Harry Potter novels are the literary phenomenon of the late 1990s. The first in the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the U.K.) appeared in 1997. Fewer than four years later, over sixty-six million copies of the first four books had been sold. The series is set to run to seven books, one for each year Harry spends at the wizarding school called Hogwarts.

Harry Potter novels have been credited with starting a boom in children's reading, but adults read them, too. The books are a common sight among rail and bus commuters. They even come in different dust jackets to appeal to readers of different ages. The Harry Potter series is the work of British author J. K. Rowling (1965–), who claims to have invented the boy wizard and Hogwarts school on a train journey between...