Greg Perreault

Town-Crier

7/18/05

Word Count: 666

On Friday, July 15, the Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince release party drew to a close at the Barnes & Noble Wellington branch and hundreds of people joined together to countdown like it was New Year’s Eve.

But according to Community Relations Manager Lauren Pfretzschner, the event might have been even more significant than a new year.

"This is the biggest publishing event in the history of publishing," Pfretzschner said.

According to Barnes & Noble, Inc., Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince sold 1.3 million copies in the first 48 hours and 378,000 copies in the first hour. Pfretzschner was unable to share how many books the Wellington branch sold its first weekend due to store policy.

Pfretzschner said Friday’s party united children, teenagers and adults in celebration that had about twice as many people as the release party for J.K. Rowling’s last book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Pfretzschner added that in Wellington, more people attended Harry Potter’s book release than the signing of Hillary Clinton’s autobiography Living History.

The fans enthusiasm was evident when many of them arrived in Harry Potter t-shirts or dressed as book characters like Professor Sprout, Nymphadora Tonks, Hermione Granger and, of course, Harry Potter.

Pfretzschner said the store provided fake lightning-scar tattoos, face-painting, wand building, Harry Potter trivia sheets, scrabble sheets, a "Bertie Bott" jellybean counting contest and "of course we had a lot of coffee for the parents."

This was a night when parents didn’t mind if their children stayed up to midnight. Parents praised the influence of Rowling’s books on their children.

Four-year Royal Palm Beach resident Donna Holmstock said her children were inspired to read at a young age because of the Harry Potter books.

"It just takes a certain type of book to make a child fall in love with reading," Holmstock said.

But the children who read the first book are now teenagers. Pfretzschner said the group she saw this year was older than the group she saw for the release party of the previous book.

"These kids grew up with Harry Potter," she said.

Elizabeth Mobley, a 10-year Wellington resident, read the first Harry Potter book in eight-grade and now she’s preparing for college at University of Florida. She came dressed in green bowler hat and purple shoes to imitate Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic in the first five books.

Mobley attended the release with several friends including Katie Noe, a seven-year Lake Worth resident who didn’t like reading until she read the Harry Potter books. Since then, she read Eragon, the Lord of the Rings trilogy and several other books.

Pfretzschner said part of the Harry Potter phenomenon is that the release of a book in the series also causes higher sales in the young adult fantasy genre. She added that the store prepared for that by setting up the discounted Spiderwick Chronicles and the Charlie Bone series with the Harry Potter books.

Though the genre is called "young adult," kids and teenagers aren’t the only one fascinated by the Harry Potter books. Roy Bernstein is a seventh grade science teacher at Polo Park Middle School and he said he enjoys the magic of the Harry Potter books.

"I pick it up and can’t put it down," said Bernstein, a 14-year Wellington resident.

Pfretzschner said she brought home a copy of the book for her husband and joked that she hadn’t seen him since.

One-year Boynton Beach resident, Jason Ault came to Barnes & Noble wearing a t-shirt that said "Muggle"—Rowling’s term for those who aren’t gifted with magic. Though an adult, Ault said he deeply enjoyed the books.

"It’s easy to read," Ault said. "It’s not like homework."

But for some readers, Rowling is homework. Teenager Kellie Brandenstein aspires to be a writer and she said she’s learned from the books.

Brandenstein said she’s always liked fantasy but the Harry Potter books have mystery genre aspects and a style that she really wants to learn.

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