Often compared to best-selling children's author Roald Dahl, J.K. Rowling is the biggest thing to hit children's literature since, well, since Roald Dahl. If you enjoy either reading or writing, you'll want to know more about the British mom who created Harry Potter from her imagination.
Where does Joanne Rowling get her ideas? "I wish I knew. Sometimes they just come (like magic) and other times I have to sit and think for about a week before I manage to work out how something will happen. Where the idea for Harry Potter actually came from I really couldn't tell you. I was traveling on a train between Manchester and London and it just popped into my head." After the interview, scroll down for Harry Potter inspired writing activities.
Scholastic, Rowling's American publisher, presents a brief Rowling bio, along with links to transcripts of live interviews. "Like that of her own character, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling's life has the luster of a fairy tale. Divorced, living on public assistance in a tiny Edinburgh flat with her infant daughter, Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at a table in a cafe during her daughter's naps and it was Harry Potter that rescued her."
In this four-minute audio clip from October, 2000, NPR's Margot Adler asks Rowling about her fifth book ("Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix") and the demands of fame. They also discuss the pros and cons of seeing Harry Potter on the big screen in the upcoming Warner Bros. movie. What do you think? Will the director's vision of the characters conflict with those in your imagination? In an earlier 1998 interview Adler probes Rowling about the source of her inspiration. To listen to either segment, you'll need the free RealPlayer plug-in.
This article from the online archive of Book Magazine, analyzes J.K. Rowling's unprecedented success, opening with a few comments from the British editor that gave J.K. Rowling her first big break. Written for the book publishing industry, it has some behind-the-scenes insight that will be interesting to anyone who dreams of being a novelist. If you are doing an author's report on Rowling, don't miss the timeline of her life. You'll find a link to it in a little yellow box in the middle of the article.
The following links are either new discoveries or sites that didn't make it into my newspaper column because of space constraints. Enjoy!
Educational Paperback Association: RowlingKidsreads.com: Rowling |
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