A group of British trauma surgeons from Oxford’s John Radcliff Hospital had a hunch . . . . kids love Harry Potter right? And Harry Potter encourages kids to read . . . Correct? So . . . . let’s look into playground injuries, or “musculoskelatal injuries”, if you want to get technical, to see if kids are REALLY reading more.

And the result?

Harry really knows how to work his spells. On the weekends when two of the titles — “The Order of the Phoenix” and “The Half-Blood Prince” — were released, emergency-room attendance rates for kids aged 7-15 dropped by nearly half compared to “normal” weekends. From 36 and 37 kids, respectively, upon the days of release, down from around 67 kids normally.

“Both these weekends were in mid-summer with good weather. It may therefore be hypothesized,” the doctors concluded, tongues firmly in cheeks, “that there is a place for a committee of safety conscious, talented writers who could produce high quality books for the purpose of injury prevention.”

I wonder how many injuries are the result of kids slapping each other upside the head with the aforementioned books . . . . those weapons are hefty!

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