Name:Joanne Kathleen(J.K.) Rowling
Birthday:July 31, 1965
Kids: Jessica Isabel Rowling, David Gordon Rowling Murray, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray
Pets: Butch (male Jack Russel) and Sapphire (female Greyhound)
Jobs:Secretary, teacher, unemployed, WRITER
Favorite School Subject: English and Languages
Short Bio
Info from: kidsworld.com, wikepedia.org
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But one point she wanted to make had nothing to do with book seven. It was about her gratitude to the readers who’ve stuck with her and Harry for ten years now.
Meredith Vieira: It’s got to be humbling in some ways, too.
J.K. Rowling: Yeah, totally. Funnily enough, just before Seven came out, I met two or three fans — all who said the same thing to me. “I read the first one when I was ten. I read the first one when I was 11.” And I’m now looking at 20-year-old men and women.
Meredith Vieira: What do you say to those fans? Because there are many who–
J.K. Rowling: I just say you can’t imagine what that means to me. And they can’t. They can’t.
Meredith Vieira: Did you feel, in writing the seventh book, or any– actually any one of them, but particularly the seventh– a sense of responsibility to those fans?
J.K. Rowling: You know, it always– well, yes. I definitely felt a sense of responsibility in that I wanted to make it the very, very, very best book I could. Because they were waiting for it and there was so much expectation. I am often asked, “Well, don’t you feel guilty killing people, characters that kids love?” And– it sounds horrible and heartless to say “no.” But the truth is that when you’re writing, you have to think only of what you’re writing … You must not sit there and think, “Well, I was going to kill Hagrid but, you know, people love him.”
From the Today Show Transcript
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Wizards/Witches of the Month
October 2007
Harry Potter
(1980 – )
*The Boy Who Lived
*Only known survivor of the Avada Kedavra curse
*Conqueror of Lord Voldemort, also known as Tom Riddle.
*Joined the reshuffled Auror Department under Kingsley Shacklebolt at age 17, rising to become Head of said department in 2007.
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September 2007
Albus Dumbledore
1881 – 1996
*Brilliant and often controversial headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
*most famous for his 1945 defeat of Grindelwald and his steadfast championing of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived
*self-proclaimed proudest achievement, was being featured on a Famous Wizards Chocolate Frog Card
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August 2007
Rowena Ravenclaw
Medieval (precise dates unknown)
*One of the four famous Founders of Hogwarts
*The most brilliant witch of her time
*Legend has it that a broken heart – cause unknown – contributed to her early demise.
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July 2007
Godric Gryffindor
Medieval (precise dates unknown)
*One of the four famous Founders of Hogwart
*The most accomplished dueller of his time
*Enlightened fighter against Muggle-discrimination
*First owner of the celebrated Sorting Hat.
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June 2007
Salazar Slytherin
(Medieval, precise dates unknown)
*One of the four celebrated Founders of Hogwarts
* One of the first recorded Parselmouths
*An accomplished Legilimens
*A notorious champion of pureblood supremacy.
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May 2007
Helga Hufflepuff
(Medieval, precise dates unknown)
*One of the four Founders of Hogwarts
*Particularly famous for dexterity at food-related Charms
*Many recipes traditionally served at Hogwarts feasts originated with Hufflepuff.
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April 2007
Magenta Comstock
1895 – 1991
*Experimental artist
*Portraits’ eyes follow the viewer home
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March 2007
Tilton Toots (1959 – Present)
*”The Wizard With the Green Thumb”
*Celebrity Herbologist
*Radio Personality
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February 2007
Mnemone Radford (1562-1649)
*Developed Memory Modifying Charms
*First Ministry of Magic Obliviator
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January 2007
Harvey Ridgebit (1881-1973)
*Dragonologist
*Caught First Peruvian Viper Tooth
*Established Wolds Largest Dragon Sanctuary in Romania
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Previous WotMs
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Laurentia Fletwock
(1947 – present)
Celebrated breeder and racer of winged horses. Has campaigned for tighter restrictions on broomstick use.
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Lorcan d’Eath
(1964 – present)
Heartthrob singer, part vampire, nineteen weeks at number 1 with hit song ‘Necks to You.’
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Idris Oakby
(1872 – 1985)
Founder of the S.S.S.(Society for the Support of Squibs)
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Hambledon Quince
(1936 – present)
Author of controversial theory that wizards originate from Mars, Muggles from mushrooms.
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Erica Stainwright
(1932 – 2001)
Disgraced 1950s housekeeping guru who made fortune selling ‘cleaning’ potions that really generated more mould and grime.
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Tarquin McTavish
(1955 – present)
Imprisoned for crimes against Muggle neighbour, who was discovered trapped inside McTavish’s kettle.
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Daisy Hookum
(1962 – present)
Wrote bestseller ‘My Life as a Muggle’, after giving up magic for a year. Married to celebrity gardener Tilden Toots.
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Fabius Watkins
(1940 – 1975)
Legendary Captain and Chaser of Montrose Magpies. Died in freak collision with helicopter.
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Grogan Stump
(1770 – 1884)
Popular Minister for Magic, appointed 1811.
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Daisy Dodderidge
(1467 – 1555)
First landlady of the Leaky Cauldron.
