It has been 15 years this summer, believe it or not, since Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published by Bloomsbury in Ireland and the United Kingdom, and Bloomsbury is  having a celebration! No surprise there, of course, but you may be disappointed to learn that you are not invited.

Here’s the thing… They want to discover the “biggest Harry Potter fan in the UK and Ireland,” which since the late 18th Century at least, has not included the United States. Scholastic will have to throw their own party next year for those of us on the left side of the pond.

The rules of this contest, if a preview of what Scholastic might attempt, are fascinating. They are not, I’m glad to report, looking for the biggest fan, i.e., one they could weigh or determine with a tape measure. No, they’re asking booksellers and librarians to nominate the readers they believe to be the most devoted and engaged members of fandom, however they choose to define that.

I’m guessing Bloomsbury is hoping the nominating adults will be choosing children as their nominees. That may be quite the trick for librarians who are at least as serious Potter-philes as any teen or young adult (as at left, librarians all, in Arizona). Let me know what you think of this UK party you cannot join in the comment boxes below.

The film-lot-turned-‘Making of Harry Potter’-theme-park opens 31 March and I received my first note last week from a serious reader in Austin saying she is saving her galleons to take her family across the pond to experience the magic, the Wizarding World that was the real stage for the Warner Brothers movie adaptations.

For a full report on just how many galleons she’ll need (and the upset in the UK about this price tag), read The Daily Mail‘s Too much for Muggles? Harry Potter studio tour faces criticism that it is too pricey for families.

For stunning collection of exhibit photos (need I say, “SPOILERS!”?), visit Hogwarts for Muggles: How YOU can fly on a broomstick, ride the Knight Bus and see all the behind-the-scenes magic of the Harry Potter movies. Did I mention a video walk through?

And The Daily Mirror was also given a pass for one of its reporters (and a camera man) to preview the excitement and ride a broom in front of a green screen. Check out Wizard or what? We take the first peek inside the new Harry Potter studio tour: From the actual Diagon Alley to Dumbledore’s office via potions and props it is, quite simply, like stepping inside one of the movies.

But it is! You can follow my thinkings, comings, and goings at ‘HogwartsProf’ on Twitter and at the Hogwarts Professor Facebook page! For those of you who have heard me joke that my wife and I agreed this wasn’t anything I should do because I’d wind up in a Social Media 12 Step Program in short order, I really wasn’t joking. Mary will be typing in all the tweets and FaceBook updates so those interested can hear about new posts at this site, of course, but also all about big Serious Reader gatherings, where and when I’ll be speaking, new ways of bringing me to your school, church, library, or bookclub, special offers on books, and video offerings at iTunes from my talks, interviews with other Potter Pundits, and lectures at conferences.

And did I mention the rumor of a new HogPro partnership with MuggleNet? See you over at the Twitter and Facebook pages!

A letter I sent to a friend last year on the possible connection of Coleridge and J. R. R. Tolkien through Cardinal Newman:

Your prayers.

The Christianity Today article I forwarded last week on John Cardinal Newman’s literary imagination (‘Newman’s Unquiet Grave: A Biography that Stresses Newman’s Literary Imagination’) disappointed me in that the article didn’t mention Coleridge. It seemed to touch a nerve with you by asserting that “because of Newman’s particular blend of the literary and the theological, he may also be England’s greatest unread prose writer.” You wrote:

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Some ‘time sensitive news’ Potter Philes will be interested in:

• ‘Alice at ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ writes to share the news that PotterMore will finally open its doors to all comers next month. – And —
• Potter-Ize It! Sharing the Magic of Fan Culture: A meeting of Potter Fandom minds is taking place in public today at Austin’s Show of Shows’ — ‘South by Southwest Interactive — in a panel discussion featuring the lead players at The Leaky Cauldron, MuggleNet, and Harry Potter Educational Fan-On (the folks who sponsor the conferences we know and love). Lisa Bunker of AccioQuotes was the mastermind behind the scenes.

Read the press releases beneath jump!

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