This weeks Literary Ledger 20 to 27 March 2026

Welcome to your weekly roundup of all things books! We’re keeping it short and sweet, just five stories to keep you in the loop without overwhelming you. Think of this as your quick fix for staying connected to the book world.

I) HBO’s Harry Potter Teaser Trailer – My Initial Reactions

The Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone teaser trailer dropped yesterday, and there’s already a lot of thoughts and discourse around it. First of all, whatever you think of it, in some shape or form this is exciting. But, in all honesty, I think another remake should have happened at the earliest, twenty years after the last film was released (back in 2011).

For a successful franchise that already did well with its films, it’s very risky to have a remake so close to what we last remember watching. Sure, if the movies had been received poorly, or were cancelled halfway through (cough cough, Percy Jackson series), then making a TV show would make sense. But this? These are massive, huge shoes to fill.

Even if they try their best, you can’t recreate the nostalgia that the original films brought. At the same time, they also can’t really go off-script and do their own thing. So you end up stuck in this awkward middle ground where no option feels like a good one.

And it’s not like anyone could forget the original movies, but the more distance there is from them, the less harsh the criticism might be. It would also give the new cast more space to exist as their own versions of the characters, rather than being constantly compared to the original performances (which they inevitably will be).

The first thing I noticed is how dark it is, the colouring. I think the first films, directed by Chris Columbus, captured J.K. Rowling’s vision so clearly, and I’m really glad he started things off as bright and youthful as he did, because that’s exactly what those first two books felt like. But if we’re going to start with this kind of colouring, I’m worried that by season seven we won’t be able to watch it during the day, even with every light turned off and the blinds drawn, because we will struggle see anything! This is what I mean, though, the original films felt so perfect aesthetically that people are naturally going to want that again. And if that’s what they want, they might as well just watch the films. It makes the whole thing very tricky.

Although, I am so excited for it to include all the things the films couldn’t fit into such a short amount of time. With this being a long-form, eight-episode, one-hour format, just think about how much more we’ll see, and how much more character development there’ll be!!! Think of Peeves, S.P.E.W., St Mungo’s Hospital, Charlie Weasley, Voldemort’s backstory, Ron and Hermione as Prefects, the Marauders, and GINNY HAVING A PERSONALITY!

Those are the little things that made the overall experience of Harry Potter so brilliant when reading the books, so maybe all of that will save the show.

But one of the most important things is the acting. Good child actors, in my opinion, are really, really hard to find and get right, and if they aren’t right, it will completely throw me off. Unfortunately, they’ll be compared to Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson, who I think did some of their best work in the first three films.

And finally, I am anxious and intrigued to see how the race swap of Snape will play out with the new actor, Paapa Essiedu. Changing white characters to Black works for literally any other character besides Snape, Voldemort, and the Death Eaters overall. I think it was a bad decision, because certain dynamics may take on racial undertones that never existed before.

Harry dislikes Snape not just because he is mean, but because of the morally complex tension between them. Yet, with this character change, his deep suspicions and distrust now carry an added layer of prejudice. A race swap can be successful, think of Hermione, who in the new adaptation and stage play is played by a Black actress. That works because Hermione is already part of a discriminated group as a Muggle, so making her Black doesn’t change her story; if anything, it adds depth and elevates the character.

But Snape is a Death Eater, a group that clearly functions as an allegory for white supremacists. So the idea of a Black man being part of a group symbolically linked to the KKK or Nazis just doesn’t make sense. It also complicates Harry Potter’s father, James Potter, who is morally complex but ultimately good. At worst, he is a bully who picks on the equally cruel Snape, but with this change, he’s just a racist.

II) More National Year of Reading News to Share!

The NYT and the Department of Education have teamed up to launch the Go All In Campaign, what for, you ask? You guessed it: to get people reading more! This government-backed initiative carries the simple message: “If you’re into it, read into it.” Love football, music, or gaming? There’s literature for every hobby and interest. That’s the beauty of it, you can access anything through reading!

The campaign also reaches a wide age range, from babies and toddlers aged 0–5, to young children 5–10, and teenagers aged 11 and up.

There are so many campaign ambassadors, from Dermot O’Leary to Leah Williamson and Jack Edwards, and it’s supported by over 60 partners!

Find out more: https://goallin.org.uk/

III) More About Shy Girl and Its AI Controversy

Last week I wrote about the book Shy Girl, published by Mia Ballard, which was pulled from shelves in the UK and had its US release cancelled. While its removal was the right decision, it’s alarming that the book slipped completely under the radar at a top publisher (Hachette) without proper checks or edits. This is concerning because our fears are becoming reality, we now have to be extremely vigilant about whether books use AI. This is a cause for industry-wide panic, as publishing now has to worry about AI undermining the very thing it is built upon.

I do think this book could have been caught. Looking at the examples given for why it is considered an AI-generated book, it seems glaringly obvious, but over time, detecting these signs may become much harder, which is alarming. Publishers have relied on certain safeguards and trust mechanisms that AI now blurs, so you can’t just rely on author honesty anymore. This makes the process incredibly difficult. I can even imagine a whole team being created in publishing just to sift through works they suspect might use AI, similar to how applications are screened. But then again, some might use AI to do that, and I don’t think AI detecting AI is any more reliable than humans. If anything, it’s far less effective. Humans can sniff it out far better, because how does a robot know when another robot is pretending to be human if it doesn’t really know what being human looks like?

This is both worrying and very sad, and it has happened far sooner than I would have liked, sooner, meaning ever.

IV) Bridgerton Season Five Announced – My Thoughts (Spoiler Alert)

I’m sure everyone and their mother knows that Netflix announced, not long after the release of the fourth season (Benedict and Sophie Bridgerton’s love story), that the next chapter will focus on Francesca and Michaela. This shocked quite a few people, who had expected it to be Eloise’s turn. There’s been a lot of discussion about how Francesca has already had significant storylines and screen time in the past two seasons, and now she’s getting her own spotlight, while Eloise’s character has been developing since the beginning. In the third season, Francesca fell in love and got married; in the fourth, she faced fertility issues with her husband and then grieved him after his sudden death. Many thought it would make sense to shift the spotlight to Eloise, giving Francesca’s storyline a proper break to process her grief.

I do think Netflix is just messing with Bridgerton a bit and hasn’t fully learned from the mistakes of the third season, ignoring the chronology the audience wants and expects. But maybe because everyone is anticipating Eloise’s story, they’re holding her back to guarantee viewers for another chapter, no matter how Francesca and Michaela’s story is received. That said, Eloise has already been somewhat shortchanged because her arc hasn’t been set up enough, and she hasn’t had enough character development. It’s proof they could have done it, but so much time was spent on the younger Francesca that it wasn’t possible. We’ll just have to see how it plays out.

V) Bidding War Ends: HarperCollins Secures Exciting Children’s Series

I think we have a new name to watch out for soon: Rhiannon Findlay. Five other publishing houses competed fiercely over her three books in a competitive auction, with HarperCollins ultimately winning. Rhiannon Findlay is a pen name for the author who also wrote the children’s series Ten Minutes to Bed, whose first book is called The Cuddle Monster. This new series is a children’s picture book collection focused on early childhood emotions. Findlay has already been published before, so she comes with experience (and likely a proven sales record) which explains why so many publishers were eager to secure her work.