August 2, 2016

Here’s How Much Everyone is Freaking Out about the New Harry Potter Book

It’s not actually a book. It’s a play. But whatever, it’s Harry Potter.

Fans queue to receive a copy of the book of the play of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child parts One and Two at a bookstore in London, Britain.Neil Hall/Reuters via ZUMA Press

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When I was a preteen I was so obsessed with Harry Potter novels that I spent New Year’s Eve on a Harry Potter message board. In fact, that’s what I did for most of my winter break: my family wasn’t the vacationing type and I was too young to really go out, so for countless hours I stared at my computer talking to other HP fans. (This was back when message boards were still a thing and avatars mostly consisted of cribbed celebrity photos.)

My obsession eventually died out, but going to see the last Harry Potter film, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” in 2011 was still a bittersweet affair for a 20-year-old. It felt like both a farewell to a drawn-out childhood passion and the beginning of accepting the reality that there would no longer be any more Harry Potter books or movies to look forward to. I was, finally, an adult.

But now Harry Potter is back. Kind of.

Earlier this summer, a new play featuring a middle-aged Harry Potter, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” previewed in London to rave reviews. On July 31—coincidentally Harry Potter’s and J.K. Rowling’s birthday—the script was released as a book, just like in the good old days, at midnight with hundreds of fans flocking to bookstores to get their hands on the first copies. The script, written by Jack Thorne and based on a story by Thorne, J.K. Rowling and director John Tiffany, has garnered praise from some critics and mixed reviews from others, but it’s also led to a collective spewing of joy, tears and fervor over the latest Harry Potter adventure.

See some of the best reactions below.

J.K. Rowling saddened a number of fans when she announced at the play’s premiere that Harry Potter is “done now.” But at the very least, a new movie based off a book in the Harry Potter universe, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” opens in November.

And will I be rushing out to get the new script? Not yet. But still knowing there’s a chance to revisit the series has given me a chance to time travel, back to my adolescent days of commiserating with other Harry Potter fans on message boards.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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