Children dressed as wizards wait outside Waterstone‘s bookshop in central London for the launch of „Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,“ 20 June, 2003. Potter cast his spell on the world once more on Friday as bookstores and parents prepared for the midnight rush to snap up the latest of J.K. Rowling‘s five books on the boy wizard. REUTERS/SINEAD LYNCH

LONDON – Millions of parents around the world can look forward to a quiet weekend — Harry Potter is back and his latest wizard saga is the longest yet. Kids starved of a new Potter adventure for three years can gorge themselves on 255,000 words in „Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,“ the weighty tome that hit bookstores on Saturday, 21st June. British author JK Rowling, who has almost single-handedly taught a whole generation of children the joys of reading, was 30 million pounds ($50 million) richer overnight. Her fortune already dwarfs the wealth of her compatriot Queen Elizabeth.The statistics are staggering. The first four Potter books have sold almost 200 million copies in 55 languages and 200 countries. Now, 13 million copies of the latest adventure have rolled off the presses in a massive print run. With publishers turning Pottermania up to fever pitch, „Harry 5“ as it is known in the industry will probably become the fastest-selling and most profitable book of all time. Critics may carp that the bespectacled wizard is suffocating under a mountain of marketing hype. A survey conducted by J.P. Morgan in the United States suggested that the gap between books could pose problems with Rowling‘s fan base who may have grown older and deserted her for other authors. But few could argue that Potter – backed by two films that have grossed $1.8 billion worldwide – has become a phenomenon for publishers Bloomsbury in Britain and Scholastic in the United States. From Alice Springs in the outback to Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australian bookshops have been decked out with cobwebs, broomsticks, wizard hats and cloaks. In South Africa, where new books are beyond the means of most people, Pottermania has even eclipsed the popularity of the country‘s favourite son, Nelson Mandela. In one Johannesburg store, 900 copies have been ordered. New Zealand is marking the launch by attempting a new world record for the longest ever children‘s book reading. The bid, lodged with the Guinness Book of Records, should take 27 hours. Hong Kong is staging a Harry Potter carnival, while Chicago‘s public library system has bought 800 copies to promote summer reading among poorer kids. Tahe book‘s launch has been veiled in secrecy. New York‘s Daily News was sued by the publisher and the author after the tabloid published excerpts from the book. A Canadian woman bought a copy at a Wal-Mart store near Montreal which had inadvertently jumped the gun. She has refused to hand the book back despite pleas from the publisher. Almost 8,000 copies were stolen from a warehouse in northern England. The public were warned that anyone who tried to sell or buy the book before Saturday could face criminal charges. But what of the author? Rowling, 37, admitted that she even considered breaking her arm to escape the pressure of writing the latest in the planned seven-book Potter saga. And she was so upset about killing off one of the main characters in the latest book that she burst into tears. Reuter