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As if any more evidence was needed, researchers from Oxford University who have been studying aspects of wizarding genes, found that evidence points to Harry Potter descending from a magical bloodline. The Telegraph has a fun look this evening at ‘an analysis of wizardry’ study on the genetics of wizards from the Harry Potter novels. Their aim is to study wizard lineage in hopes to “address the heritability of magic.” They have found, and have published in the British Medical Journal, that magical ability could indeed be passed down from generation to generation. Basing its research on elements of the...

PARIS (AFP) - Harry Potter is a left-winger and the seven books by J.K. Rowling are a diatribe against Thatcherite Britain, a French philosopher said Friday on the day of the last novel's publication in French. "It must be said from the start that Harry Potter is deeply political and that the books speak of today's England," Jean-Claude Milner told the left-wing newspaper Liberation. "Reading it, one can see that J.K. Rowling -- like many cultured English people -- believes there was a real Thatcherite revolution, that it was a disaster, and that culture's only chance is to survive as...

"The story line is not important. We have to take into account that reading itself is what's lacking in Arab nations. Those nations do not even read the Koran. I say we must learn the love of reading from the West without saying that reading that book is a waste of time. Hundreds of thousands of [Westerners] stood in line to get a copy of the book and no one in the Arab nations even goes into a bookstore more than once a year. There's no crowding in bookstores. People crowd around the television, and they're highly skilled in wasting...

Saturday, July 21, 2007 (Mexico City) The leading exorcist of Mexico's main archdiocese said the popular Harry Potter book and film series could allow the devil to enter children's minds, and does ''a lot of damage.'' The Reverend Pedro Mendoza, a Roman Catholic priest and exorcist coordinator of the Archdiocese of Mexico City, made the comments at the end of a five-day exorcism conference in Mexico City. ''If you put all these ideas in a child's head, that he can become a wizard, the child believes that, and that is opening an avenue through which the devil can get in,''...

The witching hour is almost here. Thousands of would-be warlocks, sorcerers and ordinary, non-magical Muggles lined up outside bookstores from Sydney to Seattle on Friday, eager to get their hands on "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final volume in the boy wizard's saga. In a now-familiar ritual that is part sales frenzy and part Halloween party, bookstores across Britain were flinging open their doors at a minute past midnight Saturday. Shops as far afield as Singapore and Australia were putting the book on sale at the same time; the United States was to follow from midnight...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- One Oregon couple's wedding night will be especially magical. Courtney Lanahan and Shawn Gordon of Clackamas are heading straight from their wedding reception Friday to a bookstore to get the final Harry Potter book. The book's official release date is Saturday but many stores will be hosting midnight events to celebrate the debut of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." The wedding starts at 7. The reception will follow. And at 11:30 the limo will whisk the new Mr. and Mrs. Gordon away -- to the mall. "It's the best wedding present," Lanahan said. The couple...

It was either the biggest trick since Harry Potter turned invisible, or internet pirates had on Tuesday night beaten all publishers in getting the final episode of the boy wizard’s adventures into a public arena. The web buzzed night as users visited a site offering a download of scanned images of pages from a book purporting to be the seventh and final episode of the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling.

Nearly a decade ago, Eileen McNally caught an NPR interview with an obscure writer named J.K. Rowling. The book being discussed, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, sounded like fun, so McNally picked it up for her 9-year-old niece. "I bought it for her to read on the plane home to Buffalo," says McNally, now director of the Florida Center for the Book at the Broward County Library. "But Shannon read the entire thing standing in line at Disney World. I was flabbergasted. That's when I knew this was something special." Special, indeed. The six Harry Potter books published since...

Previously we told you there was to be an open casting call in the coming weeks for the roles of young Tom Riddle as well as Lavender Brown for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince film. MTV now has an article online quoting director David Yates about his quest to cast the perfect person to play Lavender Brown, the girl who will capture WON-WON's fancy in the sixth Harry Potter film. The director has a test in mind, and it involves...snogging.

Ga. judge: Keep Potter books in schoolThe adventures of boy wizard Harry Potter can stay in Gwinnett County school libraries, despite a mother's objections, a judge ruled Tuesday. Laura Mallory, who argued the popular fiction series is an attempt to indoctrinate children in witchcraft, said she still wants the best-selling books removed and may take her case to federal court. "I maybe need a whole new case from the ground up," said Mallory, who was not represented by an attorney at the hearing. Superior Court Judge Ronnie Batchelor's ruling upheld a decision by the Georgia Board of Education, which had...

