Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the publisher of the Harry Potter books, issued its first-quarter numbers on Thursday. Although things do seem to be improving, I can't say I was wholly enchanted by the data.

Net sales from continuing operations rose 14%. Okay, that's a good start. Double-digit rises are always respectable. But then we get to the bottom line. Scholastic, which is a related business to McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP), lost 68 cents per share from continuing operations. Now, sure, the loss was considerably less severe than the year-ago black ink of $1.13 per share. But I always get nervous when I read about losses. Can't help it.

IMAX (NASDAQ: IMAX), the famous theater with huge screens and snazzy 3D technology, reported earnings for the fourth quarter on Thursday. On a GAAP basis, IMAX lost $0.21 per share this quarter compared to $0.25 per share in the year-ago period. On an adjusted basis, the loss was $0.11 per share this year versus a loss of $0.21 per share last year. So, no matter how you slice it, IMAX narrowed the red ink.

So, how will booksellers such as Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS), Borders Group (NYSE: BGP), and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) fare during the holiday season? It's an interesting question, one which is examined in an article at The New York Times. The piece talks about how the current recession seems to be affecting consumers and their desire to buy books. At the beginning of the article, two shoppers are browsing in a bookstore -- one buys, the other doesn't. Both have been affected by the bad economy. What are we to make of this?

I'll give you my take on things. Books, unfortunately, are simply not so glamorous these days. And I do think that booksellers are going to have a hard time this holiday season. With all the competition from video games and other media, the printed page just isn't that exciting to a lot of consumers. I don't think that books will be a top priority as the wallet continues to get squeezed and while job security remains an issue. Our attention spans have been cut so short these days, and they're only getting shorter. In an era of MTV quick-edits and PowerPoint presentations, 100,000-word diversions don't feel so diverting anymore.

Books are probably even less exciting to young people. Seriously, how many kids have books on their Christmas lists this year? They may want the latest Blu-ray cartoon from Disney (NYSE: DIS), or the latest Call of Duty game from Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), but I'm not so sure they want the latest Stephen King novel (as for me, I picked up King's latest short-story collection Just After Sunset at my local Barnes & Noble). Many kids have been introduced to the joys of reading through the Harry Potter series, but I don't think Potter will be working his magic this season. If parents do cut back this year on presents, I figure they're going to err on the side of making sure that all the non-book gifts are acquired.

Is there anything the booksellers can do about this?

Earnings reports continue to dribble in as the quarter winds down. Much of the attention this week will be on homebuilders KB Home (NYSE: KBH) and Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) as investors look for any sign that the housing sector has bottomed (home sales numbers are also due out this week; see below). Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial anticipate that both companies will report that they narrowed their losses in the most recent quarter.

KB Home's expected $1.25 per share loss, on revenue of $725.5 million, compares to the previous quarter loss of $3.30 and to a year-ago loss of $6.19. However, KB Home's losses in the past few quarters have been deeper than expected. The Los Angeles-based homebuilder's long-range earnings growth forecast is 10.5%, less than the S&P 500. Analysts continue to recommend holding KB Home, and have for at least 120 days. Shares, however, reached a new 52-week high of $31.69 on Friday, and they are up 10.5% year to date.

Lennar is expected to post a loss of 52 cents per share, on revenue of $1.1 billion. That compares to the previous quarter's per-share loss of 76 cents and to a year-ago loss of $3.25. While Lennar also has tended in the past few quarters to miss expectations, the Miami-based company managed a positive surprise in the first quarter of 2008. Lennar's long-range earnings growth forecast is 10.3%, about the same as KB Home's. Analysts also recommend holding Lennar. Friday, shares of Lennar also reached a 52-week high, $27.75, but they are down 6.4% year to date.

U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson has ruled Steven Vander Ark's "Harry Potter Lexicon" website and proposed book infringe on copyrights held by author J.K. Rowling, and awarded Rowling and Warner Bros. -- a division of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) -- $6,750 in statutory damages. Given that Rowling earned an estimated $300 million last year, it's doubtful she was in this one for the money.

