MEXICO: Harry Potter finale goes on sale in Mexico City

Euphoric Mexican Harry Potter fans visit bookstore, eager to get a hold of the seventh and final volume in the series and discover Harry Potter's fate. Mexican Harry Potter fans poured into the Gandhi book store in Mexico City on Saturday (July 21) to get hold of the seventh and final volume in the series and discover the secret of the boy-wizard's fate. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" hit the shelves across most of the world at 2301 GMT on Friday (July 20), in a release carefully orchestrated to maximize suspense and sales from Tokyo and New York to Taiwan and Australia's Outback. Dressed as witches, Hogwarts heroes, Death Eaters and plain old non-magical Muggles, die-hard followers from dozens of countries braved torrential rain in London and awoke at dawn in Australia and India to snap up early copies. The book was released in Mexico at midnight, and faithful followers waited in excitement to snap up early copies of the English-language publication. Bookstore employees dressed as wizards carefully took out copies of the long-awaited book from boxes and waved them around before a crowd of cheering fans. Children dressed as their favourite Potter characters used their wands to cast magic spells on other shoppers. One Mexican mother at the bookstore said she is sad to see the end of a series she felt was good for her children. "Sadly, books for children were for fools. They were very silly and lacked dynamism," Luzana Davila said. "These books are very dynamic, they speak the same language that children understand and they allow the child to grow with the series, that's wonderful," Davila added. Gandhi bookstore organised a series of events for shoppers, including film showings, competitions, Harry Potter book readings, games and magic tricks performed on stage by children. A child magician performing at the bookstore said Harry Potter was an ideal role model. "I think that Harry Potter is an example for all because he teaches us values and wisdom," said Oscar Javier. But not all in Mexico city were pleased with the release of the new book. One Roman Catholic priest said the series allowed the devil to enter children's lives. "If you put all of those ideas into a child's head, that he can become a wizard, they believe this and the devil can get in. If the child starts doing what Harry Potter and his school does, the child believes this," said Father Pedro Mendoza. But the book has largely been greeted with great excitement, which comes despite plot leaks on the Internet, some of which proved to be genuine when compared with the hard version. A mistake by one U.S. online retailer also meant up to 1,200 copies were sent to buyers several days early. Author J.K. Rowling, 41, said she was "staggered" when two U.S. papers ran reviews on Thursday (July 19), and on Friday (July 20), France's Le Parisien published a short summary of the final book's epilogue, printing it upside down to give readers a chance to look away. The leaks and spoilers have been a major headache for Potter publishers, who spent millions of dollars trying to keep the book's contents a secret. Twelve million copies have been printed for the U.S. market alone, online retailer Amazon.com said its global pre-orders hit a record 2.2 million, and "Deathly Hallows" is tipped to become the fastest-selling book in history. Rowling staged a special midnight reading from "Deathly Hallows" to 500 children at London's Natural History Museum. Just 13 years ago she was an unemployed single mother, without a publisher or agent, but is now the world's first dollar billionaire writer after the success of her first six novels and the Hollywood movies based on them. The six books, dating back to 1997, have sold 325 million copies and the first five movies in the film franchise have amassed around $4 billion at the global box office.

ITN Source | July 21, 2007

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