Look To The Stars News: Lumos

Hogwarts Library To Benefit Charity

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:30:00 +0000

Scholastic has announced that, in November 2013, the company will release the first boxed set of the complete Hogwarts Library in the U.S., with sales supporting charity.

The box set will include Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

Sales of the Hogwarts Library will support two charities selected by the author, JK Rowling: Lumos, a charity founded by J.K. Rowling which works to end the institutionalization of children, and Comic Relief, a UK-based charity that strives to create a just world free from poverty.

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/9727-hogwarts-library-to-benefit-charity

Book Review: JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 13:00:00 +0000

JK Rowling's new book, The Casual Vacancy, was released in September, and shows a grittier side of the author who brought us Harry Potter. But the book does more than just provide us with a window into the private and dysfunctional lives of the fictional village of Pagford – it shows a side of Rowling that cares about people in the community.

The Casual Vacancy

The characters in Rowling’s book are essentially at low points in their lives – something Rowling knows from experience. The publication of the Harry Potter books is one of the most inspiring rags-to-riches stories of modern times – Rowling went almost over night from a benefit-dependent single mother suffering from depression to the first living author to earn a billion dollars from her books. And it was while she was at rock bottom that she witnessed the sorts of characters who populate The Casual Vacancy.

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/9333-book-review-jk-rowlings-the-casual-vacancy

JK Rowling Announces Charity eBook Publication Of The Tales Of Beedle The Bard

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:30:00 +0000

JK Rowling has issued an online message to let readers in the digital world know about the eBook publication of The Tales of Beedle the Bard and encourage them to support the vital work of Lumos.

Video: J.K. Rowling Announces eBook version of The Tales of Beedle The Bard to Benefit Lumos

And a moving animation about the work of Lumos, narrated by J.K. Rowling, is available for the first time today.

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/9300-jk-rowling-announces-charity-ebook-publication-of-the-tales-of-beedle-the-bard

Light A Birthday Candle For JK Rowling's Charity

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 12:30:00 +0000

JK Rowling's charity, Lumos, is asking people around the world to support its Light A Birthday Candle campaign, a year after changing its name from the Children’s High Level Group.

On and around International Children’s Day, 01 June 2011, the charity is asking people, community groups and organizations to take part in this initiative to help raise vital funds and awareness for the one million children in institutionalized care in Central and Eastern Europe.
  

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/6392-light-a-birthday-candle-for-jk-rowlings-charity

JK Rowling's Charity Celebrates International Children's Day

Mon, 17 May 2010 12:30:00 +0000

JK Rowling's charity – the Children's High Level Group – has changed its name to Lumos, and the organization is launching a campaign next month to celebrate International Children’s Day on June 1.

The charity officially changed its name earlier this year, but will still carry on its work of putting an end to the systematic institutionalization of disadvantaged children in Eastern Europe. The name Lumos comes from the light that comes from wizards’ wands in Rowling’s Harry Potter books.

“Twenty years ago, as Communist regimes across Europe toppled, harrowing images of Europe’s hidden children began to emerge,” said Rowling. “Thousands upon thousands of children were living in vast, depressing institutions – malnourished and often maltreated, with little access to the outside world. Slowly governments have begun to transform care systems. Real and lasting change takes time, but today we are putting down a marker and calling for significantly more progress in the next twenty years to ensure that eventually no children are living in, or at risk of entering, such institutions.”

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/4411-jk-rowlings-charity-celebrates-international-childrens-day

Beedle The Bard Breaks Sales Records For Charity

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:00:00 +0000

JK Rowling's new book, The Tales of Beedle The Bard, has created history by raising over £4 million (US$8 million) for charity in its first week of release.

The Children's High Level Group – the charity Rowling established in 2005 to improve the well-being, health and protection of vulnerable children – has said that 2,629,000 copies of the book were sold in the first week, generating £4.2 million for the organization.

“I am absolutely delighted that so much money has been raised,” Rowling said. “I would like to thank everyone who has so far purchased a copy of the book. All royalties will be going to help children without families, many of them with disabilities, whose voices have been unheard for many years.”

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/1761-beedle-the-bard-breaks-sales-records-for-charity

JK Rowling To Create Magic For Charity Tomorrow

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Harry Potter fans around the world will have a very restless night as they wait with eager anticipation for JK Rowling's new book, The Tales Of Beedle The Bard, which is being released tomorrow, December 4.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a collection of five tales first referred to in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final part in the author’s series of wizarding masterpieces. It was initially produced as seven handwritten copies, six of which were given away by Rowling as gifts, and one was bought by Amazon.com at auction last year for $4 million.