While authors are generally allowed to use material from other books in reference titles, the judge ruled that this case went beyond fair use because it "appropriates too much of Rowling's creative work for its purposes as a reference guide."

Rowling had testified that the pending release of the guide had caused her great stress and interfered with her work on a new novel.

The hp-lexicon.org site has already been taken down. It's a little bit disenchanting to see Ms. Rowling suing a former school librarian for producing a work that is clearly designed to appeal to die-hard Harry Potter fans, but she's certainly within her rights.

Rowling's latest book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, will be released on December 4.

Warner Bros. -- a division of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) -- made the surprising announcement that it's delaying the release of the sixth installment in the Harry Potter saga: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price.

The release is being pushed back from November 11 of 2008 to July 17 of 2009. Warner Bros. President Alan Horn blamed the writers' strike, saying that "We agreed the best strategy was to move 'Half-Blood Prince' to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tentpole release for mid-summer."

I'm not convinced -- isn't it a little close to the previously scheduled opening for the writers' strike that ended on February 12 to be the reason? Pali Research analyst Rich Greenfield wrote that "We believe TWX is shifting the film to help it achieve earnings expectations in 2008 (moving expensive P & A out of Q4 2008, at the same time that several successful films are set to hit DVD for Warner)."

If that's the case, investors should be concerned. Any time that a company starts messing with its operations in order to improve short-term earnings reports, you have a situation where long-term objectives could be neglected in favor of satisfying Wall Street expectations. In the long run, such a strategy will neither please Wall Street nor set the stage for long-term growth.

As one quarter rolls over into the next, here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) beat fourth-quarter expectations and offered a positive outlook for fiscal 2009.
• CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) beat Wall Street earnings estimates for the fourth quarter.
• Citi Trends Inc. (NASDAQ: CTRN) beat fourth-quarter estimates and offered a rosy outlook for fiscal 2009.
• Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ) swung to a fourth-quarter loss but beat estimates.
• Family Dollar Stores (NYSE: FDO) beat second-quarter estimates but slashed its full-year outlook.
• Immucor Inc. (NASDAQ: BLUD) beat third-quarter expectations and offered a positive full-year outlook.
• Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON) beat second-quarter expectations but the full-year outlook disappointed.
• Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) third-quarter earnings surged on strong demand and higher crop prices.
• Paychex Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYX) results on path to continue an 18-year earnings/revenue growth streak.
• Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) posted solid fourth-quarter results on strength of JBoss and other offerings.
• Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) fourth-quarter earnings and revenue more than doubled.
• Ruby Tuesday Inc. (NYSE: RT) third-quarter earnings beat low expectations; full-year outlook is bleak.
• Scholastic Corp. (NASDAQ: SCHL) announced disappointing third-quarter results post-Harry Potter.
• UBS (NYSE: UBS) writes off $19 million for the first quarter and shows chairman the door.

Also, prospects look grim for some newspapers. The financial crisis in the U.S. prompted the IMF to cut its global growth forecast.

Upcoming results to watch for include Alcoa (NYSE: AA), Circuit City Stores (NYSE: CC), Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY), and General Electric (NYSE: GE).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

If you have children in elementary school, then you know Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL), operator of the annnual school book fair. Scholastic does an excellent job publishing high-quality children's literature and other educational materials. If only it could do so at a profit. Scholastic has been the U.S. publisher for the Harry Potter series these past few years. But even during the height of Pottermania, Scholastic did not turn much of a profit. This year is no exception. The company recently released 3Q 2008 results. Revenue increased $12 million to $458 million, yet losses continue to widen to $4.6 million for the quarter in which there was no Harry Potter release.

