It has been 15 years this summer, believe it or not, since Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published by Bloomsbury in Ireland and the United Kingdom, and Bloomsbury is having a celebration! No surprise there, of course, but you may be disappointed to learn that you are not invited.
Here’s the thing… They want to discover the “biggest Harry Potter fan in the UK and Ireland,” which since the late 18th Century at least, has not included the United States. Scholastic will have to throw their own party next year for those of us on the left side of the pond.
The rules of this contest, if a preview of what Scholastic might attempt, are fascinating. They are not, I’m glad to report, looking for the biggest fan, i.e., one they could weigh or determine with a tape measure. No, they’re asking booksellers and librarians to nominate the readers they believe to be the most devoted and engaged members of fandom, however they choose to define that.
I’m guessing Bloomsbury is hoping the nominating adults will be choosing children as their nominees. That may be quite the trick for librarians who are at least as serious Potter-philes as any teen or young adult (as at left, librarians all, in Arizona). Let me know what you think of this UK party you cannot join in the comment boxes below.
is it in all libraies or just ones in london?
This made me chuckle: “No surprise there, of course, but you may be disappointed to learn that you are not invited.”
It was the ARE that caused the laughs. Surely this should read “may not be” depending on where in this global community you’re geographically located. Someone sitting in their armchair in the UK or Ireland would be saying “but I am invited”. Kind of a strange presumption that the Hogwarts Professor has no readership in the UK or Ireland.
Foul!
I said you “may” be disappointed. If you live in the UK or Ireland, of course, you will not be. But because some readers may not, those who don’t will be disappointed.
Apologies, though, to anyone in the UK or Ireland checking in who do not pick up that distinction!