Potterpalooza!

At the beginning of this school year I had the opportunity to act as a special guest advisor at one of the schools I regularly visit for their very first meeting of their Harry Potter Club.  Consisting of students in grades 4-8, the kids voted on club roles and the first task was to brainstorm and come up with club activities.  Now I am a total Harry Potter fanatic and could not be happier that Potter madness is a thing again.  Of course it's super depressing that it has been TWENTY years and makes me feel really old, but I can get over that.  In working with the kids and competing in rousing and highly spirited rounds of Harry Potter trivia, I knew that I needed to start a club at my public library.  My motives were mostly altruistic.  There was a tiny bit of Slytherin ambition and cunning to do it purely for me!

So I had the idea for starting it in the spring, and I wanted to co-run the club with our teen librarian.  Problem is that when I was entering programs for spring, there wasn't one.  We were in the middle of hiring one.  Wasn't going to stop me.  I was bound and determined that my enthusiasm would be contagious and whoever that person would be would not only help but indeed make it a little magical.  As if I conjured the magical spell myself, our new teen librarian, Sarah is someone that I actually hired as my children's assistant years ago.  Our dream of one day working together as children's and teen librarians came true!  Best of all, she's as nuts about Harry Potter as I am!  Together we have joined Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw forces and started something that has already become something special at our library.

With two successful meetings under our belts, we've already had a blast coming up with activity ideas.  So far we sorted everyone into their houses thanks to Pottermore, visited Ollivander's where we got to custom design our own wands, and looked for our house spirits for clues to help us figure out Dumbledore's office password during a mini escape room I created for the occasion.  Once unlocked, they were able to make awesome portrait crafts with Sarah.  At some point I need to get more organized and really put some example files together because I know that we are going to be doing A LOT of super fun things!  Until then, here is a pic of some of our craft examples!