Jane Yolen Highly Critical of J.K. Rowling

Posted on August 15, 2005

Bestselling children's author Jane Yolen has a few uncomplimentary words about J.K. Rowling in a new interview with Newsweek. She says her Wizard's Hall novel also features a boy wizard who goes to wizard school.

Ms. Yolen says, "I read the first three [Harry Potter books]. The fourth one stopped me in my tracks, partially because even though the story moves along, I just don't feel like they're well written. Besides, I wrote a book called Wizard's Hall [in 1991, eight years before the first "Harry Potter" book]. And there's an awful lot of Wizard's Hall in it [the Harry Potter books]. I always tell people that if Ms. Rowling would like to cut me a very large check, I would cash it. [Wizard's Hall] has got a boy named Henry [who] goes to wizard school, doesn't think he has talent. He has a good friend with red hair. There's a wicked wizard who's trying to destroy the school, and the pictures on the wall move and speak and change. I have kids who write to me all the time and say, 'I thought you had stolen Harry Potter, but my teacher pointed out that you published it eight years before Harry Potter.'"

Ms. Yolen makes a pretty serious allegation about Rowling's work, especially with that comment about being willing to cash a royalty check if such were forthcoming, but there's no word that she is contemplating any legal action.