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'Harry Potter' director Chris Columbus takes on children's books

'Harry Potter' director Chris Columbus plans to write a trilogy of children's books with author Ned Vizzini.

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Yui Mok/SUB/PA/AP
The first book in a projected series by "Harry Potter" director Chris Columbus and author Ned Vizzini has a scheduled release date of spring 2013.

After creating family-friendly entertainment with such films as the first two "Harry Potter" movies and the 1990 hit 鈥Home Alone,鈥 director-producer-screenwriter Chris Columbus is turning to children鈥檚 books.

Columbus, who also directed the 2010 film 鈥Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief,鈥 has contracted to write a trilogy of children鈥檚 books for publisher HarperCollins, according to Entertainment Weekly. The books will be co-written with author Ned Vizzini, the writer of 2007鈥檚 鈥淚t鈥檚 Kind of a Funny Story.鈥

The books will be aimed at middle-schoolers, and the series has a working title of "House of Secrets." The books will focus on the Pagett siblings, who, with their parents, move into a house that was once owned by a fantasy author. The Pagetts are forced to go on a mysterious mission to save their parents and find out the truth behind their family. The first book has a planned release date of the spring, 2013.

Columbus told Entertainment Weekly that the transition to a writing process has not been a difficult one for him and that he was inspired to write children鈥檚 books after seeing how much the "Harry Potter" series affected young readers.

鈥淵ou hope for just a section of that in terms of being able to inspire kids to read,鈥 Columbus said. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 really one of the themes of the book 鈥 that reading is essential to your development as a child and as an eventual adult. That really has inspired us in moving forward.鈥

Molly Driscoll is a Monitor contributor.

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