Posted: 02/14/07

Harry Potter gets ready to hang up his robes
July 21 release date set for final installment of the Potter series

Rachel Haven | fact checker
rhaven@smcvt.edu

On July 21, 2007, quidditch, Gryffindor, muggles, potions, spells, and all things magical will come to a close in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final installment in the Harry Potter series.

J.K. Rowling, the author of the books, announced the release date on her Web site shortly after revealing the title of the highly anticipated final novel.

The Potter phenomenon

Booksellers are already taking preorders for the final Harry Potter Installment due out July 21. (Izabela Socha, photo)

Booksellers around the nation are already accepting pre-orders for the novels, and most are planning midnight release parties for fans who can’t get their copies soon enough.

“It’s a huge event that the last one is coming out,” says Jane Knight of Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Vt. “We have about 20 pre-orders so far — last time we had in the hundreds — so we expect it to pick up once the word gets out.”

Junior Maribeth Fonda is planning on attending the midnight release party at Barnes and Noble in South Burlington.

“I’m very excited for it to come out and I’m going to go get it at midnight when it is released,” Fonda says. “I did it for the sixth book. They were handing out Harry Potter glasses. So I now have two sets of these big plastic, black, Harry Potter glasses.”

With the release of the last book, in the fastest selling series of all time, local booksellers are preparing for the rush with fully-stocked shelves.

Josie Leavitt, of the Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vt., says they are preparing for the high demand.

“We’ll order around 800 books,” Leavitt says. “The majority of those will sell in the first few days.”

Local libraries are also gearing up in anticipation of readers hoping to check out the book to avoid the purchase price.

“It’s extremely popular with both kids and adults. We buy at least 10 copies of every [Harry Potter] book that comes out,” says Beth Wright, children’s book reviewer and Youth Services Librarian at Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, Vt. “We have long waiting lists for the books every time. We’ve already started a waiting list for the new book.”

So far there’s only one name on the list — and its not a child.

The lone name on the list is, “not only an adult, but she’s a senior citizen,” Wright says with a chuckle.

Sparking interest

Although it is labeled as children’s fantasy, the series has made its way to the nightstands of a multitude of avid adult readers.

“A thing that appeals to adults is J.K. Rowling is so good with language,” Wright says. “She is really creative. There are zillions of imitators out there now and precious little who are anywhere close to how good she is.”

The final novel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," hits bookstores exactly ten years after the first Potter book was released. (Izabela Socha, photo)

Besides being a form of entertainment, the Harry Potter series has helped reluctant young readers discover the joy of reading.

“The Harry Potter books themselves are an easy sell, even for kids who aren’t crazy about reading,” Wright says. “Once they’ve read them, they see the excitement about them... They’ve been a great thing for children’s reading.”

St. Michael’s senior Brigid Guarino says she didn’t start reading the series until high school because she dismissed the books early on.

“At first I thought it was just a silly little fantasy world of magic tricks,” she says. “But when I picked up the first book, I couldn’t put it down... I just got absorbed in this whole world.”

But not everyone is as enchanted as Guarino. Junior Vinny Mannering lists Harry Potter on his Facebook profile under the heading, “Books I hate.”

“The reason I don’t like it is because it’s billed as a great science fiction or fantasy novel and its not. It’s poorly written,” Mannering says. “It’s a decent story and it translates well into a money-making machine, but in terms of a work of literature, it doesn’t hold up to much of anything beyond basic children's books.”

Novel secrets revealed

As always, the contents of the novel are shrouded in secrecy. However, Rowling has revealed two characters will die in the final installment.

“If nothing happened to Voldemort, evil would triumph over good, which is not something you find most of the time in literature,” Guarino says. “I’m interested to see if she would tend to stick to a safer conclusion, or if she will really be true to herself and unique in her ending.”

Fonda and her friends discuss the many different options Rowling could use for her ending.

“One theory that we have is that both Harry and Voldemort are going to die,” Fonda says. "I hope definitely that Voldemort dies. You can’t leave the magical world in danger forever - I want them to be on the mend.”