YTD 2008 figures show revenue increased 20% and net income more than doubled due to the last Harry Potter release in the previous quarter. Yet YTD net loss now totals $9.3 million or $0.24 per share compared to net income of $20.5 million in the previous year. To be fair, Scholastic has taken huge losses -- $82 million in Q3 2008 alone -- to exit its direct-to-home sales channel. This led to a $77.5 million net loss in Q3. But even with all business segments "performing solidly," according to CEO Richard Robinson, the company continues to bleed money.

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, the British publisher of Harry Potter, recently reported robust sales and profit from Harry Potter books. Given that Scholastic also published this year's Caldecott Medal winner, Brain Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret, why is the company still drownding in red ink? S&P Equity downgraded the comapny from Buy to Hold.

As a former English teacher, I can't count the times that I had to listen to a student complain about the "relevance" of this book or that book. I usually tried to explain how literature affects culture and books change the world. I only wish that I'd thought to check out Scholastic Corporation's finances.

On Thursday, citing a tough economy, Scholastic Corporation stated that its expectations for the forthcoming year were somewhat dark. This, combined with a considerable quarterly loss, led to a 13.5% drop in its stock value, leaving it at $30.69 per share. Today, it dropped slightly more, and is currently at $30.25.

I have fond memories of reading Scholastic's books when I was a kid, and I certainly don't like to see the company in pain. However, as an author, I have to admit a certain amount of wondrous amazement at the situation currently unfolding. You see, Scholastic's dire predictions for 2008 center around the fact that it will not have a "Harry Potter" book to give its sales a shot of adrenalin.

Sometimes in a period of uncertainty, a look back can provide some perspective. So here are a few highlights from BloggingStocks on March 16, 2007,a year ago today.

• Business & Sports: Oil, Duke, & Notre Dame -- down: What's bigger news, who's in the March Madness or oil dropping below $57 a barrel?
• Will '300' controversy result in higher ticket sales?: Yeah, because this should be the main source of contention between the U.S. and Iran.
• An OPIC to counter OPEC: An Organization of Petroleum Importing Countries? Whatever became of that?
• Harry Potter and the 12 million order: Will the final movie in the Harry Potter series -- er, make that two movies -- generate this kind of excitment? Will anything?
• The CPI Numbers: Wall Street breathes brief sigh of relief: Wall Street could use another sigh of relief about now.
• Time magazine's facelift: Magazines? Is anyone still reading those?
• Microsoft's Ballmer takes more shots at Google: Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has a beef with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)? Who'd have guessed?
• Heineken -- the next Starbucks?: Does Heineken still want Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) as a role model?
• CNBC: Blackstone prepping for mega IPO: Remember the days when private equity was king?
• The Story You Didn't Read: Digital killed the TV star: TV is going digital? Seems like I heard something about that somewhere recently?
• Subprime investment opportunities?: Investment banks struggling with the subprime mess? The more things change ...
• JetBlue passengers grounded ... again: Last year it was JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU) cancellations; this year it's Southwest (NYSE: LUV) cancellations.

The Wall Street Journal reported [subscription required] this morning that Time Warner (NYSE: TWX)'s Warner Bros. Pictures plans to film the adaptation of the seventh "Harry Potter" book in two parts. The first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released during the holiday season of 2010 and the second part will follow six months later. A similar proposal was made for the filming of the fourth book, before enough material was cut from the book to facilitate a single film. Warner Bros. Pictures said that filming the book in two parts was "necessary to stay true to the tome."

The five "Harry Potter" films released thus far have grossed $4.5 billion according to the Journal, and expectations are high that the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, will repeat that success when it is released later this year. Current director David Yates will stay on board for the final two installments, after directing the fifth film and the upcoming sixth film. In addition to "staying true to the tome," WB President Jeff Robinov admitted that "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is 'packed with vital plot points' and that 'the best way to do the book, and its many fans, justice is to expand the screen adaptation.'"

Clearly, part of the scheme of adding an eighth film to the series is to continue the success the films have seen, as well as the record-breaking sales that the book's have enjoyed as well. Fans will likely welcome the decision, although not the time lag between the films, and question why similar methods were not taken for the longer fourth and fifth books. At the same time, they may also question the economics of it but the films will likely still do quite well and bring in further revenue that Warner Bros. looks toward.

