Why You Can Trust CNET Harry Potter script the most preordered book of 2016
Publishing magic! The release of "Cursed Child" will make for a happy birthday present for both the now-grown wizard and author J.K. Rowling.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
No one who was around for the Harry Potter hysteria of the 1990s and 2000s should be surprised that the upcoming script for "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" is Amazon's most preordered book of 2016.
The Pottermania spans from Hogwarts' home turf to the hills of Ilvermorny (that's the newly revealed American wizarding school, as hard-core Harry fans already know). It's not only the most preordered book in the US, but also in the UK, and tops the list for print and Kindle editions, according to Amazon.
The book will be released on July 31, which according to previous books will be Harry Potter's 36th birthday, and is also author J.K. Rowling's 51st birthday.
This coming version of the book is titled the "special rehearsal edition," and is based on the script being used in the two-part play now being performed in London. But that play is continually being honed according to audience reaction and other needs, and an edited edition with new content will come in 2017.
The script should offer some surprises to its readers, many of whom are thousands of miles from London and haven't seen the play. "It's extraordinary that, six weeks into previews, the story still isn't out," producer Sonia Friedman told the Guardian. Rowling has already warned that the plot will make fans cry, and that Harry's transition to husband and father hasn't been easy.
"The first thing Jo [Rowling] said to us was, 'Harry the orphan,'" Friedman said. "The starting point was: how does a 40-year-old man, who's also an orphan and a wizard and one of the world's greatest heroes, how does he do the most basic thing of being a dad when he's had no parenting experience and actually had quite a lot of abuse?"
