J.K. Rowling
The story behind the British billionaire
By William
Pre Harry Potter life
Born to Peter James Rowling and Anne Rowling on July 31, 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England. She attended St. Michael’s Primary School as a child. Even as a child, she loved to write fantasy stories, which she read to her sister Dianne. She attended the Wyedean School and College After studying in Paris for a year, J.K. went to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International. In 1990, on a train to London, J.K. came up with the idea for Harry Potter and when she arrived at her destination, she began writing pronto. While she was writing, J.K.’s mother died from multiple sclerosis. She then moved to Porto, Portugal, to teach English as a foreign language. On October 16, 1992, she married Jorge Arantes; later, in November 1993, they divorced. In December of 1994, J.K. and her daughter moved to Edinburgh, Scotland. While going through a time where money was scarce, she finished the first book in a café.
The Boy Who Lived
J.K. Rowling is synonymous with her Harry Potter books. She has sold nearly 400 million books. Her Harry Potter franchise is worth over $15 billion dollars. She is the 136th richest person in the world. She is the 13th richest woman in England. All together, the Harry Potter books total 4,195 pages and have been translated into sixty-five languages.
J.K.’s books
These are the Harry Potter books, in order from her debut novel (The Sorcerer's Stone) to her latest book (The Deathly Hallows)
The movies
The movies live up to the book’s standard and have been, so far, the highest grossing film series of all time, totaling $4.48 billion. The last two books have not had movie adaptations yet.
Controversy
Some religious extremists claim that Harry Potter books are occultish and contain satanic themes. Warner Bros. has had to protect the copyright to the movies on various cases.
Her Influences
Many characters in the Harry Potter books die because at the
time she was writing the first book, her mother died from a ongoing battle with multiple sclerosis. The headmaster of her children’s school, St. Michael’s Primary School, was the inspiration for the character Albus Dumbledore. She was inspired by Jane Austen, Geoffrey Chancer and C.S. Lewis, to name a few. Hermoine is based on the eleven year old version of J.K. One of her best friends as a child, Sean Harris, was the inspiration for Ron. J.K. has succeeded in sparking more kids to want to read more books, which may have been one of her ambitions previously.
Awards
• She won over twenty six awards. • She garnered awards from France, Italy and Britain. • Some awards were given to her twice for her other books.
• • • • • Carnegie Medal Nestle Smarties Book Prize British Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year Children’s book award Guardian children’s fiction prize
Her next works
• J.K. has stated that she does not know if she
will continue Harry Potter in the future. She says it’s possible but highly unlikely. • She is currently writing an encyclopedia about Harry’s world and about things not in the books. • She stated that anything she writes in the future will probably not be fantasy, as she said she’s had enough of that for now.
What I’ve learned
I’ve enjoyed reading her books. I haven’t really gotten much except for good reading. If anything, it’s good to know that kids in this generation still like to read fantasy books. This is good for me because I am also writing fantasy books, although I wasn’t inspired to start because of J.K. Rowling.
FIN