Harry Potter fan has thrill of a lifetime

By Sylvia Jacquard

Avid reader and Harry Potter fan James Charles, 11, recently had the thrill of his life. He met J.K. Rowling and received from her an autographed copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at the Young International Festival of Authors in Toronto on Oct. 23.

“It was crazy,” he said. “I was nervous about actually seeing her.”

James, a Grade 6 student at Evangeline Middle School, was one of two winners chosen from the 402 entries in a contest held by the Nova Scotia Library Association in partnership with Nova Scotia Public Libraries to celebrate Canadian Library Month.

James’ mother Andrea Lindsay, who accompanied him on the trip, had gone online to renew his library books when she saw the contest information, and decided to enter.

The Nova Scotia prize package was one of the most generous as it included airfare to Toronto, a two night stay at the Delta Chelsea and tickets for the Rowling event.

In the course of talking to people from other provinces, they discovered that the winner from British Columbia was given the tickets and $400 spending money from which they had to cover all of their expenses, and that the winner from Quebec was flown in that morning and back home the same day.

“We felt extremely lucky,” said Lindsay. “It was an amazing prize.”

Read Potter early



His parents, who took turns reading to James at bedtime, started reading the first Harry Potter to him when he was five years old. Father Tim Charles, was so engaged by the story that he “wanted all the turns so he could read the book himself” said Lindsay.

When James was eight, they were reading the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and by the end of the book, he was reading it himself. James was very keen to purchase the final book as soon as it was published last July, so his parents, knowing that his uncle had sent the book in the mail as a birthday gift, had to make excuses for not buying it.

Residents of North Kentville, James and his mother met the other Nova Scotia winner, 10-year-old Austin Carde and his mother from Linacy, near New Glasgow, at the Halifax airport. The flight arrived in Toronto in mid afternoon on Monday, Oct. 21.

Mother and son had time to visit relatives on Monday night and go sightseeing, including the Hockey Hall of Fame, on Tuesday.

The four Nova Scotians arrived at the Winter Garden Theatre on Wednesday morning in plenty of time for the 10 o’clock start. They had excellent seats, six rows back in the centre so “it felt like Rowling was reading just to us,” said Lindsay.

Standing ovation



Rowling’s entrance on the stage brought forth a standing ovation and her first comment to the audience was how thrilled she was to be in a roomful of readers.

She told them that the chapter from which she would be reading, Chapter 19 - The Silver Doe, was her favourite.

The emotion and expression that she gave to each character made the reading “the best thing” of the event for James.

Twelve people in the audience were winners of a Raincoast Books contest and each got to ask Rowling a question. Lindsay was struck by her genuineness and the time and effort she took with each question.

“She not only answered the basic question, but also elaborated on it,” said Lindsay. When asked which character was the hardest one for her to kill, Rowling’s reply was Dobby, the house elf. She then talked about the masses of mail that she received from her readers each time a character died.

At the time of the book’s July release, every bookstore across Canada had pages where fans could write a note to Rowling. The publisher bound all of these pages into two volumes that were so large they to be brought out on the stage on a large cart. Lindsay said that Rowling was visibly moved, saying, “You’re not going to make me cry.”

The final part of the event had every one of the 900 plus people in the theatre coming up to the stage to meet Rowling, have her autograph their copy and speak briefly to them before handing them their book.

As soon as James and his mother left the theatre, a man came up to them and offered $125 for one of their books.

Together with the Cardes, they visited the Royal Ontario Museum before heading home that afternoon.

Ironically, when they watched the Global news coverage of the event that evening, of all of the hundreds of people who crossed the stage, Lindsay and James discovered that had been just ahead of the girl from British Columbia, whom the camera had followed.

“I will always remember this trip,” said James, “and would love for my Mum to enter me in more contests.”