Harry Potter at Home is a new initiative from the Wizarding World team to help everyone add some magic to their daily lives.
As COVID-19 forces many people around the world to stay at home, Harry Potter at Home has been introduced in collaboraton with author J.K. Rowling, Audible, Bloomsbury, OverDrive, Pottermore Publishing and Scholastic.
Find out what #HarryPotterAtHome is all about. https://t.co/n9mZR4hwSJ
— Wizarding World (@wizardingworld) April 1, 2020
A statement from the Wizarding World team says that “for over 20 years now, Hogwarts has been an escape for all – for readers and fans, young and old. During the strange times we now find ourselves in, we want to welcome you back to Hogwarts, where you will find a friendly retreat for you, your amily and those you are caring for.”
Encouraging children to read
Part of this initiative is encouraging people to read for pleasure. J.K. Rowling announced an open licence that allows teachers to read all seven Harry Potter books aloud to pupils. Teachers can therefore record themselves reading to their pupils and share it online.
Delighted to help teachers reach kids at home by relaxing the usual licence required to post videos of themselves reading Harry Potter books. Go to https://t.co/77d90pkiYK to find the guidelines. Be well, everyone. More soon! 💫#HarryPotterAtHome
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 20, 2020
Aubile have also made the audiobook of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone free in six different language (English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Japanese).
The team at Scholastic have published an article on the benefits of reading for pleasure. These include allowing us to discover new worlds, a shared sense of community and learning about different opinions.
A place filled with activities
The idea behind Harry Potter at Home is to create an escape and a friendly retreat whilst people are self-isolating. The hub brings together children-friendly activites, videos, puzzles, quizzes and more. As the hub itself says, “we’re casting a Bainshing Charm on boredom!”
Craft videos will teach you how to draw a Niffler, take a quiz on the first Harry Potter book or try a Harry Potter wordsearch.
The hub will be updated regularly with new activities. This will hopefully help parents, teachers and carers of children to entertain their children. You will even be able to find out which Hogwarts house you belong in on the hub.
Warner Bros and Niantic recently unveiled a new AR mobile game, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite which is due to be released later this year. In the game, the world of Harry Potter is overlayed onto the real world.
