For Local Potter Fanatics,

New Book Ends Wait

Finally, her wait is over.

Fifth grader Chelsea Fowler arrived at Sand Hill Plaza’s parking lot at 9 am Saturday, one hour before The Book Review opened its doors. Her purpose: to end a vigil of waiting stretching all the way back to November. When the store’s doors opened, the middle gate student was the first one at the sales counter to claim her reserved copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Myriad Muggles – those without magical powers, in Potter-ese – throughout the area stormed bookstores over last weekend as the fourth installment of the phenomenal children’s series hit bookshelves.

Barnes & Noble in Danbury held a Harry Potter party from midnight to 1 am Saturday in honor of The Goblet of Fire’s release. Borders, another bookstore chain in Danbury, opened early Saturday and had games throughout the morning hours.

Here in Newtown, things were a bit quieter, though The Book Review saw a steady stream of children and parents pour through its door, all eager to get their hands on the 752-page tome.

Though closing its Newtown doors, The Book Review still ordered 50 copies of the book for Saturday’s opening, 25 of which were reserved by customers ahead of time.

Chelsea Fowler reserved her copy of The Goblet of Fire in January, and said Saturday morning that she did not think she would be doing much over the next few days except hiding out in her bedroom, reading.

She said she liked the adventure of the books the best. “You never know exactly what’s going to happen,” she mused. “They always surprise you.” They, in this case, being both the main characters and the author, J.K. Rowling, who created the Potter story line some years back while a single mother of one trying to make ends meet in Scotland.

Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s Stone, the first book in the series, was an instant bestseller, followed by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. For a long stretch, all three books occupied the top three notches on the New York Times bestseller list for adult fiction.

Clutching the large hardcover, almost seeming like she wanted to start reading there and then in the bookstore, Chelsea Fowler speculated on the possible plot twists in the new Potter. She said that she had heard a lot of talk about the fourth book, about who dies in the book. She confessed that she heard the ending is quite scary.

“I’m really expecting this is going to be one of the best books,” she said.

That Chelsea heard anything about The Goblet of Fire is surprising, considering the amount of security that surrounded its release in the United States.

Indeed, until Saturday, the book had been one of the best, most tightly kept secrets in the literary world, as agents, publishers, and booksellers were sworn (contractually, at times) to secrecy about such things as the book’s title. Until this weekend, the book was simply known as Harry Potter IV.

Large shipments of the book arrived at book warehouses two weeks ago and remained housed, under tarps and in secured zones, until this weekend’s unveiling.

In Virginia two weekends ago, controversy struck as two booksellers accidentally stocked their shelves prematurely with the new Harry, and sold several copies to lucky literary lovers before realizing their error.

Closer to home, the big Danbury bookstores stocked close to 1,000 copies of the new Harry, and both stores reported selling out of their stock before the morning waned into afternoon Saturday.

“It was hectic, but everything went smoothly,” said Borders Inventory Manager Paul Platt in Danbury. “We did have a line out the door and around the building. One hundred kids dressed up. I’ve been in business 12 year and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“I would use the word ‘unbelievable,’” said John Kloutier, Barnes & Noble of Danbury’s community spokesman. “It’s surprising that a children’s book could generate this much interest. It’s a very good sign. It shows that children are reading.”

And it’s a record-breaking sign.

Experts estimate that the first “run,” or printing, of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will top out at around 3.5 million copies, unprecedented in literary history. Even the most popular authors seldom have first printings that even approach one million.

Working at The Book Review’s counter, behind a pile of Potter books, Hilary Sepe remained amazed at the phenomenon.

“How often do you see this? I mean, armed guards standing around at publisher’s warehouses?” Ms Sepe laughed. “I’m just glad it’s hype over a book.”

That some adults were at The Book Review picking up copies of Harry for themselves is perhaps the most amazing part of the Potter craze. Not only can’t kids get enough of them, adults – from college students to working professionals – find it hard to put them down.

“I like Rowling’s work,” says Newtown resident Evelyn Chen, a student at Dartmouth College. “I think she’s a good writer, and knows what she’s doing. She spins an intriguing tale that draws the reader into the world she creates, and she tells a good story that makes you want to stay there. Her characters are amiable and well-drawn, and her imagination is astonishing.”

Third grader Brian Quinn was also on hand at The Book Review Saturday morning. He said that he had been waiting for the fourth Harry book for most of last year. He sighed, happily, at the sight of the book’s thickness. “I really like how long they are, because I like to read long books,” he said.

As Harry Potter’s popularity grows with each new book, the fact that there will be three more books in the series only promises to bring a repeat in the coming years of the literary hysteria that made headlines this week.

That would be just fine for Chelsea Fowler.

Chelsea, who admits to reading each of the first three Harry Potter books three times, was accompanied by her mother Saturday morning. Barbara Fowler said that she too liked the books, in particular The Chamber of Secrets, and even Chelsea’s father is hooked.

There was some debate in the Fowler family as to who would get to read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire first, Chelsea or her father.

“There is no way he is reading this before me,” she said, ardently.