Rowling Sends Potter Books to Syrian Girl in Aleppo

A young girl who regularly tweets about books, and her daily life, from her home in the war torn Aleppo, Syria now has a set of digital Harry Potter books after author, J. K Rowling answered a plea on Twitter.

Bana Alabed likes to read so she can forget about the war, and now she has some new reading material thanks to the Harry Potter author.

Bana’s mother Fatemah tweeted the Harry Potter author to ask where she could get copies of the books. Bana has seen the movies, but not yet had a chance to read the books as it’s difficult to get your hands on anything, let alone literature in Aleppo. Rowling immediately answered the plea by digitally sending the entire series to Bana to read on her mobile phone.

We hope the books, and other books she reads really do help to take Bana’s mind off the war, the young girl has already seen more than any child should. Living in the centre of Aleppo under a barrage of bombings, Bana has already seen her friends house get bombed, and her friend killed, her school has also been bombed making education difficult for the young girl.

Daily life in Aleppo is difficult and Bana has become a prolific tweeter, giving an honest and stark view of life in the war torn city where she lives with her brothers, mother and father. More recently Bana has been tweeting pictures of her reading Harry Potter to her brothers from her phone, and hopefully the books will give her at least a virtual escape if not a real one.