‘Harry Potter’ E-Mail Just A Spoof

The Onion has struck again.

Here’s how I know: A reader from Colville, Wash., called on Wednesday to alert me to an e-mail that is making the rounds. The electronic message is a call to arms about J.K. Rowling and her “Harry Potter” series.

What the e-mail alleges is this: The books promote Satanism. “This is the most evil thing I have laid my eyes on in 10 years,” wrote one respondent, “and no one seems to understand its threat.”

What threat? Well, charges the e-mail, some children are turning away from Christianity and are embracing the Potter books, which involve an otherwise ordinary pre-adolescent English boy - except that he is studying witchcraft.

The e-mail quotes a child who supposedly said, “The Harry Potter books are cool, ‘cause they teach you all about magic and how you can use it to control people to get revenge on your enemies.”

But that’s only the beginning. Other children ostensibly make disparaging remarks about Jesus, members of satanic groups are quoted and even Rowling is supposed to have told the London Times that her books “guide children to an understanding that the weak, idiotic Son of God is a living hoax.”

Wow. Pretty strong stuff.

Only one thing: It’s a hoax itself.

The quotes all come from The Onion (www.theonion.com), which is a parody of “news.” It is both a Web site and printed humor magazine that runs stories under such headlines as “Naderite loyalists nuke dam,” “Naked Scottish weathergirls” and “Give the gift that keeps on hurting.”

“My husband and I have read all the books to our children,” the reader - who asked to remain nameless - said. “I couldn’t believe that we missed these supposed references to satanic glorification.”

That’s because she didn’t.

Brooke book hailed

Gabriella Brooke’s novel “The World of Bernfrieda: A Chronicle of Hauteville” (Eastern Washington University Press, 304 pages, $18.95 paper) has been named one of the “Notable Novels of 1999” in the 1999 Dictionary of Literary Biography.

Brooke is a professor of modern languages at Gonzaga University and an EWU creative writing graduate.

Book clubs

Inspirational Readers Group, 7 p.m. Monday, Valley Hastings, 15312 E. Sprague (924-0667): “Byzantium,” Stephen Lawhead.

Friends of the Cheney Community Library Book Discussion Group, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 610 First St., Cheney (235-4490): “Grand Opening,” John Hassler.

For writers only

NorthTown Barnes & Noble creative writing workshop, 7 p.m. Tuesday (482-4235).

The poetry corner

Valley Barnes & Noble, south of Spokane Valley Mall, open poetry reading, 6:45 p.m. Tuesday (922-4104).

What’s your signing?

Charlotte Greene (“Recalled by God: A Love Story”), signing, 1 p.m. today, Valley Hastings.

Steven Hughes (“The Wolf of Albion”), signing, 3 p.m. today, North Side Hastings, 7706 N. Division (483-2154).

Niki Anderson (“What I Learned From God While Gardening”) and Ruth McHaney-Danner (“What I Learned From God While Quilting”), signing, 3 p.m. today, Lincoln Heights Hastings (535-4029); 7 p.m. Friday, Shadle Hastings, 1704 W. Wellesley (327-6008).

Gladys Dawson-Buroker (“Wind in My Face”), signing, 7 p.m. Thursday, Valley Hastings.

Jeanne Savery (“The Christmas Gift”), 7 p.m. Friday, NorthTown Barnes & Noble.

Brian Wizard (“Nigerian 419 Game Scam - Game Over”), signing, noon Saturday, Shadle Hastings.

Luella Dow (“Fire in Her Soul”), signing, 1 p.m. Saturday, North Side Hastings.

Bill Elston (“120 Years of Inland Northwest Sports”), signing, 4 p.m. Saturday, North Side Hastings.

Spokane Local Author Group, signing, 1 p.m. Saturday, Valley Hastings.

Elaine Elliott (“Daughters of the Reservation”), signing, 4 p.m. Saturday, Valley Hastings.

The reader board

Richard Myers (“The Carpenter’s Son, Book Two”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).

Terry Davis (“Presenting Chris Crutcher”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

Robert Ellis Gordon (“The Funhouse Mirror: Reflections on Prison”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

Joanne Bovey (“Survival of the Wittiest: Bedtime Stories for Teachers”), signing from 2-5 p.m. and reading at 7 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.