Harry, a History--Now Updated with J.K. Rowling Interview, New Chapter & Photos

October 6, 2008
With infectious, at times frenetic, excitement, Anelli presents two narratives in this hip report on how a boy wizard became a rock star. The first is a love letter to the fans of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter: a smart, creative, multinational, generation-spanning and technology-driven community. In the second, Anelli gives readers an exhaustive, if often jumbled, time line of Harry Potter's popularity. Appropriately for the webmistress of the Leaky Cauldron Web site, the author pays attention to the power of the Internet and its symbiotic relationship with fan communities, known as “fandoms.” Anelli attributes the evolution of fandoms principally to Harry Potter—an error that ignores other fandom phenomena like Star Trek
or The X-Files
. As she details her work with the Leaky Cauldron, readers get a view into the publishing world and the impressive tale of Harry Potter's ascension. Anelli also shares sweet scenes of meeting Rowling and the actors who portray the characters in the films. Fans will recognize themselves in these pages, and the curious might finally understand their friends.

January 15, 2009
As J.K. Rowling writes in her introduction, this book "can be read as a warts-and-all exposé of fan mentality or as a story of the world's biggest book group or as the personal journey of a group of people who would never otherwise have met." Anelli, webmaster of the Leaky Cauldron (the-leaky-cauldron.org), has toured with rockers Harry and the Potters and interviewed both Rowling and anti-Potter crusaders. She missed out on the initial phases of Pottermania, and much of the book is Anelli's personal (metaphorical) rags-to-riches talefrom overworked, underpaid MTV staffer to webmaster of the most respected Harry Potter fan site on the Internet. Her excitement never falters, and Potter fans will find much to like here, though those who are not already fans may have difficulty following Anelli as she hops back and forth in time. She and the Leaky Cauldron have spent years successfully promoting and upholding the spirit of the Harry Potter books, movies, and culture; all libraries serving Potter fans will find this a worthwhile purchase.Audrey Snowden, Cleveland P.L.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2008
The words Harry Potter conjure up not only images of a successful seven-book series about a boy wizard but also the epic economic and cultural phenomenon it inspired. Author Anelli was front and center for much of this evolution and, as webmistress of the popular fan site the Leaky Cauldron, may even have contributed to it. Her painstakingly detailed account of the phenomenons many aspectsfan sites, fan fiction, movies, promotional tours, podcasts, rock bands, and morewill be of interest primarily to hardcore devotees (and possibly, someday, to cultural anthropologists). Meanwhile, admirers of the books themselves will find less of interest here but will still enjoy the insiders glimpses Anelli offers of Harrys creator, J.K. Rowling, and of the series publishing history, though there is little analysis of how the books changed peoples attitudes toward reading and childrens literature. Although shes not a particularly graceful writer, Anelli is a true believer, and her passionate devotion to all things Harry is often endearing and undeniably infectious.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)