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Update, June 26, 2017:We now have an all-new edition of this post.
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“All was well.” Those are the final words in the last of the Harry Potter books. Since 2007 — when the seventh and final volume was published — we’ve known how the series ends. This Friday, legions of Harry Potter fans will witness his struggle to make all well again when “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” opens across the universe.
…The series begins when Harry learns, at age 11, that he is not, by Muggle standards, normal. The beauty of the saga, in the search for a new normality, is discovering that what matters, among all the supernatural effects, are things that Muggles experience — happiness, peace, and good feeling among friends and family. J.K. Rowling’s wizardry has been to show us these truths in the most magical of places.
— From “Long Live Harry Potter,” an editorial by Verlyn Klinkenborg published on July 10, 2011
To celebrate this beloved series, we’ve collected everything “Harry” we could find, from Learning Network lesson plans to archival Times articles and multimedia to resources of all kinds, including parodies, from around the Web. And we’ll keep updating this page, because we don’t expect Pottermania to end just because the movies and books have.
We’ve gone through 13 years of Times archives to choose content for you, but if you’d like to see everything The Times has ever published on Harry Potter, and sort it by “oldest first” or “newest first,” visit the Harry Potter Times Topics page.
Meanwhile, if you teach these novels, please tell us below about what you do, how and why.
Harry Potter Fill-In
Can you supply the missing 25 words from the 1999 book review of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” the first-ever mention of “Harry Potter” in The New York Times?
Learning Network Lesson Plans
On “Harry Potter”
Literary Wizardry: Re-Imagining a Day at School With a Dose of ‘Harry Potter’-style Magic (2000)
Making Magic: Incorporating Elements of ‘Harry Potter’ into Short Films (2001)
Get Set! Describing and Creating Sets for ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ (2004)
The End? Sharing Predictions for the Latest ‘Harry Potter’ and Writing Your Own Book Endings (2007)
Related Themes, Characters and Literature:
Imagine That! Using Fantasy Themes to Create a Role-Playing Game (2000)
Kid Lit Crit: Learning About Genres of Children’s Literature (2004)
Get Down and Book-ie! Sharing Favorite Books Through Presentations and Posters (2006)
We’re Booked: Sharing All-Time Favorite Books With Peers and Writing Reviews (2007)
Out Loud: Practicing and Performing Oral Readings (2009)
Join the Club! Supporting Independent Reading With Book Groups (2010)
Print vs. Digital: Analyzing and Designing Book Apps for Works of Literature (2010)
10 Ways to Celebrate Banned Books Week
10 Ways to Use The New York Times for Teaching Literature
Books, Readers and Teachers: A Wrap-Up
Learning Network Student Opinion Questions
All of the following are still open to comment by students 13 or older:
What Would Your Favorite Literary Characters Be Like if Their Stories Never Ended?
Are There Books That Should Be Banned From Your School Library?
What Are Your Favorite Children’s Books?
Times Multimedia
2011 timeline | Harry Potter and the Billion-Dollar Franchise
2011 Reader Photographs | Harry Potter and the Devoted Fans
2011 slide show | Muggles Up Close
2010 video | Anatomy of a Scene: ‘Harry Potter’
2010 video | A Wizardly Getaway
2007 interactive | Harry Potter, Dissected
2011 slide show | The Sorcerers of Stagecraft
Times Reviews of the Harry Potter Books
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” (Michiko Kakutani)
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (Michiko Kakutani)
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (Michiko Kakutani)
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (John Leonard)
“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (Janet Maslin)
“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (Stephen King)
“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (Gregory Maguire)
“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (Christina Cho)
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (Michael Winerip)
Times Reviews of the Harry Potter Movies
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ (Manohla Dargis)
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1″ (A.O. Scott)
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (Manohla Dargis)
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (A.O. Scott)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Manohla Dargis)
“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (A.O. Scott)
“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (A.O. Scott)
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (Elvis Mitchell)
Selected Times Articles
Don’t Give Us Little Wizards, the Anti-Potter Parents Cry (1999)
Books’ Hero Wins Young Minds; An Apprentice Wizard Rules the World (at Least Its Bookstores) (1999)
Wizard vs. Dragon: A Close Contest, but the Fire-Breather Wins (2000)
Harry Potter’s Sorcerer Lived Here! He Really Did (2002)
The Split Verdict on Harry Potter (2003)
Young Potter Fans See Hero Maturing Along With Them (2003)
Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Camper (2005)
Harry Is Bigger Than Ever, It Would Seem, and His Fans Are, Too (2005)
The Genetic Theory of Harry Potter (2005)
Potter Has Limited Effects on Reading Habits (2007)
Is Dumbledore Gay? Depends on Definitions of ‘Is’ and ‘Gay’ (2007)
Even After the Books, Potter Mania Rocks On (2008)
Harry Potter Is Their Peter Pan (2009)
The Woman Behind the Boy Wizard (2009)
Muggles Take Flight at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (2010)
Pottermore: What’s Next for Harry Potter (2011)
Harry Potter Sang Bass, Hermione Sang Tenor (2011)
Bittersweet Feeling Among Fans Awaiting Final ‘Harry Potter’ Film (2011)
Selected Times Opinion Pieces
The Dark Underbelly of Writing Well for Children (1999)
Harry Potter Minus a Certain Flavour (2000)
Harry Potter and the Childish Adult (2003)
Harry Potter and the Errant Golf Cart (2003)
Growing Up With a Dose of Magic (2005)
Five Ways to End Harry Potter (2007)
Taking the Magic Out of College (2009)
Harry, I Hardly Knew Ye (2011)
Harry Potter Web Sites
Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator
Scholastic’s Harry Potter site
Selected Harry Potter Tributes and Parodies From Around the Web, Plus a Little J.K. Rowling
Figment | The Harry Potter Fan Fiction Contest
Fig Frags Tumblr | Harry Potter
Second City | Hogwarts: Which House Are You?
Harry Potter World Cup: Snape, Snape, Severus Snape!
Cake Wrecks | Sunday Sweets: Potter Mania
Instructables | Harry Potter DIY
Quiz Farm | Just How Obsessed Are You With Harry Potter?
Nerd Fighters | Harry Potter Nerds
Cap’n Wacky | Titles of Harry Potter Fanfics We’d Rather Not Read
Harry Potter Like a g6 Parody (Like It’s Quidditch)
Harry Potter Friday Parody by The Hillywood Show
Tech Land | 10 Technologies We Want to Steal from Harry Potter
Vulture | Eight Ways to Spin Off the Harry Potter Movie Franchise
TED Talks | J.K. Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure
J.K. Rowling’s Plot Spreadsheet for ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’
For a list of other novels for which we’ve made similar lists of resources, see 10 Ways to Use The New York Times for Teaching Literature.
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