Rowling visits US in Open Book Tour

LOS ANGELES—J.K. Rowling made a rare U.S. appearance, reading at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood in front of scores of wand-clutching would-be wizards and witches.
Seated on a gold throne with plush red cushions, Rowling read Monday from the seventh and final of her novels on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” She then took a dozen pre-selected questions from the dressed-up and dazzled kids and teens. To accommodate a crushing demand for tickets, Rowling’s American publisher sent a “sorting hat” like those used to divide students into houses in the novels to 40 randomly selected Los Angeles schools. Forty students from each school were then selected from the hat.
Rowling said the gimmick was meant to avoid the sort of madness she faced in a previous U.S. appearance. “Things had gotten a little unmanageable signing-wise in the terms of the numbers who were turning up,” she said, “but I really missed being able to interact directly with readers.”—Agencies