Harry Potter was brought to life by British author, J.K. Rowling. Before Rowling gained fame and fortune for the Harry Potter series, she was actually writing down notes and story ideas on napkins. Rowling wrote seven books total to complete the Harry Potter series and each book represents a year in Harry's life. The success of the books led to multiple films, all starring Daniel Radcliff as Harry Potter. So far, there have been six of the seven books adapted into film form, with the seventh book being split into two separate films.
Harry Potter's story follows his ongoing feud with the evil Lord Voldemort. Lord Voldemort wants to rule of the wizards and control the Muggles (non-wizards). During his quest to do this, he killed Harry's parents when Harry was just a baby. Harry survived the attack and actually "killed" Voldemort when the evil wizard tried to attack him. A lightening bolt scar was left on Harry's forehead. Harry grows up not knowing his powers or the history of Voldemort until he is invited to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as a young teen. Throughout most of the novels, Harry deals with growing up and attending Hogwarts along with the never-ending battle that Voldemort puts him through. At his side are his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, two students also attending Hogwarts. Harry also befriends a half-giant named Rubeus Hagrid, who originally rescued him and brought him to Hogwarts. The novels and movies are filled with a lot of magic, including three-headed dogs and flying broomsticks. The movies use first rate special effects to make it all seem realistic.
Other than the books and movies, fans can purchase a wide collection of Harry Potter merchandise. There are action figures, Legos, video games for multiple systems, bedding, posters and official Harry Potter replica costumes. The movies are available on deluxe edition DVDs and books are published all over the world in hardcover and soft cover editions. When the first novel was imported to the United States, the title was changed form the original "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."
The first Harry Potter book was released on June 30, 1997. A little more than a year later, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" was released on July 2, 1998. The one-year trend continued with "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" on July 8, 1999. The rest of the series followed with releases in July 2000, 3 years later in 2003, July 2005, and the final book was released on July 21, 2007. The first Harry Potter movie was based on the first book of the series and that was released on November 6, 2001, four years after the first book.
The massive popularity of the Harry Potter series has turned it into one of the most successful book series of all time. The books hold consecutive records for becoming the fastest selling books of all time and worldwide there have been 400 million copies of Harry Potter sold. During each book release, book stores would hold "midnight premieres" and eager readers would wait outside of the bookstore to obtain their copy at midnight. The content of the book has also gone through some controversy. The main issues that are brought up with the series are that the books may influence children to want to practice witchcraft and act out the scenes featured in the book. These protests are far outweighed by the popularity of the book, however.