HERUSATUS

The Herusatus is a lovely creature to behold: lightning-quick with an intelligent eye and a delightful hum of its wings. There’s nothing like watching flocks of the Herusatus in September as new students from primary school through university start their year of reading and writing. However, the Herusatus is known as something of a nuisance among students, teachers, writers, librarians and bookstore proprietors as it does not just eat words: it devours them. A single Herusatus has been known to chew through 300 pages of words in one feeding and many students are known to cover their books with “graphic novel” covers as a protection and repellent. It digests reference books, word puzzles, and games, and other things in writing, and spits out synonyms, anagrams, and terrible puns… which of course are of no use to students.

The Herusatus will also eat scrabble or banagram tiles, NY Times crossword puzzles, magazines or even instruction manuals. As of yet the species does not seem to be able to access words in digital formats, prompting many schools to encourage the use of digital or audio books to save on expensive yearly replacements. As digital words are impermeable to the “matriculate” charm, many people eschew digital formats and insist on keeping scrolls and books despite the annual loss of materials. The “Feed the Herusatus” contingent believes the school systems should simply absorb the loss as part of the cost of doing business. Other contingents believe schools should keep paper books and scrolls but put budget into developing a Herusatus repellent charm. The debate has put the Herusatus in the middle of an education policy debate in the magical world.