Wizard Makes the Sun Rise on Readers

Fifteen hours after being the first person in line at the San Marino Toy and Book Shoppe to receive a copy of the new Harry Potter novel shortly after midnight, Ryan Bowers had finished the 652-page book.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for this,” he said Saturday afternoon. “It’s always instantly a relief to pick up the story. It’s always real cool.”

Bowers, 18, was among thousands of eager Potter fans throughout Southern California who lined up late Friday to get first dibs on “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth in J.K. Rowling’s series about the teenage wizard with the lightning mark on his forehead and the hope of the magic world on his shoulders.

As the wizarding and witching hour descended early Saturday morning, booksellers across the region cracked open carefully guarded cardboard boxes. At precisely 12:01 a.m., a San Marino Toy and Book Shoppe employee handed Bowers -- whose mother had staked out a place in line for him at 6 p.m. -- the green-and-purple book. Harry Potter fans, lined up for almost an entire city block, marked the moment with loud cheers and applause.

In Burbank, more than 1,000 people were given wristbands as if they were buying tickets for a rock concert rather than a book at the local Barnes & Noble.

In Irvine, employees of A Whale of a Tale, clad entirely in black for the occasion, distributed about 300 books with ballet-like precision. Flashes burst as parents snapped photos of their children picking up the family copy.

All of this was to get a first crack at the penultimate novel in a seven-book series that has become a phenomenon, selling more than 270 million books worldwide.

In the tradition of serialized works by Dickens and Trollope, the books have relied on intricate plot twists to keep the fan base engaged as Harry, and his readers, get older. More than 10 million copies were printed for “Half-Blood Prince’s” first run.

The midnight release offered a special opportunity for the readers of Harry Potter, especially those preteens and teenagers who began listening to their parents read the books aloud and now demand their own copies of each new volume. Here, at last, was a parent-approved chance to stay up late, if not all night.

In Burbank, a “midnight magic” party at Barnes & Noble included the chance to have fortunes told by a store employee who looked a lot like Professor Trelawney, mail letters via Owl Post and even try out a version of the famed Sorting Hat. (If you have to ask about any of those, you’ll never make it off Platform 9 3/4 .)

Adam Goldman, 14, arrived at the event wearing the traditional uniform of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: gray sweater over white shirt, striped tie and a floor-length magician’s cloak, which his mother said she had spent the last week making. His sister Rebecca, 11, wore a short skirt and white knee socks.

In Adam’s case, a pair of Merrell athletic shoes peeked out from under the cloak. But he looked every bit the young wizard nonetheless.

Adam received a set of the first three books for his 8th birthday. He said he planned to spend the rest of the night reading. His mother nodded her approval.

By 12:02 a.m., Harry Potter fans were tearing through the book as if it were a package of Chocolate Frogs.

Friends Tia Gill, Katelyn McCarney and Tory Holland, all 14, had planned an elaborate system for plowing through the 30-chapter book Saturday. They estimated that it would take them 17 hours or less.

According to their detailed plan, each girl had to finish a chapter and discuss it with the others before they would move on to the next chapter. There would be no napping.

“We’ve already informed our parents that we have no life but Harry Potter,” Tia said at the Burbank Barnes & Noble before the book was released.

The friends, who finish one another’s sentences and have known one another since elementary school, procured wristbands placing them among the first 100 people in line.

By the time the sun rose in Burbank, they were almost halfway through the book.

“We’re very, very, very active when it comes to Harry Potter,” said Katelyn around 10 a.m. She said the books had transformed her from a child who hated reading into an avid bookworm.

Asked whether she liked “Half-Blood Prince” so far, Katelyn answered that she was enjoying it. “But we’re scared, nervous and anxious -- surprised and shocked,” she said, referring to the plot twists that she and her friends had encountered so far. “It feels like it’s been turned upside down,” she said.

“There’s a lot more personal drama. A lot more,” she said.

Bowers, who got the first book at the San Marino store, called the revelation of details in “Half-Blood Prince” about the childhood of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named “pretty interesting.”

Like many teenagers, Bowers has grown up with Harry Potter, reading his first Potter novel when he was in junior high. Now, recently graduated from Monrovia High School, he said he had devoured each of the series’ first five books, reading all 870 pages of the fifth one, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” in a little less than 11 hours. Before the midnight release of Book Six, he said, he had reread the first five.

Bowers said he managed a short nap midway through the book Saturday, setting his alarm to continue reading. A little tired but otherwise content Saturday afternoon, he said he was impressed with the book and would probably start it again today.

For many of Harry’s teenage fans, the book’s attraction rests in Rowling’s ability to weave intricate plot twists into lives that seem remarkably similar to their own.

“I love how the books take real problems that kids have, like teenage angst and boy-girl friendships, and illustrates them through fantasy,” said Rachel Arias, 16, who stood in line in Irvine with four friends, their striped scarves and long gowns inspired by the books. The group stayed up all night together to complete the book, finishing early Saturday afternoon. Rachel read aloud to her friends in the car on the way home from the bookstore.

Hours later, her friend Ariella Wilk said she was happy they had decided to pull the all-nighter.

“It’s really good,” said Ariella, 17. “I think it’s a lot more personal than the other books. A lot of the questions that have come up in the first five books have been answered. You go into depth with a lot of the characters you want to know more about.”

Friend Cate Neuhauser, 17, said she was unprepared for the book’s ending, which she called “an oh-my-goodness moment that the whole series leads up to.”

What happens, she said, “is totally bad. But really powerful. I can’t wait for the next one.”

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Times staff writer Claire Luna contributed to this report.