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Cancel your trick or treat plans. Forget your costumes. There’s something more important happening on Halloween: J.K. Rowling is publishing a new 1,700-word Harry Potter story!

Alright, I wouldn’t cancel all of your plans because October 31st is too much fun for that, but definitely find some time to check out her newest narrative starring one the witches we love to hate, Dolores Umbridge.

She’ll be releasing the story on Pottomore.com, so if you haven’t set up an account, I’d get on that. (For the record, I was sorted into Gryffindor.)

Pottermore has over 1 million users and even if the story gets published beyond the site, it won’t be available to everyone. Harry Potter has sold over 450 million books, but not everyone has a chance to read them. Some children will never get the chance to experience the wizarding world because they haven’t been able to go to school to learn to read in the first place.

I know, it’s shocking, I can’t imagine my what my childhood would’ve been like without the Harry Potter books.

My sister and I were so obsessed growing up that my Grandmother pre-ordered every book for us. And of course we each had to have our own copy because there’s no way we would’ve had the patience to wait for the other one to finish reading it first.

As soon as I got my hands on the book, I’d lock myself away in my room until I finished it...48 hours later. Okay, maybe I came out for dinner, but the point is that I spent a major part of my younger years growing up with Harry, Ron and Hermione. An announcement like this gets me so excited because it’s a chance for me to extend that childhood journey once more.

The fact that there are children around the world that don’t have access the wizarding world of Harry Potter, or access to books at all, is deeply upsetting.

Take Malala for example. We’re not even sure if she ever had the chance to read all of them because she was only able to read 7 or 8 books before moving to England. But that’s the problem: books, school and education are not available to everyone in the world. There are so many girls like Malala that have been told they can’t receive an education. In fact, 58 million children around the world are not in school.

As if we needed another reason to fight for education rights around the world, I’d say Harry Potter is a pretty good one. Let’s not stop at getting children into school. Let’s give them a chance to read the books that can mold a childhood because they certainly did for me. Harry Potter might have charms and spells, but there’s a magic to reading that everyone should have the chance to experience.

Jay Gunning

If you want to get involved in the battle against Dolores Umbridge and the other evils keeping children from education, read more about it here.Accio education!

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Alex Vinci

Editorial

Vaincre la pauvreté

Harry Potter spin-off, but 58 million kids won't get to read it

Par Alex Vinci