Harry Potter Mania!
It seems that every news outlet in the world is scrambling to keep up with the Harry Potter frenzy. And I know you people at home are wondering, "How can I keep up with all of these mildly diverting stories that all rehash the same three or four facts?" Well, friends, wonder no more, for we have gathered those stories for you, in the handy "hyperlink" format, for your clicking pleasure. Please, no applause…it’s what we’re here for.
The Boston Globe manages to find some doom-and-gloom in the story of how the Harry Potter books got millions of kids to read long, complicated books: some of those kids might not be reading much else! (Shock! Horror!)
Continuing the all-Harry-all-the-time drumbeat, the Minneapolis Star Tribune anatomizes the secrets of Harry’s appeal.
And the Arizona Republic ponders the musical question: Will Harry Potter become a classic?
The Austin Statesman-American worries that young fans will abandon books entirely after Deathly Hallows. (Just as millions of Americans have given up on television after the Sopranos finale.)
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has the old-fashioned “interview a bunch of regular people who are waiting for Deathly Hallows” story.
Canada’s Globe and Mail runs through the whole story (Edinburgh cafe, check; worldwide success, check; kids reading, check; vaarious grumblings, check and check) one more time.
The Boston Herald reports on how hard it is for Potter fans to wait for the latest book and movie.
The Kane County Chronicle wonders why Harry Potter is so important to our culture.
Monsters & Critics thinks about what parents, teachers, and other nearby adults should do to console young readers if Harry does indeed snuff it in Deathly Hallows.
SciFi Wire talked to David Heyman, producer of the new Harry Potter movie, about how one character was originally deleted, but re-instated.
SciFi Wire also talked to Daniel Radcliffe, the man who will be typecast as Harry Potter for the rest of his life, how director David Yates helped push him as an actor on Order of the Phoenix.
The UK’s Waterstone’s bookstore chain has launched a campaign to Save Harry!, hoping to convince J.K. Rowling to write more books. (That they can then sell vast numbers of…you didn’t think this was an altruistic campaign, did you?)
Salon staffers and others (including Kelly Link and Elizabeth Hand) gaze into their crystal balls and try to figure out what will happen in Deathly Hallows.