7-Year-Old Harry Potter Fan In War-Torn Syria Gets Books From J.K. Rowling

A seven-year old fan from Aleppo in Syria received her very own set of Harry Potter books from author J.K. Rowling after the latter found out from the social media that the girl was a fan of the series. Bana Alabed, who already has 100,000 Twitter followers, has been posting videos of the day-to-day occurrences in Aleppo including the bombings and how reading books has helped her to forget this war.

Aleppo is at the forefront of the war in Syria with over 300 people killed in just over a week after the bombings resumed according to CNN. Amidst the war, the 26-year old Fatemah created for her daughter Bana a Twitter account that would allow her to share their life in Aleppo. The five-year Civil War has affected education in the area but Bana and her two younger siblings three-year old Noor and five-year old Mohamed get their education straight from their mother. The two are also Harry Potter fans.

Scholastic said the Harry Potter series narrates the adventure of young orphan wizard Harry Potter who was left in the care of a wicked uncle and aunt. It turned out that the feared Lord Voldemort attempted to kill Harry when he was a baby. While his parents were killed in the process, Harry gets a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt. His magical adventure starts when enters the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and befriends two other wizards, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

Sorcerer's Stone which was the first in the series, was published in 1997. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last of the seven novels in the series, landed in history as the fastest selling book. So far, the series has sold more than 400 million copies and have been translated and can now be read in 68 languages.

J.K. Rowling's team had a difficult time figuring out how to send the book to Bana and make sure she gets them. Telegraph said they finally decided to send the Harry Potter ebooks to Bana and sure enough, she thanked her friend J.K. Rowling on Tweeter and told her that she got them.