Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Thursday 29 June 2017
20 years later, new generation of Harry Potter fans

By DEEPTI HAJELA with one of the numerous
Associated Press copies of the first book
NEW YORK (AP) — K’lyssa owned by her stepmother,
Moore wasn’t that much Josee Leblanc.
older than the elementary “I’m glad that I didn’t have
school students she now to wait because I could just
teaches when she first fell read them all and not have
in love with Harry Potter to stop,” said Joanisse, of
soon after the books first Montreal, through Leb-
started coming out. lanc’s translation. She ad-
The 28-year-old reads at mitted the idea of mid-
least part of the first book night book release parties
to her classes, and isn’t at and other events had a
all surprised when they fall certain appeal, though. “It
under the spell of the boy sounded like fun, being all
wizard, just like she did, together,” she said.
and are endlessly curious Envious or not, sharing the
about what happens next, Harry Potter love with a
just like she was. But the new generation has been
similarity ends there, since a joy and a testament to
they have something she the staying power of the
didn’t — all seven books at books, said Clayton Lord,
their disposal. 36, who has read the first
As the 20th anniversary of four with his husband and
the initial publishing of the Theo Galkin, 8, rereads a favorite part of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” while posing for their 6-year-old daughter,
first Harry Potter book is a picture with his mother Chloe Galkin at their home in South Orange, N.J., Wednesday, June 28, Cici. Prior to starting that
celebrated this week, an- 2017. effort last year, he hadn’t
other generation is being Associated Press re-read the first books in
introduced to Harry, Hog-
warts and all the rest of the est bit of (cheerful) envy in-between school when
magical world created by that their kids won’t have Harry was disconnected
author J.K. Rowling. to wait to find out what from the (magical) world.
For some of their first-gener- happens next. You do miss out on getting
ation-fan parents and oth- Moore is firmly in the first to make up your own theo-
er adults often doing the camp. ries and getting to guess
introducing, there’s a little “Part of it, the fun of be- what you think is going to
bit of wistfulness that their ing a fan when the books happen because you can
pick up the book and find
out right away.”
Chloe Galkin is pretty sure
she could probably live
with that. The 41-year-
old from Maplewood,
New Jersey, has seen her
8-year-old son Theo tear
through the entire series.
“I think I would have loved
to have them all, just the
way he does,” she said. In this Monday, May 20, 2013 file photo, Sotheby’s director of the
“We’ll finish one, he can’t department of printed books and manuscripts Dr Philip Errington
wait to start the next one. poses for photographers by holding a first edition copy of the
I think that’s almost better first Harry Potter book “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”
in a way that you can read containing annotations and illustrations by author J.K. Rowling
on top of a stack of other annotated first edition books featuring
them continuously.” at auction, at the auction house’s premises in London.
The first book in the Harry Associated Press
Potter series was published
in Britain on June 26, 1997. sion in all things Harry Pot- the series in many years.
It’s since sold more than ter led her to working with “There are things that you
450 million copies globally, Universal Studios on its mas- read when you’re younger
Theo Galkin, 8, poses for a picture with his set of Harry Potter in 79 languages. It took 10 sively popular Harry Potter and then you get back
books at his home in South Orange, N.J., Wednesday, June 28, years for all the books to themed park attraction. to them and you realize
2017. come out, with multi-year “This Harry Potter genera- they’re not all you thought
Associated Press gaps between offerings. tion,” which includes her they were,” said Lord, of
And remember, the discus- 6-year-old son, Rowan, Edgewater, Maryland.
kids won’t get to experi- were coming out, you sions and events and fan “is so lucky, because they When it comes to Harry
ence the midnight book were living it as Harry and theories were there be- don’t have to wait,” she Potter, even after many
release parties and other all the characters were liv- cause people needed to said. “We had to wait and years, “they’re very very
hoopla that surrounded ing it,” the Lubbock, Texas, find ways to pass the time, wait and WAIT.” well-crafted, the writing is
the Harry Potter publishing resident said. “The wait be- pointed out Erin Pyne, 40, Emma Joanisse can’t really beautiful and con-
phenomenon. For others, tween books was kind of of Orlando, Florida. She imagine that. The 10-year- trolled ... I think that they
though, there’s the slight- like the summers they had should know — her immer- old read the series starting hold up incredibly well.”q