Proceeds from the book will go to Children's High Level Group, a charity founded by JK Rowling and Emma Nicholson in 2005 to improve the well-being, health and protection of vulnerable children. The charity works at a political and practical level to ensure that UN minimum standards for the care of children are implemented across the whole of Europe and beyond. Their Children’s Voice campaign wants to end the neglect and abuse of children and teenagers that still exists in many countries.

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/1672-jk-rowling-to-create-magic-for-charity-tomorrow

JK Rowling To Hold Beedle The Bard Reading

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:30:00 +0000

Author JK Rowling is to read from one of the original handwritten fairytales she wrote in a special charity tea party.

The Harry Potter creator will read extracts from The Tales Of Beedle The Bard at the event – to be held at the National Library of Scotland on December 4 – being hosted by the Children's High Level Group. Local school children will be invited to attend the event, with 10 local schools each being able to bring 20 pupils to the party.

December 4 will also see the public release of The Tales Of Beedle The Bard in bookshops around the world, with royalties going to the Children’s High Level Group, a charity established by the author to help vulnerable children in Eastern Europe.

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/1433-jk-rowling-to-hold-beedle-the-bard-reading

Harry Potter Returns For Charity

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:30:00 +0000

A book of Harry Potter-related fairy tales written and illustrated by JK Rowling is to be published for charity.

“There was understandable disappointment among Harry Potter fans when only one copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard was offered to the public last December,” said Rowling. “I am therefore delighted to announce that, thanks to the generous support of Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon – and with the blessing of the wonderful people who own the other six original books – The Tales of Beedle the Bard will now be widely available to all Harry Potter fans.”

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/1081-harry-potter-returns-for-charity

Harry Potter Returns For Charity Gala And Prequel

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:38:00 +0000

Witches and wizards galore crammed a castle in the dark depths of Scotland on Friday night, all in the name of charity.

Harry Potter creator JK Rowling played host to the goulish guests at the ghastly gala held at Harburn House in West Lothian to raise funds for the Scottish Multiple Sclerosis Society. And as well as monstrous music and disastrous dancing (ok, sorry, the alliteration is just getting silly now), there was also an auction with a very special prize donated by the author – the chance to be immortalized as a wizard or witch in a portrait at the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park in Florida.

The event, which was attended by guests such as Charlotte Church and author Ian Rankin, raised a massive $632,000 for the charity.

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/857-harry-potter-returns-for-charity-gala-and-prequel

JK Rowling Spellbound By Charity Book Sale

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:12:00 +0000

Originally expected to bring in around $100,000, JK Rowling's book “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” instead raised nearly $4 million… in just ten minutes of bidding. It is a price unheard of for a children’s book at auction and forty times what was anticipated.

The book is one of only seven in existence. Rowling gave the first six to friends as thank-you gifts, and the last one was auctioned by Sotheby’s for charity. The books, hand written and illustrated by Rowling, are bound in leather and uniquely embossed with silver and moonstones. “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” is a collection of wizarding fairy-tales alluded to in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book of the Harry Potter series. In The Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore left the volume of tales that provide clues to defeating Lord Voldemort to Harry’s friend Hermione.

The winning bid went to the London painting and drawing dealership Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox. Says Rowling of the record-breaking bid, “I’m stunned and ecstatic. This will mean so much to the children desperately in need of help. It means Christmas has come early for me.”

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/470-jk-rowling-spellbound-by-charity-book-sale

Rowling Hand-Writes New Potter Stories for Charity

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 15:23:00 +0000

JK Rowling hasn’t rested since finishing the Harry Potter series with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The author has hand-written and illustrated seven copies of a new book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a collection of wizarding fairy-tales mentioned in the final Potter book. Rowling gave six of the books as thank-you gifts, and the seventh will be auctioned to raise money for The Children’s Voice campaign run by the Children's High Level Group (CHLG).

Although one of Beedle the Bard’s stories, The Tale of the Three Brothers, is recounted in the last Potter book, the other four tales were only alluded to. Rowling had these books of never-before-told stories bound in leather with uniquely embossed silver and moon stones, and in her dedication at the front of each wrote that the proceeds of the auction will go to help institutionalized children.

In a BBC interview, Rowing stated, “I could not think of anyone with less of a voice, or more disenfranchised, than a child with mental health issues or handicapped, who has been taken from their family or given by their family to an institution and then placed in a cage. I couldn’t think of anyone more vulnerable, or anyone more in need of an articulate voice.”

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/422-rowling-hand-writes-new-potter-stories-for-charity