Quidditch: the game that enchanted the world

Quidditch is the sport invented by author J.K.Rowling for the Harry Potter books. But now it's a real international sports competition...


Quidditch at Hogwarts
In the Harry Potter books, pupils at Hogwarts School don't play traditional English sports like hockey or cricket. They play Quidditch! It is a rough contact sport played between two teams of seven players who fly around on broomsticks. Harry Potter plays an important position for his team: he is their Seeker and his job is to catch the Golden Snitch.

Quidditch World Cup
By 2007, Quidditch was so popular that a World Cup tournament was organised by the IQA, the International Quidditch Association. Every year, 80 of the world's 300 Quidditch teams compete in a two-day championship. You must be 13 to participate but most of the athletes are older. Just like in the books, girls and boys play together on the same team: Quidditch teams are always mixed.



Quidditch for Muggles
Harry Potter fans loved the game so much that in 2005 Quidditch became a real sport! It was created at Middlebury College in Vermont, USA. Players don't fly around the pitch - The game was adapted for play on the ground. But they do ride broomsticks which they hold between their legs as they run!

The snitch problem
In Muggle Quidditch, the Golden Snitch is not an enchanted ball that flies around the pitch! This role is played by a person who places a tennis ball inside a long sock! The "Snitch runner " attaches the sock onto the back of his or her shorts and has to run fast so that the Seeker cannot take the Snitch. It looks hilarious!

Quidditch fans
In 2014, the Quidditch World Cup was in Florida, USA. It's a fun event for all the family. Fans don't just come to watch the games, they come for the Harry Potter atmosphere. They can try the famous butterbeer and listen to music by the group Harry and the Potters. Some dress up as wizards and witches with cloaks, scarves and hats!

Did you know?
In 2001, J.K.Rowling worte a book about the rules and history of Quidditch. In the book, she says that Quidditch is a fictional sport for wizards only and that nobody really plays it. She never imagined that one day it would become a World Cup competition!

A delicious dress

You might love chocolate, but would you like to wear chocolate clothes? This model is wearing a dress painted with 50 kg of chocolate. It took two weeks to make for a chocolate show in London last year. But wearing it is not easy: you have to keep cool or the dress melts!

Jeans... 140 years old and still so cool!

Every day, you get up in the morning and put on your jeans. On 20 May, it's the official birthday of the world's favourite trousers. But how much do you know about them?

Mini pocket
This used to be called a watch pocket - people put their watches here to keep them safe. It has got smaller with time, and is now called the coin pocket.

The rivets
In 1872, a tailor called Jacob Davis used copper rivets to reinforce the pockets of Levi's jeans. He and Levi Strauss became business partners. They patented their method for making jeans on 20 May 1873. The next year, "501 jeans" went on sale.

The belt loops
Levi's first belt loops on their 501 jeans in 1922. Before then, people wore braces: jeans had suspender buttons to attach the braces. Until 1960, jeans were called "waist overalls".

The denim
Levi Strauss imported cloth from France called serge de Nîmes to make his jeans. In the USA, it was easier to call it "denim" (de Nîmes). Today "denims" is another word for "jeans". Denim fades with time but it looks really cool!

Zip or buttons
The first pair of jeans had a button-fly. In 1954, Levi's made its first pair of jeans with a zip.

Skinny jeans
Punks wore skinny jeans in the 1970s. And British top model Kate Moss made them popular again in 2002. Today, people all around the world wear skinny jeans!

The stitching
On jeans is often in orange thread. This tipe of thread is very strong. The colour matches the copper rivets.

Lorde

Aged just 17, Lorde won two Grammy Awards -Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Perfomance- for her song "Royals". Lorde is from New Zeland. She loves to read and says reading encouraged her to write songs. She started composing songs with her guitar when she was only 13. Look out for Lorde!

Emma Watson

The magic continues

The actress spent years filming the eight Harry Potter films. Now she has turned the page...

Goodbye Hermione
After the Harry Potter films made her the world's most famous witch, Emma Watson wanted to show she had other talents. Her next big role, as a cool kid in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), was very different from the studious Hermione. The seven weeks Emma spent filming were the opportunity for her to be a normal teenager for the first time. "We'd just stay up all night playing guitar and running around the hotel", she says.

Designers love her elegance
Fashion is also a big part of Emma's life. Fans love her individual, elegant style and so do designers. She has been a model for brands like Burberry and Lancôme, and helped design her own range of clothes. But it is not easy to know what to wear when you're famous. "It's stressful knowing that every time you walk out the door, someone is going to be judging everything you wear", says Emma.

Intelligent star
Emma is not just beautiful... she has brains too! She has studied at Brown University, USA, and Oxford University, England, and loves to read and write poetry. She took a break from her studies to concentrate on her films, which is good news for her fans.

A private person
Emma loves making films but she does not like celebrity life. She is attached to her privacy, which is ironic because in the film The Bling Ring (2013), she plays a teenager who is obsessed with celebrities and breaks into their houses. It was a challenge for Emma to play a materialistic, narcissistic character so different to her!

Diverse new roles to play
This month Emma Watson is back in the biblical film Noah, where she plays Ila, Noah's adoptive daughter. It's a fantasy film with super CGI, but there's none of the innocence of Harry Potter or the glamous of The Bling Ring. It's another opportunity for Emma to show that she's one of Hollywood's most talented young actresses!

"My biggest challenge will be convincing people I can be someone else"

The magic of Disney

From films and TV series to theme parks, Disney has been enchanting us for the past 90 years. Discover an empire.

