September 4, 2019

Anna Murray 

A rare incident occurred in August that Father Dan Reehil, who was Pastor of the St. Edward Church and School, a Catholic high school at Nashville in Tennessee of the US, wrote in an e-mail to teachers and students’ parents of his decision to ban Rowling's all 7 books of Harry Potter from the school’s library.

In his e-mail, Father Reehil believed the curses and spells used in the novels were real. The ban was intended to avoid the threat of conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the curses and spells. The ban seems controversial in the world today and can be regarded as an obstruction to people's freedom of belief in the US. It is a daring decision from Father Reehil and his school, too.

Joanne Rowling, well known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, published a novel series chronicled the peculiar lives of a young wizard and his friends at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The novels included the first novel of the Harry Potter series “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” from 1997 and 6 sequels until 2007, which has sold more than 500 million copies as the best-selling book series in history. Meanwhile, the original 7 novels were adapted into a film series of 8 movies which received worldwide popularity from audiences and overwhelming ticket sales in cinema.

Photo:Webshot.