Potter mania

Last Sunday night, 13-year-old Tania Stolt was forced to the dinner table at her family's Palmer home, and told if she didn't eat, she wouldn't be allowed to read. And that's where Harry Potter has kids these days -- immersed in books, shunning just about every other activity around for a few days.

When the book officially went on sale at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, hordes of kids and adults finally got their hands on the book that has the entire world talking. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth in author JK Rowling's tremendously successful series, has been a long time coming, and Stolt, like many others, wasn't going to wait any longer. She opened the cover on the ride home, and she has yet to shut it.

"I'm about halfway through it already," Stolt said. "It's a really good book. It's just as good as the other Harry Potter books. I don't really have a favorite one because I like them all."

Stolt's mother, Jolene Stolt, said her daughter has been laying on the couch doing nothing but reading since they picked up the book early Saturday morning at Fred Meyer.

"We actually have had to remind her to eat," Jolene Stolt said with a chuckle. "She's totally into it. Our phone rang all day Saturday. Tania and her friends kept calling each other to see where they were at in the book. It's like it's a race or something."

The book is setting all kinds of sales records around the world (see related story). It is No. 1 on every best seller list, after only a weekend's worth of sales. Barnes and Noble, one of the nation's largest bookstores, reported to the Wall Street Journal that they sold 1 million copies in the first 48 hours. In the first hour of sales, the store sold 286,000 copies, or 80 every second. Similarly, amazon.com reported shipping a million copies around the world on the release date.

Bookstores around the country hosted special Harry Potter parties to cash in and give customers a chance to get their books at the earliest possible time.

In Palmer, Fireside Books teamed with downtown businesses to host an extensive Harry Potter scavenger hunt late Friday night, with books going on sale at the stroke of midnight. The scavenger hunt picked up again on Saturday morning, much to the delight of young Harry Potter fans from around the Valley.

Other stores opened early Saturday to let customers get their Harry Potter fix. Nearly every store that sells books had a Harry Potter promotion -- from costume contests to giveaways. But it's the book kids are talking about this weekend.

"I've been waiting for this for a long time," 11-year-old Gregg Thomas said. "They are my favorite books. I wish they could write one every week. I read a lot of books, but these are my favorite. No other books are as good as the Harry Potter books are."

At nearly 900 pages, the book should keep readers engaged for a while.

"It'll take me a week to read it I bet," Thomas said. "I'm going to see my grandma and grandpa in Washington next week and I want to be done with it by then."

Part of the charm of the books, readers say, is that they appeal to a wide audience -- from children to adults. As many adults were waiting to get their hands on the fifth installment of the series as were children.

"I've read them all," Shanen Cartwright of Palmer said. "We buy one book and when Shawn [her 14-year-old son] gets done I read it and we compare. They're great stories. They are about a fantasy world, and kids get into that. It's something they can dream up in their imaginations."

Cynthia Grove said she, too, has read the first four Harry Potter books, and she was looking forward to starting the fifth book as soon as she could.

"I think they are as much adult books as they are children's books," Grove said. "I read the first two books a couple years ago after everybody I knew was talking about them. I had to read them to find out what the big fuss was all about. I bought the third and fourth books to read right after that," Grove said.

Anything that gets kids to forget about their Playstation2 or Xbox and gets them to start turning pages instead is a blessing, many parents say.

"It's a lot better than sitting in front of the television for hours at a time playing those stupid games," Stolt said. "If it can get my son to stop playing video games and pick up a book, it's got to be a good story."

There was a three-year break since the release of the fourth book, and fans are hoping there won't be quite as long to wait for the next one, which is already under way, publisher Bloomsbury said.

"I'm not even done with this one and I'm already waiting for the next one," Shawn Cartwright said.