Pottermore Publishing and Audible join Scholastic and Bloomsbury in donating over 200,000 Harry Potter™ books and Full-Cast Audiobooks, with Stephen Fry and Jim Dale audiobook editions available to all from 1st September.
This Back to Hogwarts, Harry Potter magic is coming to more readers and listeners than ever before through the global Harry Potter reading and listening campaign: ‘The Magic Starts Here’.
Throughout the months of September and October, the audiobook editions of the first Harry Potter book, narrated by Stephen Fry and Jim Dale, will be available to listen to on the official Harry Potter YouTube channel, Audible, Amazon Music and Spotify with no paid subscription required. Excitingly, the YouTube release marks the first time listeners outside of North America will have the opportunity to listen to Jim Dale’s theatrical and award-winning narration.
Additionally, more than 200,000 print books and full-cast audiobooks of the first Harry Potter story will be donated to schools, libraries and hospitals. This campaign is being supported by Pottermore , Bloomsbury and Scholastic, together with Audible and international publishing partners.
In the U.S., Scholastic is gifting 100,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone through its school channels, including to schools in underserved communities. Pottermore and Audible will match this donation, with the full-cast audiobook edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone being distributed to 100,000 Book Clubs-affiliated teachers nationwide. In the UK, Bloomsbury will donate copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, supported by a matching full-cast audiobook donation by Pottermore and Audible, to charities and partners including Read for Good, The National Literacy Trust, Give a Book, Sky, The Trussell Trust and Book Aid International. We hope these donations allow even more children to discover the story that started it all and begin their reading journey through the Harry Potter series.
Along with these donations, Pottermore will be expanding library access in the UK by lifting digital waitlists on all of their eBooks and single-voice audiobooks – in all languages – allowing even more readers and listeners to borrow the story from their local library throughout the month of September.
We’re so pleased that more fans than ever before can delight in the first Harry Potter book, whether for the first time or anew on their platform of choice. At Pottermore, we are constantly striving to make storytelling more accessible and are thrilled to participate in this global reading and listening campaign, spreading magic far and wide this Back to Hogwarts.
