By Staff
Muggle children by the millions were visited again by a magical spell in the wee weekend hours.
It's no wonder boy wizard Harry Potter bears that bolt burned into the orphan's forehead by his parents' killer, Lord Voldemort, the Darth Vaderish "He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named."
J.K. Rowling lightning has struck six times now.
Who else has the imagination to turn stories about a boarding school where a boy and his friends Ron and Hermione learn to cast spells and ride brooms and create a phenomenon that has outgrown the first fans of these clever, increasingly darker and more complex "children's books?"
Even the Beatles couldn't sustain their magical mania for seven years, but when it's Harry's birthday, the midnight parties remain an event that eclipse the normal release of a new book in any genre.
Critics who lash out at the seven-part series as encouraging youngsters to witchcraft miss the point that the student wizard is a heroic foe of old-fashioned evil and idolized by librarians everywhere for his ability to wave a wand and get everyone away from the Internet, video games and Ipods for some low-tech reading.
Yes, the hype by Harry's American publisher, Scholastic, is shameless, with the media reporting breathlessly on elaborate security arrangements - "The Daily Show's" Rob Corddry even spoofed that angle as if the books get out, the terrorists win - but it somehow seemed more subdued than the last two releases. Maybe we're just conditioned to it.
But then we weren't the kids who could download a countdown clock on their computers to know the precise moment when to line up for the opportunity to purchase an imposing tome with a $29.95 list price.
When you consider the short shelf life of fad boy bands, from the Beatles to the Backstreet Boys, because of their fickle female fans, this sustained wildness about Harry is even more impressive.
And these fans are hungry. They haven't had a fix since 2003.
Children who thrilled to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in 1998 have come of age as adults, but it wouldn't be "Potter-palooza" without parents perusing pages, too.
Potter, "Star Wars" and another "War of the Worlds" prove there is always be an appetite for epic struggles told well.