reported by Samuel Nolan, FictionFanatic.com

The Potter Index is a new website that offers a new and unique service to fans and devotees of the Harry Potter book series.

Since the Harry Potter books first appeared on the scene in July of 1997, they have become the best-selling and perhaps most debated and dissected series of books in recent literary history. But up until now, students of the Harry Potter books have had no readily available index resource to the books themselves.

To fulfill this missing need, the new website, The Potter Index, has been created by Harry Potter fans for Harry Potter fans, students and teachers, to assist them in their Potter debates and studies.

The Potter Index contains a detailed analysis of every word and every phrase in every Harry Potter book, cataloged by chapter and page number. The site does not display any part of the Harry Potter books in any way. However, it allows site visitors to enter specific search criteria and tells them exactly where this text can be found in the Harry Potter books.

Where in the books does Dumbledore mention his scar that resembles a map of the London Underground? Who's Stubby Boardman? Where is McLaggen first mentioned? That's only a small sample of what users can learn with the aid of the Potter Index.

The site's creator, Dave Haber, says, "There's so much more to the Harry Potter books than meets the eye. We know J.K. Rowling has hidden clues in the books at many different levels. (See the Dumbledore Is Not Dead website for examples of hidden clues pertaining to the conclusion of the events in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.) These clues and the mystery surrounding what will happen through the end of book seven are really fun to discuss (and argue about) with your friends.

In addition, in the course of my job as Managing Editor of the Harry Potter news website Wizard News (www.wizardnews.com), I hear by email from many teachers who discuss Harry Potter in their classrooms, and students doing reports on Harry Potter. But up until now, trying to find out exactly who said what and where, to back up a friendly argument, or to include as attribution or footnotes in a report, has previously required lots of thumb-flipping though the books."

"That's why I created The Potter Index. Now, you can enter a word or words into the Potter Index, and the system tells you exactly where to look in the books. I hope this new system can save Potter fans and students a lot of time, and uncover details and clues that would have remained hidden and forgotten, but with the depth and complexity of the puzzles that J.K. has laid before us, I'm afraid the answers the system provides and the info they point to in the books might start even more arguments than they solve!"

Mr. Haber says the site took more than two months to bring to fruition.

LINKS:
The Potter Index
http://www.potterindex.com