Scholastic Unveils New Cover for Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban by Award-Winning Illustrator Kazu Kibuishi in Celebration of Harry Potter 15th Anniversary

NEW YORK, June 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children's publishing, education and media company, today unveiled the new cover for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – the third of seven new trade paperback editions illustrated by New York Times bestselling author and illustrator, Kazu Kibuishi.  Cheryl Klein, Scholastic's Executive Editor of Arthur A. Levine books, unveiled the new cover in Portland, Oregon, at the fourth annual LeakyCon Convention, an event that grew out of the worldwide Harry Potter fan community. The complete series of new books and a new boxed set will be available on August 27, 2013, as part of Scholastic's celebration of the 15^th anniversary of the U.S. publication of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the original book in J.K. Rowling's best-selling Harry Potter series.

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In each of the new cover illustrations, Kibuishi perfectly captures a pivotal moment from that particular book. For Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban, he brings in more of the mystery and darkness of the series than he did the first two titles and depicts Harry conjuring his Patronus to ward off the life-sucking dementors.

Fifteen years after the first U.S. publication of J.K. Rowling's first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in September 1998, there are more than 150 million Harry Potter books in print in the United States alone and the series still hits bestseller lists regularly. The seven Harry Potter books are published in over 200 territories in 74 languages and have sold more than 450 million copies worldwide.

About Kazu Kibuishi:
Kazu Kibuishi is the Eisner-nominated creator of the #1 New York Times bestselling Amulet series of graphic novels, as well as the comic collection Copper, both published by Graphix/Scholastic. He is also the founder and editor of the Flight Anthologies, a critically acclaimed comic series; and the creator of Daisy Kutter: The Last Train, which was named a YALSA Best Book for Young Adults. Kazu Kibuishi lives in Alhambra, California with his family. Visit him at www.boltcity.com and on Twitter at @BoltCity.

About LeakyCon:
LeakyCon is a fan conference which comes from and celebrates everything about the Harry Potter fandom. LeakyCon is a place where fans can be themselves. LeakyCon 2013 is the fourth Harry Potter fan conference produced by Mischief Management and follows LeakyCon 2012, held in Chicago, Illinois, in August of 2012. LeakyCon features a wide array of formal and informal programming for attendees, including exclusive special events, a literary track, speaker panels, roundtables, rock concerts, a Quidditch tournament, costume contests, podcasts, vendor room, craft show, and a charity ball.

For more information about Scholastic visit our media room at http://mediaroom.scholastic.com

For more information about Harry Potter and the new paperback releases, visit http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/harrypotter where downloadable images of the new cover for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, as well as previously released covers of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets are available.  Four more new covers will be revealed in the coming weeks.

SOURCE Scholastic