J.K. Rowling
Biography

What started as an idea on a long train trip to London, England is now one of the most popular books around; and probably every kid who reads has heard of the author J.K. Rowling.

Joanne Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter books. She got the idea for the book while on a train trip, and 5 years later the first book was written. Ms. Rowling would write parts of the Harry Potter book while her baby daughter would take naps. She didn't have a lot of money at the time, so the Scottish Arts Council gave her a grant so she could finish the book.

The book has already won The British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, and has been translated into at least eleven different languages.

Ms. Rowlings graduated from Exeter University, and then was a teacher. When she wrote Harry Potter she was an unemployed divorced parent. Ms. Rowling has always liked writing, and wrote her first book, called Rabbit, when she was six years old. She had always wanted to be a published author.

Ms. Rowling plans on writing seven Harry Potter books, one for each year he is at his wizardry school, Hogwarts. A lot of the names in the books are made up, but some of them come from actual words. Dumbledore, the head of the wizard school, is an old English word that means bumblebee; and Snape, the name of one of Harry's least favorite professors, is really the name of a place in England.

Ms. Rowling writes all of her books by hand - she doesn't use a computer! Ms. Rowling has written three books so far:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

To learn more about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling visit the Harry Potter Scholastic Web Site

The next Harry Potter book is supposed to be available in the United States on July 8, 2000! It's called: Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament.