Screaming Fans Greet Rowling's Open Book Tour
By Sonja Bolle, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 10/18/2007
J.K. Rowling kicked off her Open Book Tour in Los Angeles on Monday, her first appearance in the U.S. following the publication of the record-shattering last volume in the Harry Potter series. The Kodak Theater, site of the annual Academy Awards, was the proper locale for the event, as 1600 schoolchildren—40 carefully selected students from 40 Los Angeles schools—screamed at Rowling’s appearance onstage as if she were all four Beatles. Or, to be more contemporary, as if she were Hannah Montana.
When Rowling announced from the crimson-and-gilt throne onstage that she was going to read a section she called “goodbye to the Dursleys,” there was a collective groan. “I didn’t want to read anything too revealing,” she explained. “And I like this bit.” If the crowd had expected a more action-packed selection, she soon had them in the palm of her hand. The emotion of her chosen passage electrified the theater, which responded with a long “aawwww…. ” to Dudley Dursley’s inarticulate leavetaking with his cousin. They also gave Rowling a big laugh on a tension-releasing funny line. After the reading, Rowling took questions from 12 members of the audience, then signed books Scholastic had provided for all 1600.
Rowling with students at the Kodak Theatre.
The press was given only this one chance at Rowling; the other stops on the tour—New Orleans on Oct. 18 and New York on Oct. 19—will be strictly for schoolchildren and fans selected in a sweepstakes. In 20 minutes with reporters, she had no answer to the question of what she’s working on now, but said she is not turning immediately to the Harry Potter encyclopedia that has often been mentioned among fans. “It’s the first time in 10 years that I have no deadline,” she said, adding that she is enjoying having time with her children. “But I will always write.”
In answer to a question about what genre she might take up next, she said, “Whenever I say I will never do something, I always end up doing it in the next two weeks. So I don’t want to say I’ll never do fantasy again, but I’ve done it. It would be hard to follow up with a fantasy story and not overlap with Harry’s world.”
And addressing a query about the religious references in Deathly Hallows and their possible objectionability, Rowling commented, “I take no responsibility for the lunatic fringe of my religion…. Like Graham Greene, my faith is sometimes that my faith will return.”
Keeping Harry’s secrets all those years has been difficult, Rowling said, telling a story about visiting the Harry Potter movie set one day while she was working on the last book. “I told Daniel [Radcliffe, the actor who plays Harry] that Dumbledore was giving me trouble, so I thought I’d take a break and come visit, and he cried: ‘I thought Dumbledore was dead!’ ”
To win her spot at the Kodak Theater, Janel Pineda of Emerson Middle School wrote an essay about how the Harry Potter books changed her attitude about reading (a writing contest was the method used by most schools to choose participants). In it, the sixth grader voiced the most often-cited reason that parents and teachers are grateful to J.K. Rowling: “I was intimidated by long books, but my friend said I should try Harry Potter. My reading improved from a fifth-grade to an eighth-grade level.”
Answering Questions from Students
Echoing one of the suggested essay questions, Aspen Cole asked if Harry Potter had changed Rowling’s aspirations. “When I write again, I want to fall in love the way I did with Harry,” she replied. “Someone at the press conference asked me what ‘genre’ I want to write in [she gave ‘genre’ the full French pronunciation that only a Brit can deliver with such sarcasm]. I never think about that.”
 One down, 1599 to go: Rowling signs a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for one of the 1,600 schoolchildren who attended the event. |
Jonathan Santa-Ana wanted to know what advice she has for kids facing challenges. “Here’s what I would tell kids,” she said. “Life isn’t neat. You will make mistakes. Everyone does. But there is always a way back.”
Hazel Kasusky asked Rowling if she uses real experiences in her writing. “Hermione is an exaggerated version of me when I was younger,” Rowling told her. “Ron is based on my friend Sean—the second book is dedicated to him. Often you don’t realize you’ve based someone on [a real person] until afterwards. I don’t set out to base characters on people I know, except for Lockhart. Lockhart I barely exaggerated. The person I based him on would never dream it—he probably thinks he’s Dumbledore!”
Melissa Jimenez asked what the purpose was in killing characters. “I don’t kill people for pleasure. There was always a purpose. You can’t show the incalculable evil of murder in fiction unless you kill someone of whom the reader is fond. In Star Trek, when Captain Kirk goes down [to a planet] with a bunch of extras, you know they’re going to die. Dobby’s death takes people by surprise. The ones that killed me were Lupin and Tonks, because they left an orphan. Harry was an orphan, and he becomes Teddy’s godfather. Teddy Tonks will have an amazing godfather, because Harry knows what he needs. Leaving children without families is a heinous effect of war.”
Chanel Smith, who wondered whether Rowling always knew what she would do with Snape: “I always knew. Even now that the books are all out, they’re still quarreling online about whether Snape is a good guy or a bad guy. He isn’t either. To those in love with Snape—and this is a disturbing phenomenon—I say, get your priorities straight. He’s vindictive, bitter, cruel to Harry. He’s not big enough to get over the fact that James beat him. But he did love. I love Snape, but I’d like to slap him hard.”
Rowling will appear at Carnegie Hall on Friday, October 19; look for our report in next week's issue.
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