All movie studios want to find their own Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter franchise. Disney (NYSE: DIS), for example, seems to be headed on the right track with its Narnia brand. Viacom (NYSE: VIA) made a solid effort this past weekend by releasing The Spiderwick Chronicles to the mass multiplex marketplace -- unfortunately, things didn't turn out so well, at least as I'm seeing it.

According to Boxofficemojo, Spiderwick is in a battle with Disney's Step Up 2 the Streets for second place. The latter is right now estimated to have grossed $19.7 million for the three-day weekend of February 15 through February 17; the former has just over $19 million to its credit. So, Spiderwick could exit its current third-place showing and move up in the rankings, but it won't catch up to the big winner, News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Jumper. I'll tell you, I had no idea this one was going to "jump" -- what a horrible, horrible pun, huh? -- to the top of the box office charts this weekend with a $27 million take.

Final numbers will be coming later today, and we'll get a better indication of how all the movies did once Monday's holiday figures are added; also, the second weekend is always the ultimate tell. But, as of now, I don't think Viacom's Spiderwick fantasy -- which is distributed by Paramount and is co-branded with Nickelodeon Movies -- will approach the economic prestige of Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Potter property. Better luck next time.

Disclosure: I own shares in Disney.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a book of fairy tales created, hand-written and illustrated by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, sold for nearly $4 million at a Sotheby's (NYSE: BID) auction on Thursday.

The book is one of seven copies Rowling made, and she gave the other six away to people involved with the Harry Potter collection. The book had only been expected to fetch about $100,000, but soared far beyond that and was eventually sold to a London art agent for $4 million.

The proceeds will benefit The Children's Voice, which campaigns for rights of children who grow up in institutions, particularly in Eastern Europe. To learn more about the charity, or perhaps make it part of your holiday giving plan, visit its website.

It's impressive to see that the first thing that Rowling released upon the completion of the Harry Potter series was not another book to cash in on her name. In fact, Rowling, who is already a billionaire, won't be making any money from this book.

J.K. Rowling has conducted herself with unbelievable class, and her good works and wariness of diving right into another book should only help build anticipation for her next project.

Harry Potter fans looking for a peak of what the book consists of should head over to Amazon.com, which has a terrific series of photos and a video about the book. More photos and reviews of the stories will be uploaded.

If you have a child younger than high-school age, then you know about Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL), the world's largest publisher of children's literature and educational material, and the sponsor of the annual school book fair.

Not incidentally, Scholastic also is Harry Potter's publisher, which one would think would be a fairly lucrative revenue stream. Apparently not. Ellie Berger has been named President of Trade for Scholastic in part to figure out how to turn over a new (and hopefully profitable) leaf for Scholastic. Despite record-setting revenue in 1Q FY 2008, which included the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Scholastic still managed to post a loss. On revenues of $587 million, a 75% increase, Scholastic posted a net loss of $2.8 million for the quarter. But this loss is a huge improvement over the $47 million net loss a year earlier.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) is seeing its shares being reiterated with an Overweight rating at Thomas Weisel, and the brokerage firm has a $24.00 price target on the stock.

One of the winning issues was the success of the latest Harry Potter film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that could help the media giant beat earnings estimates. The note also lists positive home video sales as a catalyst that could lift earnings.

Thomas Weisel's analyst Gordon Hodge also notes the likelihood that over the next 18 months the media conglomerate may spin off its cable, AOL, or even publishing units. Does this sound familiar or what? I wrote about both scenarios numerous times, mentioning the possible stake sale in cable, and how AOL can become its own tracking stock as well.

Last week Time Warner was started with a Neutral rating at Credit Suisse. There is obviously a lot of value that can be unlocked, and it seems analyst are slowly getting around the "unlocking value" story.