Harry Potter novels and movies have a huge group of followers in and outside the UK

I am always impressed by the high international vogue of the Harry Potter stories. The Harry Potter books were written by the British writer J.K. Rowling. She was given birth to on 31 July 1965. Her full name is Joanne Rowling. But she writes under the short form J.K. Rowling because primarily her publishing house considered it was a good move not to reveal the matter that she is female. The publishing company thought it could have a negative effect on the sales numbers if everybody immediately recognizes that the author is female. Thus, instead of showing her first name she used two initials. As she has no middle name she took Kathleen as basis for the K. in her pen name. Kathleen is the name of her fathers mother.

The very first Harry Potter novel – Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone – was publicized in June 1997 in the UK. Quite interesting is the fact that only 1,000 pieces of the first book were produced at that time. The original title of the book was not Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, but Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. But when the book was released to the American market place in September 1998, it was published as Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.

After that Joanne Rowling wrote several additional Harry Potter books. Now the Harry Potter series consists of a total of seven stories. These are:

• Book 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
• Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The Harry Potter books have been translated into more than 55 languages and have been published in a lot of countries. Besides the big success in the United States and the United Kingdom, Harry Potter is also quite famous in Europe. The Harry Potter stories (German book shop: Harry Potter Buecher) have been publicized in Germany under these headers:

• Teil 1: Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen
• Teil 2: Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens
• Teil 3: Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban
• Teil 4: Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch
• Teil 5: Harry Potter und der Orden des Phoenix
• Teil 6: Harry Potter und der Halbblutprinz
• Teil 7: Harry Potter und die Heiligtuemer des Todes

I must admit that I did not have the opportunity to read all those novels. But there are kids who know them all, which is quite impressive and is part of the huge success.