Harry Potter at Home

The new Harry Potter at Home project is a collective effort by Bloomsbury, Scholastic, Audible, OverDrive, Pottermore Publishing, and WizardingWorld.com to bring the magical world of Harry Potter straight to you during these troubling times.

For over twenty years now, the Harry Potter universe has been a comforting and immersive place for all readers, whether old and bald or young with scabby knees. To welcome everyone at home back to Hogwarts, multiple initiatives have been put into action to add a touch of Harry Potter to our daily lives.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Audiobook is Free for All

The first book of the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (or Philosopher’s Stone) will be available in audiobook form for free on Audible’s new platform, stories.audible.com, along with many other classics. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is available to listen to in six different languages and will be narrated by Stephen Fry as opposed to the U.S. version by Jim Dale. Bring on the British accents!

Additionally, the first Harry Potter book will also be made free in its digital form (e-audiobook and e-book) to all OverDrive library patrons. Users will be able to borrow the book from participating local and school libraries, including OverDrive’s Libby app and the Sora app for schools, through the entire month of April.

Teachers can now read the Harry Potter books aloud

J.K. Rowling and her agents, The Blar Partnership, have announced an open license that allows teachers to record videos themselves reading from any of the seven Harry Potter books and virtually share it with their pupils online. Thanks to the relaxation of the usual copyright permissions needed, teachers anywhere in the world are now able to post videos of themselves reading onto schools’ secure networks or closed educational platforms from now until the end of the school year. A full set of guidelines can be found on jkrowling.com.

Bringing Hogwarts to You

In order to help banish boredom, the Harry Potter at Home hub, a new website specifically designed for Harry Potter at Home, has been created. There, fans will be able to find many activities to occupy their time, such as magical craft videos, drawing tutorials, word searches, puzzles, quizzes, articles, and more. The website also has a section dedicated to first-time readers of Harry Potter, where they’ll be able to familiarize themselves with the characters and Hogwarts castle. Be sure to go on over and check it out!

~ posted by Cindy Z., Roosevelt High School; and Julia D’A., Garfield High School

As part of their teen service learning project at the Northeast Branch, Cindy Z. and Julia D’A. wrote this blog post highlighting free access to Harry Potter during the month of April. Students interested in finding out about teen service learning opportunities at their local library branch should inquire once libraries are back open.