Scholastic, Little Brown UK to Publish “Cursed Child” Script This Summer!

by · February 10, 2016

Only a couple of weeks ago, we were cautiously optimistic that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child would be published as a book sooner than we had originally hoped, meaning that those fans unable to make the trip to London to see the show wouldn’t be missing out on reading the next chapter of Harry’s (and Albus’s) story. Now, we have confirmation – the full script of Cursed Child WILL be published this summer!

In the US and Canada, Potter publisher Scholastic will publish Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II, and in the UK, Little Brown will publish the same title. The book will be released on Harry’s (and Jo’s!) birthday: July 31, 2016. Of course, this is only a day after the play officially opens (although it does run in previews for a few weeks prior), which means that readers around the world will get the chance to read the story almost in real time, greatly reducing the risk of running across spoilers on the Internet.

In the US, the book will cost $29.99, and in Canada, it will be priced at $39.99. The British hardcover will be £20. A digital edition will be released via Pottermore simultaneously.

Information released by the publishers today states that this edition will contain the script of the play as it stands during the production’s preview period – a Special Rehearsal Edition. As further rehearsal and transition to performing in front of live audiences may produce changes to the script, this edition will only be available for a limited time – a Definitive Collector’s Edition with the final version of the script will be released at a later date.

Here is the current concept art for the cover of the book:

Concept Cover_HPCC_02

The CEO of Little Brown Book Group UK, David Shelley, said of the announcement:

We are so thrilled to be publishing the script of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. J.K. Rowling and her team have received a huge number of appeals from fans who can’t be in London to see the play and who would like to read the play in book format – […] so we are absolutely delighted to be able to make it available for them.

Scholastic’s promotion for the book’s release has already got us excited (and planning which robes we’re going to wear to the midnight release, of course):

You can pre-order the book from Amazon here! The Kindle version will soon be available here.

Press Release

HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD PARTS I & II
TO BE PUBLISHED IN PRINT BY SCHOLASTIC IN THE UNITED STATES
AND CANADA AT 12:01 A.M. ON JULY 31, 2016

(New York, NY – February 10, 2016) Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books, announced today that it will publish a script book based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II, a new play by Jack Thorne. The Special Rehearsal Edition of the script book will be published in print in the United States and Canada at 12:01 a.m. on July 31, 2016. Published in hardcover under Scholastic’s Arthur A. Levine Books imprint, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (ISBN 978-1-338-09913-3; All Ages), the eighth Harry Potter story, will be priced at $29.99 U.S. and $39.99 Canada. The script eBook will be published by Pottermore simultaneously with the print editions by Scholastic in the US and Canada, and Little, Brown Book Group in the UK.

In making the announcement, Ellie Berger, President of Scholastic Trade, said, “As the U.S. print publisher, Scholastic introduced Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World to American readers nearly 20 years ago and experienced firsthand the anticipation and excitement of the publication of each of the books over the years. We are thrilled to publish Harry Potter and the Cursed Child this summer.”

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth Harry Potter story, and the first to officially be presented on stage. It will receive its world premiere in London’s West End on 30th July 2016.

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes darkness comes from unexpected places.

The first seven Harry Potter stories, published by Scholastic in the U.S. between 1998 and 2007 have sold more than 160 million copies in the U.S., over 450 million copies worldwide, and are distributed in more than 200 territories, translated into 79 languages, and have been turned into eight blockbuster films.

To learn more about the Harry Potter books, visit http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/harrypotter.

About J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling is the author of the bestselling Harry Potter series of seven books, published between 1997 and 2007, which have sold over 450 million copies worldwide, are distributed in more than 200 territories and translated into 79 languages, and have been turned into eight blockbuster films.

She has written three companion volumes in aid of charity: Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in aid of Comic Relief; and The Tales of Beedle the Bard in aid of her children’s charity Lumos.

In 2012, J.K. Rowling’s digital entertainment and e-commerce company Pottermore was launched, where fans can enjoy her new writing and immerse themselves deeper in the wizarding world.

​Her first novel for adult readers, The Casual Vacancy, was published in September 2012 and adapted for TV by the BBC in 2015. Her crime novels, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, were published in 2013 (The Cuckoo’s Calling), 2014 (The Silkworm) and 2015 (Career of Evil), and are to be adapted for a major new television series for BBC One, produced by Brontë Film and Television.

J.K. Rowling’s 2008 Harvard commencement speech was published in 2015 as an illustrated book, Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination, and sold in aid of her charity Lumos and university–wide financial aid at Harvard.

In addition to J.K. Rowling’s collaboration on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II, an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, she is also making her screenwriting debut with the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a further extension of the wizarding world, due for release in November 2016.

This is a developing story, and we will let you know as we learn more!

Jessica J.

I've been making magic at MuggleNet since 2012, when I first joined the staff as a News intern. I've never wavered from the declaration in my childhood journal, circa October 2000: "I LOVE Harry Potter! If I clean my room, my mom says she'll make me a dinner a wizard would love!" Proud Gryffindor; don't hate.