We're getting even more books in the "Harry Potter" universe! Pottermore, the site where J.K. Rowling writes additional information about all things related to the series, will be releasing three new e-books centered around the expanded "Potter" universe.
The e-books will have brand new, J.K. Rowling-written material as well as compile older information that already exists on Pottermore. They're organized by topic.
Here they are, from the press release:
- Short Stories from Hogwarts: Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists — This collection features exclusive new writing about Horace Slughorn, Harry Potter’s portly Potions Master together with writing published on pottermore.com. It also includes writing about other important characters like Dolores Umbridge and Quirinus Quirrell. The stories are linked by themes of temptation, power, mischief and villainy, and provide a window into the darker side of the wizarding world.
- Short Stories from Hogwarts: Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies — These stories profile two of the Harry Potter stories’ most courageous and iconic characters: Minerva McGonagall and Remus Lupin. It also offers never-before-published writing by J.K. Rowling about Professor McGonagall’s role in the second wizarding war together with writing featured on pottermore.com.
- Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide — Entries are focused on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a place of almost boundless mystery and magic. Readers will venture to the Hogwarts grounds, become better acquainted with its more permanent residents, discover its secrets, its hidden rooms and corridors… all at the turn of a page.
It looks like we're getting a substantial amount of new material in addition to preexisting Pottermore content. Rowling previously wrote a long backstory for Professor McGonagall on Pottermore, for example, but now we're going to learn more about her involvement in the second wizarding war. We'll also learn new information about Professor Slughorn, who always seemed like he was hiding something, and Silvanus Kettleburn, a Hogwarts Care of Magical Creatures professor.
The e-books, curated by Pottermore's editorial team, will be available in less than a month, on September 6. They'll each be about 10,000 words long, which makes them more convenient to read than jumping around on the Pottermore website.
Pottermore's press release also says that these are the "first three titles" they're publishing, which means they might be planning even more in the future.
The books' covers are designed by MinaLima, the London-based graphic design firm that designs everything in the "Harry Potter" movies, including the upcoming "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them." We've interviewed them extensively at INSIDER and written about how they spent six month designing everything in Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, made the Marauder's Map, the Black Family tapestry, and the cover for a book inside the "Harry Potter" universe: "The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore."
These three new books further cement 2016 as the year of Harry Potter. "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," Rowling's play about what happens 19 years after the events of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," is on stage in London now and was released last month in book form.
This November, we're getting "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," which is set a few decades before the original series and in the United States and was written by Rowling herself.
