I must say, All For Kids knows how to throw a Harry Potter party. Not that I’ve ever been to one before. Actually, this was my first one. But I wanted to make sure to get a copy tonight so I could start reading right away–I mean, I work with a bunch of fantasy fans; did I really think I could make it through Monday without hearing a spoiler?–and I wanted to support my local independent on this, given the magnitude of impact this was going to have on independent booksellers (independents in Britain even said they wouldn’t carry it because they’d actually be paying to sell it, because other retailers were discounting it so much).

So there were so many kids there. It was really great to see all those kids, boys and girls, standing in line discussing their predictions and their reading habits. Three boys I stood next to in line, who were all roughly 10-12 years old, were talking about speed reading and comparing notes on whether, if reading a book for fun and not school, they’d go slowly and savor the book (those were one boy’s words) or speed read to know what happens. No reluntant readers, these guys. 

There were kids running around with some awesome Harry Potter paraphernalia, including some great Quidditch robes, but my favorite were the two 6 year olds in tshirts like this one

which will definitely be on my Christmas list for my nephews this year! (And I’m thinking for the 11 year old all the way down to the 3 year old, it works.)

As you can see from the pictures above, my bag of HP goodies included not only book 7, but a witch hat and a coupon for 20% off any book at All For Kids, as well as some bookmarks and a baggie of Bertie Bott’s Everyflavor Beans (which, by the way, ugh; I’m not into the idea of biting do
wn on a disgusting-flavored one).

There had to have been a couple hundred people there tonight, much larger than I expected for this tiny little store–as many as I expected to see at any major chain store. And they did it so efficiently–when you called to make a reservation for the party, they took credit card numbers, which meant that they didn’t have to ring up 400 books the night of, just hand out tickets and check names off the list. It was a very smooth operation.

Now, I’m off to read. We’ll talk again when we’ve all read!