Alaska and Hawaii Now Eligible
for Potter Contest
Thanks in part to petitions from Alaskan schoolchildren and librarians, Scholastic, the U.S. publisher of the popular Harry Potter series, has agreed to allow children from Alaska and Hawaii to join the other 48 states and enter its essay contest for a chance to meet the author. The postmark deadline for essays on “How the Harry Potter books have changed my life” was also extended to September 18.
Judy Corman, a senior vice president for Scholastic, told the Associated Press September 12 that an angry letter from Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein made the company change its mind. “Your company’s treatment of Alaskans—particularly our children—as second-class citizens reminds me of the colonialist attitude which the federal government often displays to our state and residents,” Weinstein wrote. “In closing, you can be like Harry Potter or Voldemort—the choice is yours.”
Ten contest winners will fly to New York for breakfast with author J. K. Rowling in October.
Posted September 18, 2000.
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