Remembering Harry: At Carnegie Hall with J. K. Rowling

I was very fortunate today to be invited by Scholastic to attend J. K. Rowling’s morning reading at Carnegie Hall. 1600 school kids were there, 40 kids from 40 schools. They were justifiably excited and so was I!

Rowling read the chapter in the final book where Harry said good-bye to the Dursleys. It was just very cool to hear her read live, her very own words. She’s a very good reader!

After that she answered a bunch of questions from kids. They were all excellent and sadly I didn’t take notes so you will have to rely on others for the details. One friend, GraceAnne DeCandido did take excellent notes and sent an excellent overview to the Leaky Cauldron. (In the second part of this post.) I’m sure there will be many more reports before long.

It was a thrilled to be there. I’m saving my golden ticket!

Sarah Ellis

Congratulations to Sarah for winning the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award for her elegant and intelligent novel Odd Man Out.

I got to know Sarah at the now-no-more Children’s Literature New England summer institutes. I learned to wait with bated breath for her talks as they were always witty, thought-provoking, and engrossing. Her books are like that too. If you haven’t encountered them, go thee now to find a few! Odd Man Out is wonderful as are her earlier books for children, not to mention those on literature, and her articles. (Roger notes that she has been writing quite a few for his little journal.) I’m partial to From Reader to Writer: Writing Through Classic Children’s Books as she includes many of my favorites.

So once again, congratulations, Sarah!