I am deeply fascinated by the great worldwide popularity of the Harry Potter novels. The Harry Potter stories were written by the UK author J.K. Rowling. She was born on 31 July 1965. Her full name is Joanne Rowling. But she writes under the alias J.K. Rowling because primarily her publisher considered it was a helpful idea not to reveal the point that she is female. The publishing house feared it could have a negative effect on the sales figures if everybody immediately sees that the writer was female. Consequently, instead of showing her first name she used two initials. As she has no middle name she picked Kathleen as basis for the K. in her pseudonym. Kathleen is the name of her paternal grandmother.

The very first Harry Potter book – Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone – was published in June 1997 in in Great Britain. Very funny is the fact that only 1,000 units of the first novel were publicized at the beginning. The original title of the story was not Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, but Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. But when the story was published to the American marketplace on 1 September 1998, it was named Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.

After that J.K. Rowling invented several additional Harry Potter stories. Finally the Harry Potter series consists of a total of 7 novels. These are:

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

The Harry Potter books have been translated into over 55 languages and have been published in a lot of countries. Besides the impressing success in the USA and the United Kingdom, Harry Potter is also quite liked in Europe. The Harry Potter novels have been publicized in Germany under the following headers:

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