Kids in capes will line up outside bookstores tonight for the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. As anticipation builds, we offer a look at the Potter phenomenon.
By KEISHA I. PATRICK
Published June 20, 2003
[Times art: Teresanne Cossetta]
$29.99: list price of Order of the Phoenix, the fifth book in the series by J.K. Rowling.
$17.99: discounted price widely offered.
6.8 million: copies of book that publisher Scholastic said it initially planned to print.
8.5-million: copies it has printed.
350,000: Copies of the $60 Deluxe Edition.
190-million: Copies of the first four books sold worldwide, according to Scholastic.
188-million: Combined population of France, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Switzerland and Spain.
309: pages in book one.
341: pages in book two.
435: pages in book three.
752: pages in book four.
896: pages in book five.
255,000: words in book five.
1 kilogram (2.2 pounds): approximate weight of book five, according to the Daily Telegraph in London.
$11.99: selling price of a box of 12 Harry Potter Chocolate Frogs on eBay.
628,000: copies of book five customers had preordered as of June 11, according to Amazon.com.
4: book five's sales rank on Amazon as of June 10.
550: copies preordered by Waldenbooks on Tyrone Boulevard in St. Petersburg as of June 10.
300: copies preordered by Inkwood Books in Tampa as of June 13.
55: languages in which the first four books have been printed.
1,078: days between the July 8, 2000, release ofGoblet of Fire and tonight's release of Order of the Phoenix.
3: Christian organizations that give the Harry Potter series a thumbs-up (the Vatican, Focus on the Family and Christianity Today).
15: biblical scripture references www.cuttingedge.org gives to show Harry Potter is satanic.
1: youth programs that use the Harry Potter books to preach "spiritual truths," (Vanguard Church in Colorado), according to the Associated Press.
$26,001: What a first edition of book one sold for at a British auction.
5 or 6: age at which J.K. Rowling wrote her first story, about a rabbit named Rabbit, according to infoplease.com.
