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Alaskan Student a Winner in
Harry Potter Essay Contest

An 11-year-old Fairbanks, Alaska, student was one of 10 winners of a national Harry Potter essay contest, though initially her state had been excluded. Sarah Brown’s essay on “How Harry Potter Changed My Life” earned her a trip to New York City, where she and nine other winners will meet Potter author J. K. Rowling for breakfast and appear on NBC’s Today show, according to the October 10 Anchorage Daily News.

Alaskan and Hawaiian students had not originally been eligible for the contest, but miffed librarians and the mayor of Ketchikan, Alaska, convinced Scholastic (publisher of the Harry Potter books and sponsor of the contest) to change its mind.

Brown, who is in sixth grade at Fairbanks’ Pearl Creek Elementary, intends to someday become a writer. She likes the Potter series because it is “well-written, suspenseful, and has a touch of humor.”

Posted October 16, 2000.

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