Harry-mania hitting summer fever pitch
USA Today
The Harry Potter drumbeat (never faint, mind you) is picking up again, nudged on by the November movie version of "Sorcerer's Stone." Among the new books expected in the next few months:
- July 31 (Harry Potter's birthday): "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Poster Book" (Scholastic, $6.99) with 15 posters from the movie.
- Aug. 1: "Kids' Letters to Harry Potter from Around the World" by Bill Adler (Carroll & Graf, $18). No other phenomenon — not even The Beatles — has inspired kids to express themselves so well, says Adler, who has done 20 books of kids' letters.
- Mid-August: Pop-ups "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: A Deluxe Pop-Up Book" (Scholastic, $18) and "Harry Potter Hogwarts School" (Scholastic, $24).
- Sept. 11: "The Only Authorized Biography of J.K. Rowling: Conversations with J.K. Rowling" (Scholastic, $4.99) — interviews with Rowling.
- Also Sept. 11: paperback of "Prisoner of Azkaban "(Scholastic, $7.99).
Meanwhile, Publisher Scholastic has distributed 6 million scratch-off cards to booksellers for a Quidditch contest. How it works: Scholastic draws the winning teams each Friday in July (results at www.scholastic.com/harrypotter). The winning team is announced July 27. If your card has the winning team name, then you mail your card to Scholastic for a chance at a drawing — 1,000 winners get a Quidditch backpack.
Phillips Mitchell, 10, of Alexandria, Va., spent the year rereading the series as well as the two Potter schoolbooks ("two or three times"). Her fan letter will be included in "Kids' Letters to Harry Potter." And yes, she got her card for the Quidditch contest.
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" went on sale a year ago. Since then:
- "Goblet" made the Guinness Book of World Records in two categories: most advance orders for a work of fiction (5.3 million copies) and highest initial print run for a fiction book (4.8 million copies).
- The four books in the series continue to sell like magic: about 103 million copies, translated into 42 languages, says Christopher Little Literary Agency.
