"Harry Potter can't wait to get back to Hogwarts after a summer with no friends and no magic. But his second year at school is rife with fresh torments, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockhart; a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' bathroom; and the unwanted attentions of Ron Weasley's younger sister, Ginny. These seem minor when the real trouble begins, and someone-- or something-- starts turning Hogwarts...

Presents scientific explanations for many of the fantastical and magical elements of Harry Potter's world.

Examines the life and writing career of J.K. Rowling, a single mother whose Harry Potter books took her from being on welfare to becoming one of the richest women in the United Kingdom.