Celebrating Harry’s 10th Anniversary

Many Harry fans came to the read-a-thon in costume.

On September 1, 1998, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was released in the U.S. Since it was the first book of the series, no one was eagerly anticipating its release, as they did for the more recent installments, so there was no fanfare. Now that the book has been out for 10 years and has sold over 120 million copies, Scholastic decided to celebrate the aniversary with an all-day read-a-thon at its headquarters in Manhattan. Hundreds of Harry Potter fans sat in J.K. Rowling’s throne (the one she read from at Radio City) and read, bit by bit, the entire book over the course of the day, as thousands more fans watched via a live webcast from home or school. read more