Publisher and Editor BARRY CUNNINGHAM

Visits the Book Clubs

"If it wasn’t for Barry Cunningham, Harry Potter might still be languishing in his cupboard under the stairs…"
-J. K. Rowling

Barry Cunningham, publisher and editor at Chicken House Books, visited with the Young Critics' Club and Young Young Critics' Clubs on Friday, October 20th, 2006. You may not recognize Barry's name, but you will definitely know the authors he works with. He discovered and published J.K. Rowling in the U.K. before she was published in the U.S. For his publishing company, Chicken House Books, he has put out books by Cornelia Funke, Kevin Brooks, and Stuart Hill, among others. Mr. Cunningham talked about J.K Rowling and the Harry Potter books, Cornelia Funke and the trials and tribulations of translating a book into English, the difficulties of adapting books into movies, and the personalities of the writers that he works with. Barry also brought lots of galleys of upcoming books from Chicken House, which he talked about, and which were then raffled off to lucky book club members!

Mrs. Mac, Mr. Cunningham, and Mrs. Clark. Books published by Chicken House can be seen in the background	Mr. Cunningham answers YCC members' questions	Mrs. Mac and Barry Cunningham listen to a question	The sequel to Cry of the Icemark, by Stuart Hill, is on the table next to Mr. Cunningham

Check out some video clips of Barry Cunningham!

[They are in .WMV format, which is playable with Windows Media Player. Some of these clips are long-ish and may take a moment to load.]

• Clip 1: BC talks about how J.K. Rowling had the entire Harry Potter saga planned when she started writing

• Clip 2: BC talks about editing the first two Harry Potter books

• Clip 3: BC says that he thinks that all writers are a little bit weird

• Clip 4: BC says that a good book is not always a successful book

• Clip 5: BC talks about his favorite book that he's published

Some of the books published by Chicken House: