Children’s specialist Morna A. Childers accepted the book at Scholastic’s “Harry Potter Place” interactive environment in New York City, then flew back to West Asheville for a hometown celebration. Author J. K. Rowling had inscribed the book, “To those who love reading and libraries as much as I do.” The library will also get to choose $2,000 worth of additional materials from the publisher.
“We heard about a week and a half ago but were sworn to secrecy until 9:30 Friday morning,” Branch Supervisor Julie Niwinski said in the July 16 Asheville Citizen-Times.
Because the sweepstakes drew an overwhelming response of more than 9,000 entries from public libraries nationwide, Scholastic announced it would award an additional 49 prizes—library-bound editions of the book with autographed bookplates to one library in each of the remaining states.
The complete list of winning libraries is available on Scholastic’s website. Scholastic presented the first autographed American copy of the previous book in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, to the New York Public Library in June 2003.
Posted July 22, 2005.