HARRY POTTER LINKS

In this section I share a collection of my favorite links to Harry Potter-related sites. Send an owl my way if you want me to include your site, too. These site links are arranged by category for easy browsing.

IT'S OFFICIAL (Authorized Sites)

Scholastic/Harry Potter. The official United States site contains book information, J.K. Rowling and Mary GrandPré biographies, discussion forums, trivia questions, book excerpts and a very nice screensaver (also featured on my site). A good introduction to the Harry Potter Universe.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Official Page. A rich and elegantly designed site to promote The Sorcerer's Stone, and, I'm sure, future HP movies. The site is still evolving, but it shows great potential. Areas are divided by places in the books, such as Hogwarts, Diagon Alley and Platform 9 3/4. There are multimedia, official webmasters' community, a simple Flash Quidditch game, some photos and the movie trailer. British spellings are used throughout, too.

Bloomsbury Publishing Official Site. Follow the link from the main site to the Harry Potter center (or, more appropriately, "centre.") Enter either as a witch or a Muggle for info on Rowling, the books and a much better collection of howlers to E-mail friends than Warners!

INFORMATION SITES (GENERAL)

The Harry Potter Galleries. Quite simply the most awesome collection of graphic and written materials related to Harry, his books and movies. Play "Who Wants to Be a Harry Potter Millionaire?" here, too. Rames El Desouki updates this site almost every day with materials gathered from all over the world. Also available in German. NOTE: As of 23 May 2001, this site had merged with The Leaky Cauldron.

The Leaky Cauldron. Named after the bar that serves as the portal to Diagon Alley, this site exhaustively gathers news reports, photos and tidbits about Harry Potter. Webmaster B.K. DeLong has bulletins nearly every day, many coming from fans. NOTE: This site merged with the Harry Potter Galleries as of 23 May 2001.

MuggleNet. A well-designed and edited site with info on the books and movies. Easily navigated and enjoyable to read.

Potter War. The originators of the HP boycott against Warner Bros. for attacking independent fan sites, including pursuit of 15-year-old Clare Field's URL that contained "Harry Potter." The site now claims victory over Warners, but will remain open and invites you to "stay tuned for what's next."

iHarryPotter.net An extensive site on the movie and books, with a Daily Prophet with changing headlines. The designer and Webmaster is Jasen Wong, 13, with other teen colleagues. Very well-done for such young Web types.

INFORMATION SITES (MOVIES)

The Snitch is one of the United Kingdom's best fan-built movie sites, with the largest collection of stills outside th HP galleries. News is also regularly updated. However, sometimes you'll get strange messages, such as "You are not authorized to view this page" during The Snitch's move to another server. Hopefully their troubles will be over soon.

Empire Online. The Internet version of a British entertainment magazine has a small section devoted to the Harry Potter movie. This site scored some nice coups with its many on-set pictures that give us a glimpse of the movie Hogwarts. See coverage of the Harry Potter movie from a British viewpoint.

IGN FilmForce. "Your Daily Dose of Muggle News," as they used to say here. This site does a good job of covering Harry Potter through Brian Linder's regular dispatches.

Ain't It Cool News. Harry Knowles' big site has gained a reputation for scoops and spies who scour movie sites and snap pictures before the films ever wrap. Harry Potter news can be found by typing the wizard's name into the "search" box. WARNING: This site does contain profanity and adult themes, since it is targeted more at grownups.

Dark Horizons. From Down Under come reports of movies as they go from preproduction to release. Australian Garth Franklin's extensive site was the first to release a number of Sorcerer's Stone stills and the UK movie poster. A gentler, more family friendly movie site than Ain't It Cool.

POTTER "UNIVERSE" GUIDES

The Harry Potter Lexicon. An exhaustive dictionary and encyclopedia format of an obsessed 43-year-old fan, Steve Vander Ark, from my home state of Michigan. He includes a timeline and explanation of just about any character, creature or thing in the HP universe. He also includes a timeline.

FAN SITES

Harry Potter Guide. I include this site because it is run by Clare Field, the teenager who discovered herself an enemy of the monstrous AOL Time Warner for using the boy wizard's name in her URL.

The Best HP Fanfic. Prettily and professionally designed HP fan fiction site. Here ardent fans try their hand at scribe trade with their favorite wizard or his friends and associates. Fan art also included.

Moondog's Harry Potter Paradise. A 14-year-old's site has little personality buttons available. It is such an enthusiastic site by a "Potterholic" that I include it.

Wizard World. A lot of purple on this simply designed site, with concise guides to the movies and books. The Webmaster is Danny (no last name given), who appears to be 12 to 14 years old.

Unofficial Harry Potter Fan Club. A cleanly designed site with book and movie info, as well as games and graphics.

Harrypotterall -- taking its name from a variation of the "Remembrall," this site is just beginning. There is a spell list and movie information.

UK Harry Potter is, as its URL indicates, a site in Harry's home market. A well done, simply designed site with a lot of guides and descriptions for both books and movies.

HP for Grownups is the fan forum and meeting place for the adult Harry Potter fan. Since debuting in 2000, the forum has gained 4,000 members. Just a reminder that the Harry Potter isn't just kids' stuff.

Chambers and Secrets is a well-done and cleanly laid out site by a Virignia, USA, Webmaster with information on the books and movies. Unique stuff includes HP haiku poems and speculation on casting for Harry's big crush, Cho Chang.

POP CULTURE & PARODIES

Mugglenet's reprint of MAD magazine's Sorcerer's Stone parody is typical goofy satire from this 50-year-old U.S. magazine. Warning: some mild crude and adult humor, rate it PG-13.

Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody is Chicago humor writer Michael Gerber. He has skillfully absorbed all of J.K. Rowling's world and turned it on its ear. Harry/Barry is a loser who whose has become a professional student, now in his 11th year at Hogwarts. Warning: Some adult humor in the sample chapter.

Harry Otter: Life and Times, is yet another parody. Filmmaker Terris Ko envisions Harry and his friends as grownups looking at the wizard's turbulent career and substance abuse. A fair take-off, narrated and filmed in the style of the U.S. music channel VH-1's Behind the Music series.

Giverius Navarroy and the Chamber of Surprises is Giancarlo Navarro's collection of movie poster parodies. Major HP characters are placed into spoofs of posters of other movies, often with funny results.

CONTROVERSY

Save Harry! is the Center for Science in the Public Interest's crusade against Coca-Cola Co. linking up with Warner Bros. to promote The Sorcerer's Stone movie. The group points out that selling sugary drinks to an already overweight population is wrong.

Real Muggles is author Nancy K. Stouffer's offiical site. Stouffer is famous as the writer who sued J.K. Rowling in 2000, claiming she stole the world "Muggles" and characters named Larry and Lily Potter from her books. Muggles in her world are not non-wizards, but little baby-looking people.

Sites that cover conservative Christians' objections to Harry Potter and association with real witchcraft and Satan can be seen at Bewitched by Harry Potter and Harry Potter Lures Kids to Witchcraft. You may not agree with these sites, but you will understand their point of view better by reading the articles.

Suggest more sites, please! And please report any broken or out-of-date links. Send an owl!!