J.K. Rowling to Appear in Live Global Webcast; Scholastic to Launch Harry Potter Reading Club for Young Readers

New York, NY July 31, 2012 -- Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, today announces a live webcast with worldwide bestselling author J.K. Rowling on October 11, 2012, and the launch of the Harry Potter Reading Club, an online destination created to share the magical world of Harry Potter with a generation of new readers. The live webcast is presented by the new Harry Potter Reading Club from Scholastic at www.scholastic.com/hpreadingclub.

At 12:00 noon ET (9:00am PT / 5:00pm GMT) on Thursday, October 11, J.K. Rowling will participate in a live virtual author visit to classrooms across America to discuss the world of Harry Potter including Pottermore (www.pottermore.com), an exciting, free online experience that offers Harry Potter fans the chance to explore and discover exclusive new writing by J.K. Rowling as well as immerse themselves in other interactive content and community activities.

The October 11 webcast will be broadcast live from J.K. Rowling’s hometown of Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the first time she has had the opportunity to answer questions from kids live since 2007. Educators can sign up to join the webcast beginning today at www.scholastic.com/hpreadingclub.

The new Harry Potter Reading Club website provides educators, librarians, after school program coordinators and parents who want to organize a book club with access to all the tools they need to host a Harry Potter Reading Club and celebrate the joy of reading. The first 10,000 registrants for the Club will receive a welcome kit including bookmarks, stickers and nametags. Printable versions of these items will also be available for download from the website.

“Scholastic has been in conversation with educators, librarians, and other book lovers about ideas for bringing the Harry Potter books to new readers in exciting and different ways,” said Ellie Berger, President, Scholastic Trade. “The Harry Potter Reading Club is a direct response to that feedback and provides an entry point through which the thrill of these books can be shared with new generations of Harry Potter fans both within and beyond the classroom.”