ABOUT THE BOOK When Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and their friends first arrived at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the literary world was set ablaze. Readers young and old alike were captivated by this group of inquisitive, spunky and daring youth, and it didn’t take long for the powers that be to decide to bring Harry Potter and Hogwarts to the big screen. Legions of fans followed Harry, Ron and Hermione through to the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and eagerly anticipated the final book’s launch to the big screen. When Part One of the film came out in November, 2010, the Broadcast Film Critics’ Association was impressed, giving the film 87 out of a possible 100 points. Part 1 went on to rack up nearly a billion dollars worldwide, becoming the third highest grossing movie of 2010, behind Toy Story 3 and Alice in Wonderland. It seemed an interminable wait for Part 2 to hit theatres, but when it did in July, 2011, the fans were profusely appreciative, coming out in droves to wait in line for ticket pre-sales. In fact, the film broke a pre-sales record; $32 million was grossed in pre-sales alone. As expected, the film was lauded and earned an estimated $1.3 billion in worldwide revenues. MEET THE AUTHOR Chris St-Jean is an Ontario English teacher with a great passion for American literature in particular and the written word in general. Her two daughters, aged 3 and 7, also seem to have a love of books. She follows global events as closely as she can but also enjoys entertainment news. Currently, she is working towards a black belt in karate EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK David Yates, who also directed Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, directed both parts of the series finale. David Heyman returned as producer, as he had done for the other films of the series, and was joined by J.K. Rowling and David Barron. It was Heyman himself who discovered the as-yet unpublished Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone manuscript back in 1997. He admits that the response from the fans was unprecedented for him; in fact, no other film series followed the same characters throughout a linear storyline throughout eight films. The series, in fact, has gone on to become the highest-grossing series of films of all time. Perhaps what has also helped make the series so successful is having the same screenwriter at the helm for six of the seven books. Buy a copy to keep reading!