Why does Potter cast a spell?

Nina Muslim speaks to Dubai's Harry Potter fans and bookstore managers to analyse the publishing phenomenon.

Workmen at the Dubai Air Cargo Terminal unload heavy boxes from a plane. Security is tight. No one is allowed to be in the unloading area without a pass.

"We're under very strict embargo. We're not even allowed to unpack it. It just comes in and gets locked away," said Linda Park, book division senior manager at Magrudy's Enterprises.

The boxes contain over 10,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth instalment in the seven-book series by J. K. Rowling.

A few days earlier, another plane delivered 5,000 copies of the same book, bound for Book Corner's five stores in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.

The same security precautions were taken then, according to Deira City Centre Book Corner general manager Juzer Kasubhai.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is not only the most secure new book in the world.

It is also the most-awaited sequel to the fifth Potter book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Pottermania peaks

Less than a week to go before the scheduled launch date of July 16, Pottermania is peaking around the world, with launch parties planned in many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia.

The UAE is no different. Many children and adult fans are expected to stay up late to attend the sixth Harry Potter book launch party at the Magrudy's bookstore at Deira City Centre on July 16.

One of them is Colin Royston Jobe, a general manager at a car rental company, who will be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as he waits for the bookstore to open in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

"I'm a 50-odd-year old child," said the self-confessed Potter addict.

Another Potter fan in the UAE, Joan Allison, is not going to the launch party, although she would like to. She said she couldn't convince her husband to drive to the shopping mall at 2am.

"He just gave me a look and said ‘What?'," said the grandmother of five, laughing.

She added she would instead pick up her copy of the book at 7am at a bookstore close to her home on the launch day.

All this fuss over a children's yarn about a 16-year old English orphan in his sixth year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

But, as a bookstore sales manager observed, this was something "totally unique to Harry Potter and Pottermania".

The Potter magic

The appeal of Harry Potter stretches far and wide, with sales for the latest Harry Potter book expected to break all publishing records.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is likely to break the first-day sales record of five million for the last book, which was released in 2003.

Banking on the success of the series, US publisher Scholastic announced a record-setting first-run total of 10.8 million books.

In total, 259 million Harry Potter books have been sold globally, making them the most successful children's books in the 21st century and series' creator Rowling "the first billion-dollar author" in the world, according to Forbes magazine.

The series' UK publisher Bloomsbury also reported a year-end profit of "not less than 20 million pounds", largely due to the Potter-effect.

And trading of its shares has increased in expectation of the book's successful launch.

A price war has erupted in Britain as stores compete to pull in as many Potter addicts, slashing prices and offering free gifts to sweeten the deal, according to media reports.

On-line retailers have announced record-breaking pre-sale figures: American on-line bookstores Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com recently announced sales topping the one-million mark.

And in the UAE, over 1,500 people have placed their orders for the latest adventure of the young English wizard-in-training.

Strong appeal

"Harry Potter captures my imagination," said Allison. She had pre-booked her copy of the book over a month ago. I bought the book with my grandchildren in mind, but I know I will read it before I give it to them," she added.

Jobe, who pre-booked three copies bound for his daughters, said the appeal was in the characters as well as the storyline.

"There are people and situations in the books that we can relate to," he said.

He added his experience of being bullied when he was younger made him especially sympathetic to the relationship between Potter and his Muggle (non-magical people) cousin, Dudley Dursley, who bullies the boy wizard mercilessly.

Jobe also thinks the books are good for children, especially as the characters mature along with the reader.

"The books are midway between innocence and reality. It's a gentle way of showing kids that there is evil in the world," he said.

As for Park, she has her own theories for the success of the Potter series. In her position as a senior manager at a book retailer and wholesaler, she has seen many books come and go.

"The books are very well-written. And Rowling is very good at keeping people in suspense. People buy the books to find out what happens next," she said.

What happens next is anyone's guess, and guess they did. Bloggers on Internet chat forums have varying theories over the identity of the half-blood prince and what the book will contain. Almost everyone, it seems, is excited over the release of the next book.

Anti-Potter

Not all have fallen under Potter's spell, however. Many Christian fundamentalists, mostly from the United States, persist in trying to ban the series, claiming the books were an evil influence on children.

And a councillor from North Ireland recently urged paren