Friday, April 02, 2010

J.K. Rowling to Read at Easter Egg Roll April 5, 2010

Obama coaches a little girl in last year's Egg Roll

Update April 5: See video of J.K. Rowling reading from the first Harry Potter book here.

This year's Easter Egg Roll starts at 7:45 am eastern and ends at 5:45 pm. Last year the Obama family kicked off the event and this year, they will do the same. In the afternoon, Obama is also slated to throw out the opening day pitch at Nationals Park. The Egg Roll festivities will be live streamed at WhiteHouse.gov:
It has just been announced that J.K. Rowling will be reading at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, April 5...LIVE from Washington, D.C.!

The White House hosts an Easter Egg Roll each year on the White House lawn, bringing families together for storytelling, music, sports, cooking, and of course, egg-rolling. And speaking of rolling…Rowling will be reading to the lucky families in attendance (really, really lucky!), and you can follow @Scholastic to stay in the know!

Rowling will be reading from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at two separate times (1:30pm to 1:45pm ET and again at 2:00pm to 2:15pm ET) on Monday, and will be answering questions from kids. The whole event will be streaming live on whitehouse.gov, and we’ll try to bring you as much info as we can as it happens. Read more at Scholastic
Others reading at the Storytime Stage, according to Lynn Sweet, include: Reese Witherspoon, Apolo Ohno, Mariska Hargitay, Dylan and Cole Sprouse, Elmo and Maria of Sesame Street and Betty DeGeneres. You can read the whole press release from the White House on the day's events here.

The AP has a good story about the history of the Egg Roll here.

Photo: White House pastry chef Susie Morrison decorates chicks for the Easter Village at the Egg Roll