wbur.org
support wbur today!
Listen to this show
Friday, July 20, 2007 at 11:00 AM EDT
Harry Potter Goes Poof
photo

By host Tom Ashbrook:

Ten years ago, J.K. Rowling was a 30-year-old single mom living on welfare in a chilly one-bedroom flat in Edinburgh, and no one had heard of Harry Potter.

Ten years and 325 million copies later, the Harry Potter series is a legend and J.K. Rowling is a billionaire, richer than the Queen of England.

Millions of children and adults worldwide have made a huge home in their hearts for Hogwarts and Polyjuice Potion, for Harry and Hermoine and Ron and wizardry.

This hour On Point: as millions of fans line up for the last book in the series, we ask what has made Harry Potter huge?

Guests:

Lee Siegel, television, book and art critic for publications and author of “Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television”

Julie Just, Children’s Books Editor of the New York Times Book Review.

Laura Greenly, Amazon.com Harry Potter Kids Correspondent.

 
 

Comments are closed.

Recent Shows
The Future of Aging
Thursday, November 5, 2009 image

A surge of new strategies to “manage” aging — from diets to testosterone. We’ll get the story.

Comments [31]
 
Climate, Congress & Copenhagen
Thursday, November 5, 2009 image

The Copenhagen climate conference is one month away. US climate action is going nowhere in Congress. We’ll look at the global implications of America’s domestic climate politics.

Comments [73]
On Point Blog
California, here we come! And we need your questions!

On Point is headed west!
No, no. Not for good. Only for one show. But it’s a very special show!  The NPR station in Thousand Oaks, California – KCLU – is celebrating their 15th anniversary. We’re lucky to have been on their airwaves for nearly seven years, and they invited us out west to host a live [...]

More » | Comments [7]
 
For Love of Science – or Money?

A new study supports the idea that U.S. dominance in engineering and science is threatened — but not for lack of training and education. It has more to do with a lack of social and economic incentives.

More » | Comments [5]
 
Matthew Hoh’s Resignation Letter

Matthew Hoh, a former Marine captain, became the first foreign service official to publicly resign in protest over the war in Afghanistan. The move has generated a lot of reaction. You can read Hoh’s resignation letter, posted by The Washington Post, which reported on it here.
It’s a topic for our news roundtable today. What [...]

More » | Comments [4]