MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL CELEBRATES HARRY POTTER DAY

On July 31 and August 6 eleven major league baseball teams nationwide will celebrate "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Day." As part of this program, fans attending the games will have the chance to win a copy of the newly released paperback edition of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Additionally, Scholastic has created unique buttons that say "I'm a fan of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" that will be given away at the games, and a special "Happy Birthday Harry Potter" message will appear on score boards.

Participating baseball teams include the Boston Red Sox, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies, Anaheim Angels, Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates and the Houston Astros.

PRINT, INTERNET, GO CARDS AND MOVIE SCREENS ANNOUNCE BOOK RELEASE

Scholastic will mount a national print, and internet advertising campaign including GO CARDS which will be distributed in July. Additionally, for one month, starting in mid-July, Scholastic will advertise the new paperback release on 40 movie theater screens with a total reach of 5.2 million.

LIBRARIES AND BOOKSTORES JOIN IN THE CELEBRATION

To help kids celebrate Harry Potter's birthday in libraries and bookstores across the nation, Scholastic is shipping 10,000 "Wish Harry Potter a Happy Birthday" kits to venues cross the country. The kit will include a banner birthday card for fans to sign, word puzzles and activity sheets.

With a first printing of 2.5 million, the publication of the paperback of J.K. Rowling's fourth title, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" brings the total number of Harry Potter books in print to nearly 65 million. With an unprecedented initial print run of 3.8 million, the hardcover edition of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" broke all industry records by selling nearly 3 million copies in its first weekend, July 8, 2000. According to Publishers Weekly, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is the fastest-selling book in history.

The first three Harry Potter books are currently rising on national bestseller lists occupying the #1, 2 and 3 slots on The New York Times Children's Paperback Bestseller List and #8, 10 and 15 slots on USA Today's Bestseller List.

Scholastic is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books. As a global children's publishing and media company serving the needs of parents, teachers, and children, Scholastic provides proprietary book and software distribution through school book clubs, school book fairs and to classrooms, as well as through the retail trade. Since 1920, Scholastic has created quality educational materials for schools and has expanded its reach to include the distribution of books, software, toys, online learning services and television programming directly to the home.

Scholastic's Grolier division is the leading print and online publisher of children's reference materials and the leader in children's direct-to-home book clubs. Internationally, Scholastic operates wholly owned companies in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United Kingdom. The U.S. Scholastic web site (http://www.scholastic.com) is a leading provider of educational services online for parents, teachers and children.

HARRY POTTER, characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of and (C) Warner Bros.