Sixth Harry Potter to publish in Spanish

By M&C News Feb 21, 2006, 2:52 GMT

NEW YORK     'Harry Potter y el misterio del principe', the sixth Spanish-language installment of the bestselling Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling, published in Spain by Ediciones Salamandra, will be released simultaneously for Spanish-speakers around the world, from Tierra del Fuego in southern Chile to northern Mexico, from the United States to Spain.

Lectorum, a division of Scholastic and the country's largest and oldest distributor of Spanish-language titles, will release 'Harry Potter y el Misterio del Principe' in the United States at 12:30 p.m. (EST) on Thursday, February 23, 2006.

In celebration of the worldwide release, Lectorum will host an invitation only reception at Libreria Lectorum, the country's oldest Spanish-language bookstore, located in New York City.

When the clock counts down to 12:30 p.m., Emmy award-winning Telemundo television personality and author Maria Celeste Arraras will draw back the curtain revealing the book for the very first time. Following the unveiling,there will be a special reading by Maria Celeste from the first chapter of 'Harry Potter y el Misterio del Principe'.

As part of the celebration and another "first," Lectorum is presenting a Spanish-language edition of the book, with an author signed bookplate, to the New York Public Library. It will be part of a children's literature collection, which includes a U.S. edition of 'Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix', book five in the series, signed by J.K. Rowling and donated by Scholastic.

'Harry Potter y el misterio del principe' picks up the story with Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he continues the battle between good and evil. Author J.K. Rowling provides fans with the sinister Lord Voldemort's back story and ties up various plot lines.

As with the five preceding Potter books, the Spanish-language publisher, Ediciones Salamandra, will publish three different versions of the same translation, which reflect the idiomatic differences of the Spanish language in Spain, Argentina, and the rest of Latin America.  The total print run is expected to exceed one million copies. The popularity of the series is universal.