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Harry Potter books are a continuing series of wildly popular, award-winning
tales by Scottish author J.K. Rowling. The books follow the adventures of a
boy who leaves his nasty guardians to attend wizardry school.
I'm sure they
topped a lot of Christmas lists in 1999. I received Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone and can hardly wait to read the next book. Here are a few
of my favorite Harry Potter Web sites which feature fun games and activities.
Our first stop is at Scholastic Inc., J.K. Rowling's American publisher, to
visit the official Harry
Potter site.
You can download screensavers, play Shockwave quizzes and
word games, and read a brief interview with the author. In the Reading
Circle you can answer questions to tell other kids what you think of the
books. (Responses are screened before they are displayed on the Web site.)
If you're like me and haven't read all of the books, you can read a sample
chapter from each book online. Teachers will find two discussion
guides--one for "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and the other
covers the first three books in the series.
Fun with
Harry is a Web site by a teacher and her students in Colorado. They
have created activity pages that you can print, enlarge, and use. Design a
crest for Hogwarts, fill in your own diploma, make a scrapbook, color,
solve mazes, and more. These activities encourage you to be creative, just
like Harry. Since Fun with Harry is hosted by a free Web site service,
there are unavoidable ads that link to other areas of this service.
What do you think Dumbledore or the Hogwarts look like? At Our
Harry Potter Pages children at Edleston Primary School in the UK share
their art and writing about Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (the
title of the first book in the UK). For teachers, there is also a page of
lesson ideas.
There are a lot of Harry Potter fan sites on the Web. Unfortunately, some have very little content, others are out-of-date, and most include
unmonitored chat areas and bulletin boards which I do not recommend for
children.
A grown-up fan named Jenna has created The Unofficial Harry
Potter Fan Club. Here, you'll find a fun Games page with word games, coloring pages, as well as teaching ideas. It
also includes the fabulously useful Encyclopaedia Potterica. This resource lists characters, places and unique terms
used in Harry Potter books with definitions and pronunciation guides. If
you have forgotten what "Muggles" are or what a "Nimbus 2000" is you can
easily look it up. Note that this site has pop-up ads.
- Other Columns -
Berit's Browse is where Berit highlights her favorite sites on various themes and discusses her opinions and observations about kids' sites and kids on the Internet. The column is also a great place for to cover topics that you are interested in. Let her know what you'd like to read about!
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