Harry Potter Bridges All Ages
(Originally published in The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle on July 22, 2007)
Featured on the front page of the Sunday edition of The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
DIVERSE GROUPS GATHER TO CELEBRATE RELEASE OF FINAL TALE
By Alex Shebar
Twittering around the room in her costumed schoolgirl attire, Lena Weinstein couldn’t stand still. She was jittery, running on zero hours of sleep — for instead of resting, she’d been reading.
It was 11 a.m. Saturday, and Weinstein had been up all night reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and last installment in J.K. Rowling’s series. She bought the book at 1 a.m. — waiting in line at the Pittsford Barnes & Noble bookstore with hundreds of others after the midnight release — and finishing it at 7 a.m.
From there, it was off to a celebratory brunch in honor of the novel.
“A book like this doesn’t come up ever,” said the 18-year-old from Pittsford, who will be a freshman at Ithaca College. “In the age of TV and the Internet … it’s cool how something as old fashioned as a book can just completely get the whole world (involved).”
The release of the last Harry Potter book brought together people of all ages to simultaneously mourn and celebrate the culmination of the 10-year series.
There were lines into the parking lots at bookstores across the area — indeed, across the country — and people even stood in two-aisle long lines at some Wegmans stores as the most widely anticipated release of any book in history took place.
This camaraderie around the coming-of-age series was nowhere more apparent than at a Saturday morning party held by the Harry Potter class of the Oshier Lifelong Learning Institute at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Seated around the multiple tables of Keenan’s Restaurant in Irondequoit, worn and weary witches and wizards happily ate a hearty brunch, rejuvenating themselves after staying up till the early hours to purchase the book.
Some dressed in full costume, while others wore their muggle — in other words, normal street clothes. But they all had one thing in common: the love of the book.
“One person told me there are two important places they go in life: one is church and one is her Harry Potter class,” said Jeanne
Sandholzer, 63, of Rochester and the professor for the class.
“It’s formed such a bond between children and adults, it’s one of the first books that I know that has done that.”
The class is on the myths, legends and themes in Harry Potter. It’s been running for eight years, covering one chapter a week. Members also have watched the films together, listened to the books on tape and even celebrated Harry’s birthday every July 31.
The class has about 35 participants from different walks of life, all of whom are older than 50. There are former psychologists, ministers, scientists, teachers, doctors and even one retired CIA agent.
It’s quite a group, Sandholzer said.
“It’s time we had something that appealed to everyone. Parents can share it with their kids and their parents. It’s wonderful,” said Mary Santoro, 75, a retired school counselor from Brighton. She has been in the group since it began.
Sitting in on this event was Karen Morris, 57, a law professor at Monroe Community College and a Brighton town judge. She is nearly finished writing the book Lessons in Law and Life from
Harry Potter’s Adventures that examines the legal aspects in J.K. Rowling’s world. The book should help educate children about the law, she said.
“Everyone learns better when you identify new material with facts you know and like, and everyone likes Harry Potter,” Morris said.
While the party mostly consisted of the more than 30 members of the class, many underage wizards and witches attended as well. About 20 people ranging in age from 7 to 40, mostly relatives of people in the class, including Weinstein, also eagerly discussed the book with their elder counterparts.
“There’s not a lot of stuff you can talk about with other generations. You can talk about old movies or Harry Potter,” Weinstein said. The novel is a worldwide phenomenon, having sold a combined 325 million copies in 64 languages.
For the latest installment, retailers such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Borders reported that more orders have been placed for this book than for any other in history, and American Publisher Scholastic announced an initial print run record of 12 million copies.
People of all ages had camped outside of stores for hours waiting to get this book. Jenna Murray, 7, of Victor said she went with her cousin, Grace Meise, 6, to the Borders in Victor “because we want the books, our moms want the books and our dads want the books.”
The celebration at the Victor store was just one of many that took place over the weekend. All the area Barnes & Noble and Borders stores, and independent sellers such as Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport and Long’s Cards & Books in Penn Yan, held their own Potter themed events. All in anticipation of getting a copy of the novel.
“Stop and think about what J.K. Rowling has done for literacy,” said Penelope J. Robinson, community relations manager for Barnes & Noble in Pittsford. “Kids who have never read before are standing hours in line to get this book and then going home and burying themselves in their bed and reading it.”
Others celebrated the book in a more personal way. Meg Deller, 19, a Wegmans employee from Rochester, said she was going to a party with a few friends to read the novel together.
“It’s the very last book and the last thing we get to enjoy,” she said. “It’s really happy even though (the book) is called The Deathly Hallows.”
Managers from local Barnes & Noble, Borders and Target stores would not give out local sales figures, only saying that they had enough books to get through the first day and hopefully the weekend. Each said their corporate offices would be issuing national figures by today. Independent stores were more forthcoming with information.
Lift Bridge had sold about 200 copies, while Long’s in Penn Yan had sold almost double that. The Wegmans store on Hylan Drive in Henrietta had sold 500 of its 600 in stock, and had requested an emergency stash of 100 more books to get it through the weekend.
Every store sold more copies for this book’s opening weekend than it had for any other in the series, managers said.
Retailers are not the only ones riding the hype. Both branches of the Irondequoit Public Library held activities Friday afternoon. The Pauline Evans and the Helen McGraw branch, as well as the Monroe County Library, had more than 10 people reserving the latest edition before it was released, and each library will have about seven copies available.
Everyone in the world has been eagerly waiting this book, said Ruth Otto, children’s librarian for the McGraw Branch.
“It’s not just a kid’s book. It’s for every generation,” she said. “Teenagers, adults, even my 92-year-old mother-in-law. She was hoping she would stay alive until the last book was written.”
