I am always fascinated by the ample global popularity of the Harry Potter stories. The Harry Potter novels were written by the UK writer J.K. Rowling. She was given birth to on 31 July 1965. Her complete name is Joanne Rowling. But she writes under the abbreviation J.K. Rowling because primarily her publisher thought it was a helpful move not to reveal the aspect that she is a woman. The publisher feared it could have a negative effect on the sales numbers if everybody immediately sees that the author was female. Consequently, instead of showing her first name she used two letters. As she has no middle name she chose Kathleen as basis for the K. in her short form. Kathleen is the name of her paternal grandmother.

The first Harry Potter novel – Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone – was released in 1997 in the United Kingdom. Very mentionable is the aspect that only thousand pieces of the first story were released at the beginning. The original title of the book was not Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, but Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. But when the novel was released to the US market place in 1998, it was released as Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.

After that J.K. invented several additional Harry Potter stories. Now the Harry Potter series is made of a total of 7 books. These are:

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

The Harry Potter novels have been translated into over 55 languages and have been published in a lot of countries. Besides the big success in the United States of America and Britain, Harry Potter is also noticeably popular in Germany. The Harry Potter stories have been publicized to the German public under these headers:

I must admit that I did not have the opportunity to read all those stories. But there are kids who know them all, which is quite fascinating and is part of the tremendous success.