Roy Apps is an author and scriptwriter. His historical novel for children, 'The Secret Summer of Daniel Lyons', about a boy's adventures during the early days of British film making, won the Writers' Guild Award and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Awards. He has written forty other children's books, including the popular 'How To Handle' series for children, and most recently, the 'Stacey Stone' novels about a 12-year old agony aunt who knows the answer to everything. In 2001 he received the Bafta Children's Film & Television Writer's Award. Amongst his TV credits are 'Byker Grove', 'The Ghost Hunter' and 'Barmy Aunt Boomerang'. He regularly visits schools, libraries and arts festivals to read from his books and to talk about 'the shed in his head'. Last term he was one of the writers-in-residence in the London Borough of Islington, working with primary school children to produce a booklet of stories about Victorian street children.

From 'accio' to 'Zonko's', everything you ever wanted to know about the wizard world of Harry Potter is out there in the mystical ether. J K Rowling's books are nothing short of a global phenomenon, reflected in the many sites dedicated to Harry, Ron and Hermione and their adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. With the arrival of the next in the series on 21 June 2003, 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix', fans are agog to read about what will happen to Harry as he enters his fifth year at the boarding school for young witches and wizards. If it's a long time since you picked up a Harry Potter book, or indeed if you've never been initiated into his world, it's hard to know where to begin, so we've selected a few websites to get you going.

This series of features profiles the ten sites shortlisted for the NGfL category of the Becta/The Guardian UK Education Web Site Awards 2002. The awards seek to recognise excellence in educational web sites and encourage creativity, originality, new content and new participants in web-based communication. The judges look for high standards in functionality, design, audience awareness, content and interactivity.