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from my ABCNEWS.go.com
Harry Potter Revealed
Lucky Few Snag Early Copies
of 4th Harry Potter Book
Ad cover for the new Harry Potter book. The latest installment in the
fictional young wizard's adventures goes on sale July 8 - although some
people have managed to get their hands on advance copies. (Amazon.com)
July 3 - Despite the publisher's best efforts to keep its contents a secret,
the eagerly awaited fourth book in the Harry Potter series fell into the
hands of a few lucky people.
Laura Cantwell, 8, got her hands on an advance copy after a family
friend picked up Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at a Fairfax, Va.,
bookstore. It seems a clerk failed to realize that the book, the fourth in a
series that has already sold nearly 21 million copies in 35 languages, has
been embargoed until July 8.
Another Virginia bookseller, a Richmond Wal-Mart, also mistakenly broke
the embargo, allowing about 20 books to be sold. Meanwhile, booksellers
around the world are sitting on 4 million copies of J.K. Rowling's latest,
and they's expecting them to go like hot cakes on July 8, which could be one
of the biggest days in bookselling history.
Laura's father, Tim Cantwell, said he didn't realize what he had until
he brought the book home and gave it to his daughter.
"I gave it to my daughter and she flipped out. She said, 'Dad, do you
realize how huge this is?' . then she said, 'Dad, am I going to be in the
newspaper?' And I thought for a second . and said . 'Wouldn't that be cute?
'"
'You Can't Put It Down'
Cute is one way to describe the international frenzy created by a book
series that has reporters from London to China suddenly wanting to know what
a 14-year-old fictional character - an orphaned wizard named Harry Potter -
is going to do next.
In the Richmond suburb of Chesterfield County, 10-year-old Caitlin
Streett has been reading the book and filling in her friends on the details.
Here is Caitlin's review: "Well, the first 10 pages are pretty boring
but then it grabs you and you can't put it down." . Caitlin and her dad,
Gene Streett, found the book at their local Wal-Mart while they shopped for
glue.
"We were doing papier maché crafts. And we walk in and it was like,
'Whoa! Harry Potter!' There was a big display with some other books," said
Streett, a high school teacher.
Book Parties
Streett paid $12.97 for the book, which lists for $25.95. A Wal-Mart
spokesman said the store mistakenly put the books on the store shelves and
removed them as soon as it realized they weren't supposed to be there. About
20 books were sold.
"This is purely an isolated incident based on a mistake that we made,"
said Rob Phillips, a spokesman for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores
Inc.
Scholastic Inc., the U.S. publisher of the Harry Potter series, has
been extra careful that no books are sold before the official release date.
In September of last year, some Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
books, the third in the Harry Potter series, were sold before the official
release date.
To make sure that didn't happen this year, Scholastic Inc. required
booksellers around the country to sign a contract saying they wouldn't sell
any books prior to the distribution date.
Cantwell said he isn't revealing the name of the bookstore that sold
him the book because he doesn't want to get anyone in trouble. But once word
leaked out that his daughter had a copy of the much-sought-after book, the
family's phone and the doorbell started to ring with greater frequency.
A few friends "have called and asked about it," Cantwell said. "They
want to come over and look at it and read it with her. I guess, I don't
know, maybe there's a little jealousy there."
Many independent bookstores plan to open their doors at 12:01 a.m. on
July 8 and hold special Harry Potter parties.
Advance orders have flooded bookstores. Amazon.com made a special
arrangement with FedEx to overnight the first 250,000 copies of the book so
people could avoid the long lines.
Through July 2, Amazon has received more than 285,000 advance orders
for the new book - a record for the online bookseller. The previous record
of 58,000 advance orders was held by John Grisham's The Brethren, released
in March of this year.
While kids might be the ostensible target of the Harry Potter series,
adults are also awaiting the 700-plus-page novel of magic and mystery. The
publisher reports that 43 percent of the Potter books sold last year were
read by people over age 14.
Asked to give a preview of the contents, Cantwell declined. "I really
don't want to talk about the book. I think it would be unfair."
ABCNEWS.com's Claire Moore, ABCNEWS Radio's Andy Field and The Associated
Press contributed to this report.
Karen DeFrank, LMS
Dorothy Bullock Elementary School
Glassboro, NJ, US
defrank@voicenet.com
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