Harry Potter: North to Alaska

By Stephen M. Silverman

07/28/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Bob Weinstein, the mayor of Ketchikan, Alaska, was outraged when he discovered that J.K. Rowling's publisher, Scholastic Inc., was excluding children in Alaska and Hawaii from entering an essay contest on how the Harry Potter books changed their lives, so he did something about it. In a scalding letter to Scholastic, made public by the Associated Press, Weinstein wrote: "Your company's treatment of Alaskans -- particularly our children -- as second-class citizens reminds me of the colonialist attitude which the federal government often displays to our state and residents." On top of which, Weinstein's daughter, 9, loves the Harry stories. The result: Scholastic has now broadened the contest to include entrants from all 50 states. The deadline has also been stretched, to next Monday. The prize: 10 winners will be flown to New York to meet Rowling. Talk about a magical ending.