CHILDREN'S BOOKS Just wild about Harry

Libraries and bookstores alike anticipate a Harry craze like never before.
By JOHN SKENDALL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Can you feel it in the air? It's not the humidity, it's Harry Fever. And it's sweeping Valley bookstores, libraries and homes.
The Harry Potter children's book series by J.K. Rowling has cast a spell on youth, teens and adults since it began with a modest 50,000-copy release of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in 1998.
The fifth installment of Rowling's Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," is being hyped in a way suitable for "Matrix Reloaded." Scholastic's initial printing for the children's fantasy book is a record 6.8 million copies, an unprecedented show of confidence on the part of booksellers.
At 896 pages, the anticipated -- no -- celebrated new release in hardback Saturday will likely be followed by a hush blanketing the country, the only sound the flipping of pages. At playgrounds and parks, and even teen hangouts: Silence. In normally bustling homes: Silence.
How big of a deal is it? The book's publisher, Scholastic, has spent between $3 million and $4 million in marketing and advertising alone.
The witching hour
Borders Books on Niles-Cortland Road and Barnes & amp; Noble Booksellers on Boardman-Poland Road are holding all-night parties, starting at 10 p.m., that lead up to the book's sale at 12:01 a.m., the first minute the book can be sold.
Three years have passed since the release of the fourth book in the magical series, "Goblet of Fire." Anticipation has been boiling over for the next adventure of young orphan and wizard-in-training Harry Potter.
Publishers have huge expectations for success. The fourth book had an initial printing of around 3 million copies, half of the number for "Phoenix."
Scholastic's suggested selling price is $29.99. The "deluxe" edition, cloth-encased and gold-embossed, will cost $60.
The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County has had reserves on "Phoenix" for a year and a half -- before the title of the new book was even known. The library will have 75 copies available to lend, and multiple audio recordings on cassette and CD. This is the largest first order of a book the library has placed, said Jo Nolfi, manager of children's services.
There were close to 100 holds on the book as of Friday.
To keep sufficient numbers available, the library has accumulated 90 copies of the previous Harry Potter titles, sometimes at the expense of getting other books in hardback.
Renewed interest in reading
Harry Potter mania: It's nothing short of craziness. But is it really so bad that kids of all ages are willing to give up sleeping and eating to -- dare we say it -- read a book?
Nolfi, who oversees the children's section of the Youngstown and Mahoning County public library, perceives no drawback in the renewed interest in reading among children and early adolescents.
It's been "something so wonderful to watch," said Nolfi, who said there has been a marked increase in young patrons' enthusiasm for books since the series' release.
She said kids come in droves to the library to read children's fantasy novels, a genre renewed in popularity by "Sorcerer's Stone" and the other Harry Potter titles. Area libraries and bookstores have kept lists and displays for other fantasy books for those who read Potter and can't get enough.
Even boys in upper grade school, who Nolfi said often lapse from library reading, have been showing up and checking out books with fervor.
The mania is going on at large chain bookstores Barnes & amp; Noble and Borders now through the June 21 release. Area libraries are holding Harry Potter readings.
Children are begging their parents for quick purchase of a book that is more than 255,000 words long.
Is this for real? Maybe we're in the Matrix, after all.
Or maybe kids are just magically drawn to the unplugged, page-turning fantasy phenomenon of Harry Potter.