Children's Books To Be Reissued

[NOTaMuggleFamily at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 14301

Children's Books To Be Reissued



NEW YORK (AP) - Harry Potter fans look out: Some new Muggles are coming to 
town. Or are they old ones? 

``The Legend of Rah and the Muggles,'' whose author is suing J.K. Rowling for 
stealing her ideas, will be reissued by Thurman House in May, the publisher 
announced Wednesday. The book was first published in 1984 and went out of 
print a few years later, long before the Potter series began. 

Author Nancy Stouffer said in a recent interview she had a hard time finding 
a new publisher because some feared her book would be seen as ripping off the 
Potter stories. 

``I have been accused of stealing; some children believe I am the one that 
followed J.K. Rowling,'' she said. 

Terms of the contract were not disclosed, but several out-of-print Stouffer 
books are expected to come out by the end of 2002. 

In ``Rah and the Muggles,'' muggles are little people who care for two 
orphaned boys who magically turn their dark homeland into a happy place. In 
Rowling's books, ``muggles'' is the word wizards use for humans. 

Stouffer's book has a character named Lilly Potter; Rowling's books have a 
Lily Potter. The Larry Potter book had characters identified as ``Keeper of 
the Gardens''; Rowling's books have a ``Keeper of the Keys.'' 

Stouffer is the author of 13 books, which she said were created with the idea 
of licensing the characters. Her original publisher, Ande, went bankrupt in 
1987. 

A resident of Camp Hill, Pa., Stouffer filed her lawsuit last March in U.S. 
District Court in Philadelphia. The suit names Rowling and Scholastic Inc., 
the U.S. publisher of the Harry Potter books. Also cited are Time Warner 
Entertainment Co., which owns the film rights to two of Rowling's Potter 
books, and Mattel and Hasbro, both of whom have licenses to create and market 
related merchandise. 

Scholastic, Rowling and Time Warner filed their own lawsuit in November, 
asking a judge to rule that the Harry Potter books do not violate Stouffer's 
trademark and copyright. 

Thurman House is an affiliate of Ottenheimer Publishers Inc., a 110-year-old 
company based in Baltimore. 


AP-NY-03-14-01 1044EST