You’ll find that our centerpiece Monday is a story about the last book in the Harry Potter series hitting the stores in Bloomington. We often run features as centerpieces in our paper because they lend themselves to good photography and other art, but rarely, if ever in my time at IU, have we put a book in the middle of the first page of our paper.

However, we felt that putting Harry Potter, in all of his wizarding might, at the center of the page was the best option available to us for several reasons.

First, it has been some time since a book or series of books gained the fame, popularity and cult following that Harry Potter has.

Second, we felt that the worldwide impact the release of J.K. Rowling’s last book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” has had merited a place on the front page.

Finally (and perhaps most importantly), many of our readers were the first to pick up and appreciate Harry Potter books. People of college age right now were in elementary and middle schools when “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” was first published in 1997. They formed the backbone of the Harry Potter fanbase at its beginning, and have continued to follow the series through its conclusion.

We felt that putting Harry Potter centerstage in our newspaper represented not just an important story to the Bloomington community and a nice feature-piece about the popularity of a seven-book series, but also because the final Harry Potter book spells an end to what turned into an 11-year saga of ups and downs for many young readers who grew into adulthood with Harry and his friends.

As popular author Stephen King wrote in a column for the magazine Entertainment Weekly, the “Harry Potter Generation” may feel saddened for more than just a series of books when they reach the last page of book seven.

“When they close the final book, they will be in some measure closing the book on their own childhoods,” King wrote.

I’ll admit it is unorthodox, as I said, to have something like this as our centerpiece. But this type of phenomenon is rarely seen in popular culture, and for that reason we felt it fair and important to give such coverage to a book about a young boy who comes of age with a wand in his hand.

Beyond that, we hope you enjoy our paper. We only have four more and the Welcome Back Edition to put together, so stay with us through Aug. 6 as we continue to bring you your IU news, and have a great rest of the summer.

Though we are currently in the newsroom putting together a paper for July 5, we felt it necessary to take a moment and wish everyone a happy and healthy Fourth of July.

Working on days like today is never a lot of fun, but we’ll be out of here in time to enjoy our holiday evening. Things are running smoothly as we transition into July, the last full month of summer. We only have ten more papers to put out this term before we make way for the fall staff in mid-August.

Check out our July 5 edition of the IDS for coverage and photos of campus and community July 4 events, as well as an interesting centerpiece about the mayoral election.

We sincerely hope you are enjoying your summer as it enters its last full month. Stay with the IDS and www.idsnews.com as we come to the conclusion of the summer, still keeping track of big news on and around campus and readying the Welcome Back Edition for the stands when we are done.

Thanks for reading. We hope to see you through the summer and into the fall.