McPherson area kids were introduced to the world of wizardry, Tuesday at the McPherson Public Library.

McPherson area kids were introduced to the world of wizardry, Tuesday at the McPherson Public Library. Pottermania!: Harry potter Wizard Training, was an event conducted as part of the summer reading program for teens in grades six through 12.  
The library’s youth services assistant, Abby Bohnenblust, transformed the library into a world of Hogwarts houses, Ollivander’s Wand Shop and Professor Minerva McGonagall’s spell casts.
“I’m a big fan of ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,’” Bohnenblust said. “I got a lot of ideas from the Internet. The wand making I found on Pinterest.”
When the 14 young wizards and witches arrived, they were given a quiz to discover in which house they belonged. While Gryffindor was the most coveted of the houses, by the end of the “sorting” there were students in each house. Once their houses were announced, they were each given a scarf of the house colors and a ring sporting their house crest. During the sorting, the students enjoyed a feast of “golden snitch balls” (gold-wrapped Lindt truffles), “Slytherin snakes” (gummy snakes), “Hufflepuff cheese puffs,” “Ollivander’s wands” (pretzel sticks) and butterbeer.
In order to be a proper witch or wizard, a wand is required. Bohnenblust led the students to Ollivander’s Wand Shop (tables with the necessary items) where everyone made their own wands. The wands were decorated with hot glue guns and then painted to give the appearance of carvings.
Faces were made as Bohnenblust led the group in trying Bernie Botts Every Flavor Beans. These jelly beans, mix everyday flavors like banana, blueberry and cherry with a more disgusting variety including black pepper, Earwax and rotten egg. First they all tried the beans with blindfolds on and tried to guess which flavor they were, some of the more interesting ones eaten were sausage, vomit and booger.
“It was an interesting ordeal,” Bohnenblust said. “It’s a little weird to eat a sausage-flavored jelly bean.”
With wands in hand, Bohnenblust led the class in learning some spell casting. After learning the words to different spells used in the movies and books, students chose their dueling partners. They dueled with one another to come up with the best spell the fastest.
The culminating event was the scavenger hunt. The hunt led the groups around the library in search of items used in the various books and movies. The goal was for each house to find the items the fastest, winning the house cup.
“I love interacting with all the different ages of kids in events like these,” Bohnenblust said.
The Pottermania event coincidentally happen to fall on the same day the Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling released a Harry Potter short story on the website dedicated to the Potter world, The story features the iconic main characters of the Harry Potter saga now in their 30s. The Pottermania event was not intended to be conducted in conjunction with this release, but happened by coincidence.
The finale of Pottermania will be a MuVChat showing of the first movie “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” at the library at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. MuVChat allows viewers to interact by texting comments about the movie that will appear on the screen.
Call the McPherson Public Library at 620-245-2570 for more information.

Contact Teri L. Hansen by email at and follow her on Twitter @HansenSentinel.