Once upon a time... Walt Disney was an artist and a visionary businessman. Born in 1901 in Chicago, he grew up on a farm. But Walt loved cartoons. When he was 20 years old, he opened a studio in Hollywood. When Walt died, in 1966, his company was a global empire. Today, it has annual revenues of over 35 billion dollars and employs 150,000 people.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The film of the month

Jennifer Lawrence is back as Katniss Everdeen in the second Hunger Games film. After winning the 74th competition with Peeta Mellark, Katniss returns home. But now the 75th Games are in preparation and both are forced to participate. It's a special edition of the Games: all the participants are past winners. They must fight to the dead in a televised battle. It's a cruel challenge.

Jennifer Lawrence

Oscar-winning superstar and nice girl

Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence is everywhere this month. I love English has some ideas on how to succeed like Jennifer...

Make the right decisions... Most actresses, if offered a role in The Hunger Games, would say "Yes!" without hesitation. Not Jennifer Lawrence. She was worried that being famous would change her. She thought about the offer for three days, before accepting. Like Katniss in the films, Jennifer became a superstar overnight. But happily, she hasn't changed at all!

Give 100 per cent... To prepare for her role in The Hunger Games, Jennifer worked very hard. She trained in archery four times a week, learnt tree and rock climbing, and had fitness and combat coaching. "It I look exhausted in the movie, that's definitely real," she says smiling. 

Be unpredictable... Jennifer likes to surprise her fans. She plays very different roles from one film to the next. She experiments with new styles. Her hair colour changes from blonde to brown, and she can wear everything from elegant dresses to jeans and simple T-shirts.

Laugh at yourself... Jennifer admits that she's not perfect. She's naturally clumsy, and fell on the steps when she collected her first Oscar in front of Hollywood's most important stars. But she reacted to this embarrassing situation with humour. "You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell", she said when the audience stood up in her honour.

Jennifer Lawrence at the Oscars

Be fearless... Most actresses don't dream of carrying a shotgun. But Jennifer is fearless: that's exactly what she did in the film "Winter's Bone". Millions of fans identified with her challenging, teenage role. It was also preparation for playing Katniss.

Catching Fire (The Hunger Games)

Be modest... With a salary of 10 million dollars for the new Hunger Games film, Jennifer is the most successful female action star of all time. But she is modest about her success. "I'm not saving lives", she says. "There are doctors who save lives and fireman who run into burning buildings. I'm making movies."

Get angry...when there's a good reason to. Jennifer hates photographers following her everywhere. She has a difficult relationship with fame. I'm beginning to feel like a monkey in a zoo," she says. "I am not OK with it. I am just a normal girl and a human being." And that, Jennifer, is exactly why we love you.

Animal T-shirts

Are you a cat person, or a dog person? Whichever animal you like best, there's a cool T-shirt for you. The T-shirts are made by an American company called The Mountain and cost 15 euros. And you don't need special glasses to see that they are in 3D!

Music: Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus started her career as Disney star Hannah Montana when she was 13 years old. But a lot has changed since then. Today, aged 20, Miley is more famous for her music than her acting. She has a new rock star image too. Her fourth album is out now. You're sure to love Miley's catchy single "We Can't Stop"!

Our London

From the world's most famous phone box to the oldest underground system, here are our favourite ten things to see in London...

1. The most famous clock in the world.
"Big Ben" is the name of the bell inside the clock. But most people call the tower Big Ben. The bell chimed for the first time in 1859. Today it only stops for repairs. Big Ben is next to the Houses of Parliament. So the Members of Parliament have no excuse for being late for work...

2. The most iconic phone box in the world.
The red phone box is one of the most famous British symbols. The colour red was originally chosen to make them easy to see, and today you still find some red phone boxes in London. Tourists love to take photos of themselves inside them.

3. The biggest ferris wheel in Europe.
The London Eye welcomes more than 3.5 million visitors per year. It opened in 1999 and has fantastic views of the city. There are 32 capsules... one for each of  London's 32 boroughs.

4. The most famous jewels in the world.
The Crown Jewels are on display at the Tower of London. They are protected by guards called "Beeefeaters". Inside you can see the Imperial State Crown, with more than 3,000 diamonds, pearls, sapphires, emeralds and rubies.

5. The most popular guards in the world.
The Queen's Guards are the soldiers who defend the official royal residences in London. People come to see them at Buckingham Palace, especially for the "Canging of the Guard" ceremony. They wear bearskin caps and they must not smile...

6. The oldest underground system in the world.
London Underground is 150 years old. It opened in 1863 and was the world's first underground transport system. Circular tunnels called "tubes" were dug under the ground. That's why Londoners say "the Tube"!

7. The most luxurious store in the world.
Harrods is great for Christmas shopping, but the store is spetacular all year round. It has 90,000 m2 of space on seven floors. The Harrods motto is "Omnia Omnibus Ubique", which means "All Things for All People". But its merchandise is quite expensive

8. The most delicious snack in the world.
Afternoon tea is a snack that Londoners have at 4 pm. The ritual comes from the rich English classes of the 1800s. It consists of tea served with milk and sugar. There are also little sandwiches, cakes and delicious "scones". Today, you can enjoy afternoon tea in a tea shop or a nice hotel. Every year, one London hotel wins the Top Afternoon Tea award.

9. The largest natural history collection in the world.
The Natural History Museum has a 26-metre-long Diplodocus skeletton called "Dippy". It's an exact copy of fossilized bones found in Wyoming, USA. There's also an extinct dodo, meteorites from Mars and material from Darwin's voyages. More than 70 milion specimens are in the museum.

10. The largest clothes shope in the world.
Topshop clothes are chic and affordable. Each day, 30,000 customers come to its enormous London store to try the latest fashions. The store also has a nail bar, a tailoring service and a hair salon. Cool!