Books

These New Harry Potter Books Are Basically Your Guides To The Wizarding World

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If you miss the exquisite delight of reading the ancillary Harry Potter texts — such as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages — for the first time, you're going to love this news. A Harry Potter series of nonfiction eBooks is launching Summer 2019, expanding on the material found in Harry Potter: A Journey Through a History of Magic, which appeared on store shelves in 2017. The first two entries in this new series of Harry Potter eBooks will be available on June 27, with two additional books expected to "follow soon after," according to Pottermore.

As announced on May 24, the first four nonfiction Harry Potter eBooks are: Harry Potter: A Journey Through Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, Harry Potter: A Journey Through Potions and Herbology, Harry Potter: A Journey Through Divination and Astronomy, and Harry Potter: A Journey Through Care of Magical Creatures. Pottermore is calling the books nonfiction, and they appear to be a combination of myth and legend, historical information, photographs, and illustrations. Harry Potter: A Journey Through Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts and Harry Potter: A Journey Through Potions and Herbology will be out June 27, with the others to follow later this summer.

The recently announced Harry Potter eBooks draw on material found in Harry Potter: A History of Magic and Harry Potter: A Journey Through a History of Magic. The audiobook version, narrated by Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer and released in 2018, contained "expanded interviews with the exhibition curators" not found in the physical books, according to Pottermore. The new Harry Potter series of eBooks — officially called Harry Potter: A Journey Through... — contains that enhanced material, divided into digestible packages for the busy reader.

If nothing else, the publication of these new Harry Potter eBooks may help to assuage fans' fears that the franchise may be in jeopardy. Earlier this month, Pottermore and Warner Bros. issued a joint press release to announce that Pottermore would be moving to Wizarding World Digital, where Harry Potter content would be consolidated. The release assured fans that Pottermore Publishing would be unaffected by the merger — a promise that feels more likely to be kept, now that we have new Harry Potter content to look forward to this summer.

Harry Potter: A Journey Through Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts and Harry Potter: A Journey Through Potions and Herbology will be out June 27. Harry Potter: A Journey Through Divination and Astronomy is out July 25, and Harry Potter: A Journey Through Care of Magical Creatures will follow on Aug. 22. All four eBooks are available for pre-order today.