Staying Up Late with Harry Potter

Last Friday our family adventured the the land of Barnes & Noble for a magical Harry Potter: Deathly Hollows book release party. Elora, who is eight, has read the entire series but we have never participated in one of the all night events. Since this is the last book, and thus our last chance, we decided to take all of the kids.

Around 7:00pm Corby arrived at the store straight from work and stood in line to receive a bracelet. Each bracelet would designate the order in which you could go to the register at midnight and buy the book. The line stretched from the front door of the bookstore and far around the side of the store.

I didn't arrive with the kids until 8:00pm. We had strategically planned to drive two cars and all the kids were showered and ready for bed (they youngest two wore their P.J.s).

At the party there was a costume contest and although we didn't participate, we enjoyed seeing children and adults dressed as the various characters from the book. Surprisingly, there were not that many dressed as the namesake, Harry Potter. Here are a few favorites.

The kids were all able to enjoy activities including: hatching dragon eggs, making their own wands, a puppet show and trivia. At 10:00pm I brought all of the boys home and Corby and Elora stayed to be sorted into their "houses" and mix their own potion (with colored sand).

At 1:00am father and daughter arrived home with the new book in hand.

Elora fell promptly to sleep, but read the first chapter before she got out of bed the next morning. She is currently on chapter 9 and is very proud to have stayed up so late with all the die-hard fans.

I am so glad that the kids had an opportunity to see so many people enthusiastic about a book.

I don't have a single memory from my childhood to compare it to! I can vaguely recall reading Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary books as a child. Back then, many girls were really into The Babysitter's Club series, while most of the boys preferred the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books. There was no literary achievement that transcended so many lines as the Harry Potter series.

My mother compared the book fans to the late 70's early 80's fervor associated with the Star Wars movies, but then again, the whole point is that this is a book. Hopefully this excitement about reading will make an impression on the boys, even though they have only seen the movies and haven't read the books for themselves. Eventually, I hope they will read all the books and perhaps they will remember that they were there that night.