Madison Library hosts Potter party
With mystery potions, fortunetelling and plenty of magic, the Madison Public Library was transformed into the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry the night of July 14.
The transformation was in celebration of author J.K. Rowling's last book in the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," to be released July 21.
"Although the idea was a collaboration, Lexie and I were more involved in the planning of the activities and the food. It was our baby," Loucy said.
According to Loucy, the library sold 130 tickets to the party, which they deliberately scheduled between the release of the "Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix" movie and the release of the seventh and last book in the series.
"We knew the Harry Potter mania would be huge between the movie and the book release so we thought we would capitalize on that energy," Loucy said.
Around thirteen volunteers as well as library staff were on hand to make the party successful. They dressed as characters from the book and supervised different areas of the Hogwarts' transformation. Librarian assistant Julia Hendon portrayed Professor Trelawney in the Divination section where she helped children make paper fortunetellers and distributed fortune gumballs. "Trelawney" was often heard asking patrons, "can I predict your death?"
"I was really good at making these (paper) fortunetellers in high school so I chose this section to run," Herndon said.
Other stations included transfiguration origami, history of magic, wizard's duel, and potions. At the potion station, kids made a secret potion out of cornstarch and water, amply named ground dragon bones and unicorn tears. They were also asked to smell potions to identify the contents and make acid pops, a candy from the Harry Potter books.
The potion station was the favorite of seven-year-old Shantanu Kadam who was not able to identify all the secret potions. Kadam has read four of the six books and will read the rest when his mom and dad agree he is old enough to handle the material.
"I came tonight because I just love Harry Potter," Kadam said.
Loucy and her fellow librarians were extremely creative when it came to planning the dinner. BBQ was served as Hungarian Horntail, potato chips as goblin toenails and orange Kool-Aid as pumpkin juice.
"We got a lot of our ideas from a book and then the wonderful Internet," Loucy said.
Party goers were also treated to a craft section where they were able to make wands at Ollivander's Wand Shop, masks at Madam Malkin's Robes, writing quills at Flourish and Blott's and furry animal pals at Magical Menagerie.
The party was just one event the library has sponsored this month to support the Harry mania craze. They have also held book discussions and shown previous released Harry Potter movies. The next book discussion will be on book seven and will be July 27 at 5:30. The library will show "The Goblet of Fire" July 23 at 6 p.m.
"All the events the library has sponsored have been because we are very excited, but very sad about the last book," Loucy said.
Library patrons should not worry about obtaining the latest J.K. Rowling masterpiece. Loucy said the library ordered plenty of copies of the book and it will be on the shelf first thing Saturday morning.
"We do have a hold list already, but we expect to surpass the list with the number of weeks we have ordered," Loucy said.
