J.K. Rowling to release four new Harry Potter books

J.K. Rowling has announced she will be releasing four new Harry Potter books.  The author has declared publishing dates for a series of non-fiction eBook shorts called Harry Potter: A Journey Through…, which is adapted from the audiobook Harry Potter: A History of Magic.

In a statement released on the Pottermore website, Rowling told fans to “Prepare to delve deeper into the rich history of magic (be it our own Muggle history, or the magical world created by JK Rowling) with this new series of eBook shorts. In addition to exploring the origins of magic through history and folklore, the eBook shorts will also feature notes, manuscript pages and charming sketches as previously seen in Harry Potter: A History of Magic.”

The books will be released in Englis, French, Italian and German and will be called, Harry Potter: A Journey Through Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, Harry Potter: A Journey Through Potions and Herbology, Harry Potter: A Journey Through Divination and Astronomy and Harry Potter: A Journey Through Care of Magical Creatures.

The first two ebooks – Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions and Herbology – will be released on June 27. The second pair is to follow at an as yet undisclosed date.

But not everyone is happy about the release of these books with Metro columnist Natasha Salmon begging the author to please stop releasing more content.

“Thankfully the new books aren’t the disaster I feared,” she says, “they aren’t the sex chronicles of Albus Dumbledore or the divorce papers of Harry and Ginny Potter, but they are still another product in the neverending additions to the Wizarding World universe.”

Salmon adds that these new books, while supposedly being released to garner a new generation of fans, will instead only help to ruin the franchise.

“Books can live on in the way they make readers feel like they did for my mum who passed them on to me and like how I will read Harry Potter to my children. But I worry that legacy will be lost for the Harry Potter books because the constant additions and corrective tweets are more ways for the magical world to crack at the seams,” she says.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.