nor has the broader downward trend in reading among Americans been arrested during the rise in the popularity of the Harry Potter books.
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31.
The research found that children who read Harry Potter books were not more likely to go on to read outside the fantasy and mystery genres.
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32.
In March 2007, "Harry Potter" was the most commonly searched fan fiction subject on the internet.
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33.
Harry Potter series has been recognised by a host of awards since the initial publication of Philosopher's Stone including a platinum award from the Whitaker Gold and Platinum Book Awards, three Nestle Smarties Book Prizes, two Scottish Arts Council Book Awards, the inaugural Whitbread children's book of the year award, the WHSmith book of the year, among others.
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34.
In 2007, the seven Harry Potter book covers were depicted on a series of UK postage stamps issued by Royal Mail.
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36.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts I and II is a play which serves as a sequel to the books, beginning nineteen years after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
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37.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park near Los Angeles, California in 2016, and in Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka, Japan in 2014.
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