Dear Ms. Rowling: I am writing to you today for a couple of reasons. First, I want to tell you how much pleasure I’ve been taking in the Harry Potter series. Now, I realize that you’ve heard that from thousands of fans, and that there’s no reason that my enjoyment deserves any special consideration from you. Still, I did want to tell you how much the amazing adventures of your boy wizard and his intrepid friends—Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, Dumbledore, and the rest of your brilliant creations—have meant to me. In fact, I am distraught that, with the next installment, Harry’s...

Here it is, the cover art for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This post will continue to be updated with links to the art and the text of the summaries. Bloomsbury has also confirmed that the book is 608 pages in their edition.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sales of model trains are picking up steam again thanks to deals linking them to the "Harry Potter" and "The Polar Express" movies, along with a new approach to marketing the old-fashioned toys. Lionel, one of the big names in model trains in the 1950s, has watched as its business had to focus less on selling toys to kids than serving an older but much smaller hobbyist market. Folk-rock singer Neil Young, 61, is so passionate about trains that he bought a fifth of the company in 1995. Now, the company is bringing trains back to...

February 18, 2007 -- HARRY Potter is not going to die. But Professor Snape will. Harry Potter will not hook up with Hermione. But his best friend will. And Harry Potter will never see Dumbledore alive again. But Dumbledore will still manage to help him. How do I know these things about the recently completed seventh and final book in the beloved Harry Potter series? I don’t. Like millions of other Potter-loving muggles, I’m just guessing. That’s half the fun.

ATLANTA, Georgia (Reuters) -- Harry Potter fans in Gwinnett County, Georgia, can breathe a sigh of relief. The Georgia department of education Thursday upheld a decision by the county board that would allow the wildly popular series by British author J.K. Rowling to remain in school libraries, Gwinnett school system spokesman Jorge Quintana said. In October 2005, Laura Mallory, a mother with children at Gwinnett elementary schools, asked a local committee to ban the books about a young wizard, saying they were violent and promoted witchcraft. The application was denied, so she appealed her case before different local and state...

(snip) "Phoenix," the fifth book in author J. K. Rowlings's series, is by far the most ideological, and seems allusive to post-9/11 politics. Harry knows that the evil Lord Voldemort has been reborn and is building an army, but the wizarding government, the Ministry of Magic, refuses to believe him. .... "There's a really interesting principle at the heart of this story," says Yates, in an exclusive NEWSWEEK interview. "The ministry is this bureaucratic authoritarian regime trying to impose a fundamental doctrine on this liberal wacky school. The ministry isn't very good at accepting the beauty of differences. Everything has...

"A suburban county that sparked a public outcry when its libraries temporarily eliminated funding for Spanish-language fiction is now being asked to ban Harry Potter books from its schools." "Laura Mallory, a mother of four, told a hearing officer for the Gwinnett County Board of Education on Tuesday that the popular fiction series is an "evil" attempt to indoctrinate children in the Wicca religion." "Board of Education attorney Victoria Sweeny said that if schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban "Macbeth" and "Cinderella.""

The star of the flicks based on the wildly successful fantasy books appeared in an off-color skit, dressed as a Boy Scout, propositioning an older woman (played by Dame Diana Rigg) and playing with a condom. The skit has been picked up by YouTube, where it’s drawing some outrage, but mostly amusement

Two of America's top authors, John Irving and Stephen King, made a plea to J.K. Rowling on Tuesday not to kill the fictional boy wizard Harry Potter in the final book of the series, but Rowling made no promises. "My fingers are crossed for Harry," Irving said at a joint news conference before a charity reading by the three writers at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The author of "The World According to Garp" and a string of other bestsellers said he and King felt like "warm-up bands" for Rowling, who is working on the seventh and last book...

4 hours ago LONDON - Author J.K. Rowling said two characters will die in the last installment of her boy wizard series, and she hinted Harry Potter might not survive either. "I have never been tempted to kill him off before the final because I've always planned seven books, and I want to finish on seven books," Rowling said on Monday's "Richard and Judy" television show. "I can completely understand, however, the mentality of an author who thinks, `Well, I'm gonna kill them off because that means there can be no non-author written sequels. So it will end with me,...