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Yardley Platt
(1446 – 1557)
Serial goblin-killer.
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Jocunda Sykes
(1915 – present)
Famous for flying across the Atlantic on a broomstick – the first person to do so.
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Bowman Wright
(1492 – 1560)
Famous for developing the Golden Snitch.
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Carlotta Pinkstone
(1922 – present)
Famous campaigner for lifting the International Confederation of Wizard’s Statute of Secrecy and telling Muggles that wizards still exist. Ms. Pinkstone has been imprisoned several times for her blatant and deliberate use of magic in public places.
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Fifi LaFolle
(1888 – 1971)
Author of the ‘Enchanted Encounters’ series
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Gaspard Shingleton
(1959 – present)
Celebrated inventor of the Self-Stirring Cauldron.
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Bridget Wenlock
(1202 – 1285)
Famous Arithmancer. First to establish the magical properties of the number seven
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Chauncey Oldridge
(1342 – 1379)
First known victim of dragon pox
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Elfrida Clagg
(1612 – 1687)
Chieftainess of Warlock’s Council
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Felix Summerbee
(1447 – 1508)
Inventor of Cheering Charms
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Gondoline Oliphant
(1720 – 1799)
Famous for studies of life and habits of trolls. Clubbed to death in the Cotswolds while sketching.
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Mungo Bonham
(1560 – 1659)
Famous wizard healer. Founded St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
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Artemisia Lufkin
(1754 – 1825)
First witch to become Minister for Magic.
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Derwent Shimpling
(1912 – present)
Ate an entire Venomous Tentacula for a bet and survived, though is still purple.
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Ignatia Wildsmith
(1227 – 1320)
The witch who invented Floo powder.
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Devlin Whitehorn
(1945 – present)
Founder of the Nimbus racing broom company.
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Glenda Chittock
(1964 – present)
Popular presenter of the W.W.N. (Wizarding Wireless Network) programme ‘Witching Hour’
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Uric the Oddball
(Medieval, dates unknown)
Highly eccentric wizard who is famed, among other things, for wearing a jellyfish for a hat.
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Honoria Nutcombe
(1665 – 1743)
Founded the Society for the Reformation of Hags.
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Donaghan Tremlett
(1972 – present)
Bass player with the popular wizarding band The Weird Sisters
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Gwenog Jones
(1968 – present)
Captain and Beater of only all-female national Quidditch Team, the Holyhead Harpies
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Felix Summerbee
(1447 – 1508)
Inventor of Cheering Charms
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Mini Biography
Joanne Rowling was born in General Hospital in Dursley, near her family home in Yate, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom on July 31, 1965. Her mother, father, sister (2 years younger than Jo), and her moved several times in her childhood; to Winterbourne, Bristol and then to Tutshill near Chepstow. While living in Winterbourne, she was friends with Ian Vikki Potter, which is where she got Harry Potter’s last name. As a child, she said that she was a daydreamer and liked writing little stories. She attended Exeter University where she studied French and Classics. After leaving school, she became a teacher, but always wanted to be an author. In 1990, at the age of 25, he mother died due to multiple sclerosis.
While on a train in 1990, she daydreamt of a boy called Harry Potter who was a wizard. For the next 6 years she wrote this book. This was the thing that started J.K. Rowling on her journey that would last a lifetime. She moved to Portugal to teach, where she met her first husband. Together, they had 1 child, Jessica Rowling born on July 27, 1993. She divorced him and moved her and her 3 month year old daughter back to Edinburgh, Scotland to be closer to her sister, Di. She finished the Harry Potter book, which was first written on pieces of scrap paper. She typed up a few copies, and sent it to 2 agents and 1 publishing company. One of the agents that she picked at random, loved the book and signed her on within 3 days. While still doing this, she worked as a teacher in Edinburgh. Several publishing companies turned her book down, before Bloomsbury published it in 1996. This book made her enough money to get by on. She worked very hard writing the rest of the Harry Potter series, which now 6 out of the 7 books in the series have been published. By the time that the 3rd book was out, she was a billionaire. In 2001, she bought a lovely large house in River Tay in Perthshire, Scotland. Here, she married her second and current husband Doctor Neil Murray on December 26, 2001.
Her name is Joanne Rowling, but Bloomsbury was not sure if boys would want to read a book published by a women; so they suggested that she went by 2 initials. She put the J, for her first name Joanne. Since she did not have a middle name, she chose the name of her favorite grandmother; Kathleen, therefore getting a K. That is where she got her writing name; J.K. Rowling.
In 2001, she was sued for supposedly taking characters from writer in the 1980’s Nancy Stouffer. J.K. Rowling was ruled that she was innocent, and did not steal the characters.
She had her first child with her husband Neil Murray (her second child, his first) on March 23, 2003 in Edinburgh Her child is named David Gordon Rowling Murray. She took some time off to spend with her son and her daughter. Also, in 2005, she had her 3rd child; a baby girl named Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray. Rowling hopes to take some time off before writing the 7th book to spend time with her three children. She is currently richer than the Queen of England, and was the first to become a billionaire due to books. She is an influence to children across the globe, and is one of the best authors in the world.
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