Harry Potter stories have a huge group of followers in many countries

Readers are quite amazed by the big worldwide popularity of the Harry Potter novels. The Harry Potter novels were written by the UK writer J.K. Rowling. She saw the light of day on 31 July 1965. Her name is Joanne Rowling. But she writes under the short form J.K. Rowling because in the beginning her publisher thought it was a beneficial move not to show the aspect that she is a woman. The publishing company feared it might have a negative effect on the sales figures if everybody immediately sees that the writer is female. Thus, instead of using her first name she used two letters. As she has no middle name she picked Kathleen as basis for the K. in her short form. Kathleen is the name of her paternal grandmother.

The very first Harry Potter book – Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone – was published mid 1997 in the United Kingdom. Quite interesting is the point that only one thousand units of the first book were published at that time. The original title of the story was not Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, but Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. But when the novel was released to the American market on 1 September 1998, it was released as Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.

After that Joanne Rowling wrote some more Harry Potter stories. Finally the Harry Potter series consists of a total of seven stories. These are:

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

The Harry Potter books have been translated into at least 65 languages and have been publicized in various countries. Besides the big success in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, Harry Potter is also very popular in the European Union. The Harry Potter stories (German online store: http://astore.amazon.de/harry-potter-buchshop-21) have been released to the German audience under those headers:

• Teil 1: Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen
• Teil 2: Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens
• Teil 3: Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban
• Teil 4: Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch
• Teil 5: Harry Potter und der Orden des Phoenix
• Teil 6: Harry Potter und der Halbblutprinz
• Teil 7: Harry Potter und die Heiligtuemer des Todes

I must admit that I did not have the time to read all the novels. But there are kids who know them all, which is quite remarkable and is part of the big success.